Ohh... I thought you had kept sand previously, and this was just new to that tank. Nothing wrong, just asking.
(Do you know how to clean it? I remember when I first got sand, it was a disaster. YouTube videos really help)
Re-starting 15 gallon, 1st time with sand
- Thread starter AdoraBelle Dearheart
- Start date
(Do you know how to clean it? I remember when I first got sand, it was a disaster. YouTube videos really help)
OP
OP
Got a low nitrite reading on the tank today, a little odd since it's an established filter on there, but will be checking daily and doing water changes as needed. Have to be careful since the tank contents are so new and clean, I'm needing to feed the shrimp daily. Added a few of the guppies I plan to keep today too.
Messed with the hardscape a little, and planted the hydrocotyle tripartitia 'Japan', and added amazon frogbit which arrived today. Found more moults while doing the water change too. Love first 'gravel-vac' on sand, so much easier than having to push down deep in gravel and still feeling like you haven't got it all! You can see exactly where you need to clean and just sweep over it. This black limpopo sand also seems heavy enough not to go right through the tube, just some swirls in the bulb part then drops back down when you pause the syphon. No problem.
Sorry for poor photos, need to fix the exposure on my camera soon, but still recovering from some nasty virus, so only essential things got done today.
Messed with the hardscape a little, and planted the hydrocotyle tripartitia 'Japan', and added amazon frogbit which arrived today. Found more moults while doing the water change too. Love first 'gravel-vac' on sand, so much easier than having to push down deep in gravel and still feeling like you haven't got it all! You can see exactly where you need to clean and just sweep over it. This black limpopo sand also seems heavy enough not to go right through the tube, just some swirls in the bulb part then drops back down when you pause the syphon. No problem.
Sorry for poor photos, need to fix the exposure on my camera soon, but still recovering from some nasty virus, so only essential things got done today.
OP
OP
No, it was fine. What happened when you first did it? Disaster how?Ohh... I thought you had kept sand previously, and this was just new to that tank. Nothing wrong, just asking.
(Do you know how to clean it? I remember when I first got sand, it was a disaster. YouTube videos really help)
You name it: Sucked up to much sand when performing a clean, added to much sand, added sand on top of algae thinking “it will look better”. Oh boy, those were the days... 
You name it: Sucked up to much sand when performing a clean, added to much sand, added sand on top of algae thinking “it will look better”. Oh boy, those were the days...
Oh dear!
Guess that’s how we learn the best, the hard way!
Am curious. What happens when you put sand on top of algae?
Would have thought algae might have died off due to lack of nutrients, oxygen and light etc
Did the algae grow again nonetheless but worse or something?
Sorry AdoraBelle for hijacking your thread a bit about the sand issues PheonixKingZ has had. 
OP
OP
That's okay, I was curious tooSorry AdoraBelle for hijacking your thread a bit about the sand issues PheonixKingZ has had.
Tank looks fit
OP
OP
Haha, thank you! Hopefully the plants will grow in quickly and start making it look like a proper tank soon! Although I've just remembered that I haven't added root tabs or ferts yet... whoops! I need to look up which plants other than the sword would appreciate root tabs or liquid ferts. I'll be doing both, but don't want to waste root tabs shoving them under plants that won't use them and use the water column instead.Tank looks fit
Update today, no dead shrimp found, yay!
and more little moults found.Shrimp seem much more active than in the old tank, which is both fun, and a little alarming at times. Old tank was heavily planted and well established with algae and biofilm everywhere though, which made movement harder to spot and meant shrimp didn't need to go far to find food.
Have seen some mating, males dancing, but females are moving about a lot too. They cleaned the biofilm off the driftwood quickly, and polish off the food I'm dropping in, so thinking they might be more active looking for food, and exploring their new environment. But keeping a close eye on water parameters, especially since getting a nitrite reading yesterday, and will keep trying to feed little and often. Their sense of (smell?) must be incredible, the minute food drops in, it draws a crowd.
Oh yes, love it when they do that.
I estimate I have over 50 cherry shrimp in my 29g tank, but you only see around 20 at a time. But when it’s feeding time, they all swarm out, it’s so fun to watch.
It died and decomposed, which I believe, lead to the death of my betta. (He did also have a tumor, so that was a big factor)Oh dear!
Guess that’s how we learn the best, the hard way!
Am curious. What happens when you put sand on top of algae?
Would have thought algae might have died off due to lack of nutrients, oxygen and light etc
Did the algae grow again nonetheless but worse or something?
My thought process was twisted back then, made a lot of mistakes.
Here it was when it had all the sand. You can see the giant layer of black - that is all the dead algae:
OP
OP
Did another water change earlier today, had another nitrite reading (covered in another thread) so did a 60% change.
I added another guppy today, one that I plan to keep, so hoped to settle her in this tank. I noticed her picking at plants at a distance not long afterwards, but figured she was picking at a shrimp pellet or something, never had guppies mess with plants before after all, only pick at algae or something. But she was being quite violent with it (for a guppy) so I went over to check she wasn't attacking a shrimp or something. Nope, she was yanking at a bit of hydrocotyle tripartita 'japan'
Then she stopped and I didn't think about it too much, until I glanced over again later and she was ripping at a different bit! Not my hydrocotyle tripartita 'japan' you don't, missy! Those are in-vitro, they're expensive! So she's back in the original tank now... lol.
Not sure what I'm gonna do with her now. I want to keep her, she's a very pretty female;
And she's always had those jagged looking fins, seems to be natural with her, not fin rot or shredded or anything, the long bit in the middle of her tail has always been long in that spot. Dorsal also ragged looking (is there a term for that that sounds better?) I think she's the only one I've produced with fin shapes like that. @emeraldking , is there a name for these kind of shaped fins? I worried she had fin rot at one point, but they've always been like that, and don't look damaged, and the shape doesn't change.
And she's gravid now. Never seen her mess with plants before, but I guess the hydrocotyle is a little more delicate than plants I've had before. She actually looked grumpy, like she was having a tantrum and taking it out on the plants! Can gravid guppies get grumpy? lol.
Hoping the plants will establish a little over the next week or so, then I'll move her with a few others into this tank. Original plan was to move my keeper guppy colony and shrimp into this 15 gallon, then soften the water in the original 15 gallon for the otocinclus that are still in there, so guppies need to go out, and soon. The 12 gallon is going to be a guppy grow out and quarantine tank, as I reduce guppy numbers and gradually phase out keeping guppies. I suppose if she won't leave my plants alone when I try again, she'll have to live in the grow out tank with the fry. Don't think I can bring myself to send her to the store, I really like her, usually. When she behaves... Plus she's not a juvenile anymore. I don't think it's fair to send her to LFS with a batch of youngsters when she's maybe 10-11 months old.
I added another guppy today, one that I plan to keep, so hoped to settle her in this tank. I noticed her picking at plants at a distance not long afterwards, but figured she was picking at a shrimp pellet or something, never had guppies mess with plants before after all, only pick at algae or something. But she was being quite violent with it (for a guppy) so I went over to check she wasn't attacking a shrimp or something. Nope, she was yanking at a bit of hydrocotyle tripartita 'japan'
Then she stopped and I didn't think about it too much, until I glanced over again later and she was ripping at a different bit! Not my hydrocotyle tripartita 'japan' you don't, missy! Those are in-vitro, they're expensive! So she's back in the original tank now... lol.
Not sure what I'm gonna do with her now. I want to keep her, she's a very pretty female;
And she's always had those jagged looking fins, seems to be natural with her, not fin rot or shredded or anything, the long bit in the middle of her tail has always been long in that spot. Dorsal also ragged looking (is there a term for that that sounds better?) I think she's the only one I've produced with fin shapes like that. @emeraldking , is there a name for these kind of shaped fins? I worried she had fin rot at one point, but they've always been like that, and don't look damaged, and the shape doesn't change.
And she's gravid now. Never seen her mess with plants before, but I guess the hydrocotyle is a little more delicate than plants I've had before. She actually looked grumpy, like she was having a tantrum and taking it out on the plants! Can gravid guppies get grumpy? lol.
Hoping the plants will establish a little over the next week or so, then I'll move her with a few others into this tank. Original plan was to move my keeper guppy colony and shrimp into this 15 gallon, then soften the water in the original 15 gallon for the otocinclus that are still in there, so guppies need to go out, and soon. The 12 gallon is going to be a guppy grow out and quarantine tank, as I reduce guppy numbers and gradually phase out keeping guppies. I suppose if she won't leave my plants alone when I try again, she'll have to live in the grow out tank with the fry. Don't think I can bring myself to send her to the store, I really like her, usually. When she behaves... Plus she's not a juvenile anymore. I don't think it's fair to send her to LFS with a batch of youngsters when she's maybe 10-11 months old.
There are guppies that are bred with ragged fins (mainly focussed on the caudal). These are called "swallow guppies". Here are some examples.Did another water change earlier today, had another nitrite reading (covered in another thread) so did a 60% change.
I added another guppy today, one that I plan to keep, so hoped to settle her in this tank. I noticed her picking at plants at a distance not long afterwards, but figured she was picking at a shrimp pellet or something, never had guppies mess with plants before after all, only pick at algae or something. But she was being quite violent with it (for a guppy) so I went over to check she wasn't attacking a shrimp or something. Nope, she was yanking at a bit of hydrocotyle tripartita 'japan'
Then she stopped and I didn't think about it too much, until I glanced over again later and she was ripping at a different bit! Not my hydrocotyle tripartita 'japan' you don't, missy! Those are in-vitro, they're expensive! So she's back in the original tank now... lol.
Not sure what I'm gonna do with her now. I want to keep her, she's a very pretty female;
View attachment 114328
And she's always had those jagged looking fins, seems to be natural with her, not fin rot or shredded or anything, the long bit in the middle of her tail has always been long in that spot. Dorsal also ragged looking (is there a term for that that sounds better?) I think she's the only one I've produced with fin shapes like that. @emeraldking , is there a name for these kind of shaped fins? I worried she had fin rot at one point, but they've always been like that, and don't look damaged, and the shape doesn't change.
And she's gravid now. Never seen her mess with plants before, but I guess the hydrocotyle is a little more delicate than plants I've had before. She actually looked grumpy, like she was having a tantrum and taking it out on the plants! Can gravid guppies get grumpy? lol.
Hoping the plants will establish a little over the next week or so, then I'll move her with a few others into this tank. Original plan was to move my keeper guppy colony and shrimp into this 15 gallon, then soften the water in the original 15 gallon for the otocinclus that are still in there, so guppies need to go out, and soon. The 12 gallon is going to be a guppy grow out and quarantine tank, as I reduce guppy numbers and gradually phase out keeping guppies. I suppose if she won't leave my plants alone when I try again, she'll have to live in the grow out tank with the fry. Don't think I can bring myself to send her to the store, I really like her, usually. When she behaves... Plus she's not a juvenile anymore. I don't think it's fair to send her to LFS with a batch of youngsters when she's maybe 10-11 months old.
Above: This is a ribbon swallow male.
OP
OP
Ah brilliant, thank you! Swallow finned definitely sounds better than "ragged", lol. She's the only one I've bred and kept that has this shape to her fins, most of them have been plain old fan and delta tails.
Update on the tank - still haven't lost a single shrimp since moving them over to the clean tank, thankfully! I was bracing myself to lose more just from having been exposed to the contaminated plants for those three weeks. I don't want to tempt fate by assuming that it's all good now, but no losses since I moved them is a great start and more than I'd hoped for! Can't wait to see a berried female again. Plants are also beginning to grow. Will take a while for it to establish and begin looking how I want it to of course, but I'm just happy if the losses stop and it's healthy.
OP
OP
Yep, I spoke too soon. Found two dead females this morning in the new 'clean' tank. Sad, but I did expect to lose more just from having been exposed to the contaminated plants for so long. The nitrite levels have also been resolved, only needed a few days of water changes for those bacteria to catch up.
Also found five more teeny tiny shrimp in the old contaminated tank when I cleaned that this morning, they hid so well! I'd been checking the tank for shrimp, and had only found one more the day after moving them, then was convinced I had them all, but these littles might have only just begun to colour up. Moved the five over with the rest of the colony.
Sessiliflora is definitely growing, sending out side shoots and putting on height, pleased with how well that's doing already even without ferts. Hopefully I can add ferts now that the cycle has settled down again. What do you think @Ch4rlie ? Or @mbsqw1d ?
Also found five more teeny tiny shrimp in the old contaminated tank when I cleaned that this morning, they hid so well! I'd been checking the tank for shrimp, and had only found one more the day after moving them, then was convinced I had them all, but these littles might have only just begun to colour up. Moved the five over with the rest of the colony.
Sessiliflora is definitely growing, sending out side shoots and putting on height, pleased with how well that's doing already even without ferts. Hopefully I can add ferts now that the cycle has settled down again. What do you think @Ch4rlie ? Or @mbsqw1d ?
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