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Thanks! Having tanks in 2021 is so different than when I had them in the 1970's! Back then you'd put the gravel on top of the UG filter; fill up the tank with tap water; place the HOB filter; put some rocks in; maybe some wood; a few plants, and then buy the fish. For the most part, everything went pretty smooth. Now, the guppies are so inbred that I've spent more on medicines than on the plants, fish, and shrimp! And balancing the tank used to mean how you set it on a "home-built" stand. Now it's balancing the water quality so the inbred fancy guppies will be stress-free while maintaining it near perfect for the neocaridina's. And then I figure out that the other side of the equation is balancing fert and light! Now please understand... I'm not complaining! I like a good challenge. I'm just damn glad I'm retired!

Many people don't realise how tiny the shrimplets are when born, and usually clear! They grow fairly quickly early on and usually they are probably nearly two weeks to a month old when the are first seen in the aquarium. I would consider getting a few assassin snails to keep the tank free from other snails, as they are readily available in the UK, and don't breed as quickly as other snails. I only have to remove some to keep numbers down about once a year! I have them in all my tanks! They are quite pretty as well. Simon

I've got the beginnings of a hair algae bloom and want to nip it quick. I had previously cut down on adding "Easy Green" fertilizer to my tanks (to the detriment of many of my plants), and now I'm cutting back on the lighting. I'm questioning if using Seachem's Flourish Excel would help or could I hurt the RCS. Right now, with only a month under my belt, I have 3 females with eggs and have only lost two in the first week and would like to keep it that way.

Ok so this vendor had some hot plants, also shipping on Monday are a Red Xyris, 3 Eriocaulon Vietnam, and a Red Downoi. I'm so excited to not look at java moss or whatever this stuff I have is. Need this other tank to cycle so I have somewhere to put all the moss and crypts that have overgrown this smaller tank. With the temp cranked up to 80 F, an added air stone and bottled bacteria every day I am seeing about .75 - 1 ppm ammonia conversion a day but it's not clearing it yet. Nitrites about .5ppm. Nitrate test arriving soon. I'll keep feeding it ammonia. Got the RO machine fixed. My membranes are tired and producing around 30 tds, which is primarily kh I believe as it's coming in around 1 to 1.5 and about 0 gh. Honestly I dont think it would produce 0 kh even with new membranes given my near liquid rock water. I am not seeing any reason not to run with it for the buffering capacity the kh offers. I'm frankly a little confused why Caridina culture leans towards 0 kh, especially given the proclivity of shrimp keeping in nano tanks that are most vulnerable to rapid acidification. Long rant eh. I'll get pics up after I get the plants and make changes.

I started emptying my nano tank today, I've been transferring my shrimp to the new set up for a few weeks now. I took out a large clump of Christmas moss that I had in there and placed it in a dish of aquarium water to see if anything was still in it. I was amazed at the number of baby shrimp that were in it. I put them in their new home and thought that was that. I went back a short while later and looked under the moss and there was another lot of babies. I've just checked for the third time and found the two smallest shrimp that I've seen in my life. I expected them to start small, but these are miniscule. I didn't want to put the moss directly into the new tank as it's also hiding a lot of snails.

I would just give it time and it will probably clear itself when the tank is more settled! Lots of people get algae or fungus early on but if all is well wth the tank it should clear on its own in a few weeks. Simon

Thanks

Flourish excel helps with BBA, not hair algae, so I think you should just leave it with low lighting and no ferts; that’s what I would do at least.