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Thanks! I will be patient :)

Okay, so here's the deal. I have a snow white socolofi that I've had for about 3 months now. I acquired several new young mbunas at the same time (this was the only socolofi) and all the others have grown normally. The snow white has not grown at all (right now it is about 2.5 - 3 cm long)...

You probably are going to need to replace them soon. I'd recommend replacing one now, and the other in a few months. Light output degrades steadily over time - having the lights be in different part of their lifecycle will ensure that your tank lighting doesn't drop way down just before you need...

Supplement your feeding with Spirulina. It's plant-based, so it might curb some of the plant nibbling that is going on.

Generally works best to seperate from bunch and plant them individually, about a cm or so apart. Probably sholuldn't have chopped the tops off, but you can try and see if you can plants those as well. The tallness generally comes from not having strong enough light (glosso is generally a "high"...

Proper lighting + Proper water chemistry + Proper ferts + Proper substrate = healthy. "Proper" is a relative term. If you buy plants that don't need a lot of light you can get away with less than 2WPG of lighting, no CO2 injection and low ferts. Plants will grow slowly, but they'll grow and be...

I have two in my 20g planted that I've had since I started keeping fish and they have worked great. The PH is around 7-7.2 consistently. They also look really nice in high let set off against the greens of the plants.

After you've nursed it back to health you might try a hairnet instead of thread. It will give you a nice net-like framework and will contain elastic that will hold the net to the slate. Just a thought.

I meant chemical and things like a bio-wheel or bio-balls which vastly increase the surface area available for nitrifying bacteria, which then out-compete the plants for nutrients. I could be wrong, but I've always heard it said that it is best not to use bacterial enhancers such as these in...

Is your water level high enough to prevent your filter from spashing too much? Hang over the back filters tend to drive off C02 if they create too much water disturbance. Also, it is my understanding (could be wrong) that the Whisper 40 uses some biomedia. You might want to try removing that...

My understanding is that copper will kill most if not all FW inverts. That also seems to have a pretty high concentration of copper in it relative to other ferts on the market. You might want to try something like Flourish that has copper at <0.0001%

Yep. What kind of lighting and whatnot do you have?

What filter are you using? I'm afraid the crud buildup on the ladder is just one of those things...I have three separate ladders across two different planted tanks and all three have that problem. You just have to clean it I'm afraid...

I have kept a cray with apple snails before. He didn't eat them - but I kept him well fed, in a large tank, where there were tons of rocks (so he didn't much come into contact with them). If you want to try it make sure that then apples are fairly large (>1 inch-ish).

First off, keep in mind that discus tanks are very difficult to maintain, and not for the novice fish enthusiast. I realize you are thinking a year or two off, but I just want you to realize what you would be getting yourself into. If there are "mount everest"-like challenges in the world of...

The Hammers Blue Cobalt 'Lobster' is actually a species of crayfish (Procamberus alleni). It really isn't good for a community tank and will, given enough time, eventually attack its tankmates (including the crab). Does that mean that no one can succesfully keep a crayfish in a community...

Careful with the blue crayfish - mine will uproot any plant i try and plant in the tank. Can also be aggressive with the fish when he's feeling threatened. Or hungry.

I'm no expert, but i'm pretty sure about the bio-wheel. As I understand it, plants are nature's filter. The plants convert ammonia to nitrites and then nitrates, as do the bacteria colonies. In the non-biowheel tank this bacteria forms only on surfaces such as as the substrate, rocks and wood...

I use a hang-on-back and redsea canister and am doing fine. (in fact my growth is so high I almost can't keep up with the trimming) Have you tried raising the water level so that the agitation from the HOB filter is minimized? Also, IMO, if you have a heavily planted tank you are going to want...

yeah I think so too - but when I have it bunched up and/or in-pot it doesn't make it. When I separate it out I find half of it floating on the top of the tank the next morning. I might just temporarily move any fish out that will disturb the substrate until it roots more effectively. Thanks for...

You can also create a path with plants like glosso or riccia. It's more of a "dirty" path in that the plants creep on to it on the edges (and I'm sure you have to prune it a lot to keep the path look) but I think that could be remedied with small stones. Check this one out from David Chow of the...

Hi - I've tried growing glosso a couple of times and it never seems to take. The first time I removed it from the rockwool and planted it as a bunch. It slowly deteriorated until there was just one tiny plant hanging on. Then that plant died. My lfs then suggested I try growing it in-pot...

Some cloudiness with new substrate is normal - but 48 hours for it to settle down seems excessive. The longest I have ever had is 12, although if you don't rinse it first I can see where it might be longer. Try doing a few large water changes (using the plate method above) and see if that...

Hey Tim, Glad you have a place for them to go. Just as sort of a caveat emptor - sometimes the female snail lays infertile eggs (because she never had a male fertilize them). Hopefully that is not the case, but if they don't hatch in a few weeks that will probably be why. All the best! Mike

Oh Jordan, Keep in mind one other thing. If you keep a planted tank it is almost inevitable that at some point you are going to get pest snails. They, and their eggs, hitch rides in on plants and gravel that you get from the lfs. The only way to prevent it is to wash the new stuff thoroughly...

Those definitely sound like apple snails eggs. They need to lay their eggs out of the water but in a moist place. Some of my snails lay eggs that are more whitish and some that are more reddish, but most often more of a pale orange. If you want to keep the eggs and have baby apple snails you can...

Thanks Sharon, I found that info just as you were posting. I have bridgesii, not canaliculata. All the info I've seen is that most of the time lfs's will be selling b, not c. But of course most lfs and pet stores don't have a clue what they are selling, so I wouldn't bet on it.

I have never had a problem with my mystery snails eating live plants, even when I don't feed them. But everyone has a different experience I guess. I did a little research and it looks like the authorities are split - some say that they do eat plants and some say they don't. All I can tell you...

Hey Jordan, I have a heavily planted twenty gallon with three mystery snails (aka known as apple snails). They don't eat live plant matter (although they will eat some dead or dying plant matter, which I think is a good thing), and they are not hermaphroditic (meaning they have to have both a...

can anybody help?

Hi All, This might more appropriately go in Hardware, but i'd figure i'd try here. I have the RedSea C02 Fermentation system (basically a DIY c02 system except they provide the bottle and powerhead). I've had it about two months and its worked great. Lately, however, the powerhead is only...

I took it out of my heavily planted tank because little pieces break off all the time and get caught between other plants (which is how it propogates), and it was just getting unsightly. Other than that it was fine - I have 4.5 wpg with an onyx sand subst. and diy c02 and I didn't have a problem...

I second severum on this. I've had a great experience with MTS. Its really the other 'pest snails' that you want to worry about, bc they breed like MAD - Mike

Also try Aquaspotworld.com - they ship everywhere in the world (pursuant to importation restrictions) and their prices are not outrageous. The actual buying is done through Aquabid, so you would see their stuff on their anyway, but using their website allows you to get a good sense of what they...

Hey, this is a pretty good primer: http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?showto...3&hl=silica - Mike

I've seen this in my research a few times. The basic science behind it makes sense, but I'm not sure that it really results in any workable theory. The truth is that the planted aquarium community has done the math on watts per gallon, figured out what worked vis a vis wattages, and know what...

I second what others have said here. But just as an aside, I would probably avoid saying "heavily planted" if your plants are artificial. True heavily planted tanks containing real plants respond very differently to tank stimuli, and you could potentially get bad advice from a poster as they...

Treatment has been started. I'll let you know. Thanks again for the help.

Thanks, I'll try that. No other fish affected yet so hopefully we're good. Thanks for the help

as lame as this sounds I don't have a camera. I would err on the side of fluffy white cloud - its definitely not flat to the skin. So I'm positive its either columnaries or a fungus. How would I tell the difference?