What I learned today

With or without? You need some fishies

I have a stalker :eek;

 

@Rainstorm my tanks are running without ferts so don't have experience with them. I don't know if they might accumulate something in the water or not.

Here's what I did. I tested the tanks weekly till the nitrates reached 20ppm and did a wc. It took almost 2 months to reach this in those 2 tanks. They are heavily stocked with shrimp. My other shrimp tank is very lightly stocked and the longest it ran without a wc was 6 months. The nitrates was 25ppm. I feed 3 times a week and very lightly.

You would have to test to see how your milage goes as each tank is different.

You know I am a fan of water changes and plenty of it but with shrimp I'm seeing different results. It would be nice if someone with more experience can give better advice so to get the correct info. I was relaying what was said to me and it's been working for the last 2 years except when I got trigger happy on crs and killed them off too.

 

You have a point, @BoelderBeestie. I do get this oil-like slick but this only happens the next day after I dose with Scape Liquid Carbon and the same happens with Excel. Has to be dead algae detitrus floating on the top - even with an airpump, airstone and a good flow in the cube, I usually have to skim the surface to remove the matter on top.

Also I know when I need to change my water, is that stagnant bog smell after two weeks

@Hendre: You wish about the stalker. I have a thread dedicated to getting bumblebee gobies and maybe two blue neon gobies. I'm just not ready for them yet - hopefully be able to order them before Christmas.

 

Here's some links on what I've said about the shrimp tanks so it seems to work for others too. I felt bad and thought that my advice could have been wrong but it seems to hold, I feel better about it now.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/8...e-not-do-water-changes-there-shrimp-tank.html

http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/fres...rimp-dies-almost-every-water-change-why-4296/

http://www.aquaticquotient.com/foru...8-Is-water-change-necessary-for-shrimp-setups

 

Ok so it's a common thing that shrimps' survival rate is 100% if you don't do water changes. Interesting. At least it takes all the hard work out of water changes lol. I never ever want to do another water change - it kills my back at the end of the day.

 

Doing water changes on 350 litres of tanks is rough by bucket for me

Stability is key in the water, I'm sure they wouldn't suffer on a drip

 

@Rainstorm you still have too just not as often with rcs shrimp. I do it when my nitrate reaches around 25ppm. If you have fish with them you have to still do it as normal or the fish will suffer.

 

Yeah oh I read in one of the threads that this oke did 10% to 20% water changes and they were fine. I'm fine with doing 10% water changes. The cube holds 60L excluding the canister which is 5L. I remove around 22L and top up with clean water. I'm sure it will be fine for both the fish and shrimps but however with gobies, the shrimps might not have a chance sharing the same space as the gobies.

 

You just have to manage your water to the parameters of the livestock requirements. If that's 10% once a month or 50% weekly it's fine if your nitrate levels are kept low. The only way to know is to test to see what your water is doing and then adjusting your upkeep accordingly. When my nitrate is in the 20's I change water.

 

ok thanks @BoelderBeestie - what tests are you using?

 

I have never had a high test. Just test time to time. Need to keep tabs now with polypterus especially as they grow!

 

I always used the tertra strips but they are not accurate and expensive. I'm busy moving over to the sera liquid tests. They seem to be giving much better readings. You will only need the nitrate and nitrite tests. Use the nitrate test to see when your tank gets to the 20-25ppm mark. The nitrite test will be used when your fish are acting weird like not eating, panting and lying on the bottom for no reason, your first step is to see if you lost your cycle or not. The other test like kh and gh you won't need.

 

Yeah it seems that the liquid type of tests are better than strip tests. I'm using a cheapie for PH/Chlorine (it's supposed to be for testing the pool water, but works quite well with tank water). I have no chlorine in my water as it comes straight from the river

 

@Hendre Keeping nitrates low while growing out is critical yes. From all the feedings my discus tanks reached 16ppm in just 24 hours when growing them out but the food was very rich and I pumped them hard with it. 50% water change everyday for me haha.

 

@Rainstorm now I'm jelous of your unlimited water source haha. We have level 3 water restrictions over here.

 

I use those. With 2 individual kits mixed up I always get under 20, my schedule works...

It takes much higher than 20ppm to put fish eating. While my tank is full of TOUGH fish best not let it slip

Tell me about it. All water by bucket to a wheelie bin that goes to the garden

 

Yes I've seen the strips max out at a lfs and the fish where all eating. Their overall condition on the other hand, not too great. White and torn fins everywhere.

 

Shops struggle with that I guess, especially when they can't have space for many tanks

 

That's the problem here - 4 or 5 farms also use the water and you know what pisses me off is that they switch on the sprinklers while it's raining. How much more stupid must the neighbouring farms get before we have no water left? The pumphouse down the road that belongs to the one farm leaks big time - waste of water. Why can't they switch their crop rotation sprinklers on when it's not raining?

 

WHAT I LEARNED TODAY:

Guppies that are lying around at the bottom of the tank aren't necessarily sleeping.


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