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Or a bacterial bloom, common in new tanks. These are not the bacteria we want to grow; they live floating in the water and multiply very quickly so water changes don't help. The good news is they die off once they've eaten all their food but as every tank is different it is impossible to say how...

Once again words not crossing the Atlantic. When you said grind the meat the image that came into my mind was of a giant pestle and mortar and you trying to pulverise the meat. So I googled meat grinder and discovered it's a mincer. I use minced beef to make cottage pie, spag bol etc with. Now...

If they were breeding before it's not the hardness, and your photo shows lots of hiding places in the tank. We can never know what shrimps 'think' or what they consider to be a hindrance to breeding :unsure:

3 of each is not enough, you need a lot more than 3. Byron was a well respected and very knowledgeable member of the forum who sadly passed away earlier this year. But we can still benefit from his knowledge. This is what he said about numbers of shoaling fish...

Doing a water change sometimes help when nitrate is very high; you can try this if you wish. Half an hour after the water change test for ammonia and nitrite. If ammonia is zero and nitrite very low you need to add ammonia to get 3 ppm then go back to testing every third day. Yes you can add...

Ammonia is not low enough yet, I'm afraid The danger with adding ammonia too soon is that you'll end up with so much nitrite it stalls the cycle. When I did a fishless cycle, it took 7 weeks to complete, though I did not use a bacterial starter............

Melafix could have done something, but I have no idea if tea tree oil affects pH - that's all Melafix is. Salt and medication both reduce the oxygen content of water which is why they shouldn't really be used together. I would do as Colin says, wait a week with salt and there's no improvement...

Salt does not affect pH, something else is causing the level to rise. The 'ordinary' pH tester is at the highest level it can test for, it will read 7.6 no matter how high the pH is. Go by the higher range tester unless that reads the lowest colour on the chart. At higher pH more of the ammonia...

I was looking at the photo in post #7 - and I somehow read ammonia as zero when it's really 0.5 or 1.0. Oops, sorry about that :blush: my only excuse is that was I was being nagged about lunch..... So both ammonia and nitrite above zero; wait until ammonia falls to zero and see what the...

Unfortunately you can't set much store by nitrate. The tester turns nitrate into nitrite and measures nitrite. If there's already nitrite in the water it measures that as well so the nitrate reading includes the nitrite reading. When cycling with a bottle of ammonia, the tank is cycled when you...

I was grasping at straws with the hardness, I'm afraid. One other thing occurred to me since my last post. I'm sure I read somewhere once that shrimps won't breed unless they're "happy". This could mean anything from tank water nitrate being low, to having lots of hiding places, to not being...

As soon as I spotted those shrimp body parts I rescued the survivors and they went in my main tank with the rest of the shrimps. The betta didn't get chance to gorge himself for long, thank goodness.

In addition to 117 ppm GH my KH is 3.4 dKH/61 ppm according to my water company. Although this is quite low I do regular weekly water changes to keep it constant. I've had this shrimp colony since 2012 so my water is OK for them. My tank nitrate is so low it's unmeasurable (my water company...

So it's the shrimps not breeding rather than baby shrimps being eaten. I wonder if it's too hard for them? Mine are in half your level (117 ppm)

I'm afraid there's not really anything you can do, bettas are incredibly efficient at squeezing into tiny spaces, as I found when I tried to keep frogs with one and made all sorts of supposedly betta-proof hides for the frog's food. Mine could get in to reach the frog's food then couldn't get...

No guppies can be kept at a lower temperature than that, down as low as 20 deg C with no problem. You didn't mention guppies being in the same tank earlier and that could be your answer. Any baby shrimps being born in the tank could well be eaten by the guppies. Do you ever see berried females...

The anal fin is not very clear in that photo, I'm afraid, so it's hard to say which gender it is.

There's info about nerite breeding about a quarter of the way down the page here https://aquariumbreeder.com/nerite-snails-detailed-guide-care-diet-and-breeding/

I keep my shrimps at 23 deg C and there are always babies in the tank. Maybe try dropping the temp a bit?

I'm afraid buying all females won't guarantee no babies. Female guppies can store sperm, and if they've ever been in a tank with a male at the store or the wholesaler they'll be carrying sperm. They can use this sperm to fertilise batches of eggs for several months. To tell is a guppy is male...

When they say nerites don't breed in aquariums they mean there will be no baby nerites crawling all over the tank. But it does not mean that they don't actually breed - they do. They lay eggs everywhere but they don't hatch. The reason a tank won't be overrun with baby nerites is because the...

The trouble with the 1 cm per litre or 1 inch per gallon rule is that it's never quoted fully. It should go on saying ".......of fish which are pencil shaped and never grow more than 3 inched/7.5 cm long" The rule was never intended to apply to fish over 3 inches/7.5 cm or to fish with deep...

I have spent the last two days searching. Yesterday morning, some time between 08.40 and 09.10, we were transferred to BT Digital Voice. For those who don't live in the UK there are two companies who have phone (copper) and broadband (fibre) cables, BT and Virgin, and every other provider uses...

TwoTankAmin, who has done a lot of research on the subject, posted recently that his preferred bottled bacteria is Dr Tim's One & Only. If he says that, I'd go with it. TwoTankAmin said -

The API bottled bacteria may help with ammonia but it contains the wrong nitrite eaters so it won't help with nitrite.

I know you don't use it routinely ;) but other people want it so API make it. I misread Colin's post :blush: and saw the 2 tablespoons per 5 gallons - that's just if the first dose rate doesn't work and the fish can cope with it. Yes, 1 tablespoon = 3 teaspoons (or 15 ml = 3 x 5 ml) so you...

API say the salt "promotes fish health by improving gill function, making it easier for fish to breathe. It also provides essential electrolytes that fish need to reach peak coloration and vitality." The dose they give is for that rather than treating disease. Because people still want to use...

Once the tank is cycled I would stock it slowly, one species at a time. There may be enough bacteria for a tankful of fish or there may not. Better to stock slowly than to risk ending up doing a fish-in cycle. After you add the first fish, test for ammonia and nitrite every day. If they remain...

It's the same here in northern England which is why it never occurred to me to suggest leaving things out in the sun :lol:

The chemical name for that is sodium dichloroisocyanurate, not a chemical I have personally come across. It should work. The safety data sheet warns May cause respiratory irritation. Causes serious eye irritation. Harmful if swallowed. Very toxic to aquatic life with long lasting effects. so...

Congratulations :hooray:

Do supermarkets/pharmacies not sell bottles of Milton baby bottle sterilising liquid where you are? Or some cheap non-branded alternative? I always keep a bottle of non-branded (it's cheaper) for use on things we use for our food. I suppose you could use some other chemical, though I'd be wary...

The only ways I know of are #1 add a bacterial starter which contains the right bacteria (Dr Tim's One & Only or Tetra Safe Start) and #2 put some mature media in the filter. You have tanks with fish already. If they've been running for more than 6 months, you can transfer some of the media...

eSHa is European brand and probably not available in the US. Are there no products in the US which contain the active ingredients that Colin listed? American members on here often use medication intended for land animals, though you'd someone to help with the dosage.

Dr Tim Hovanec discovered the species of nitrite eaters which grow in aquariums while he was working for Marineland. Both Marineland and Dr Hovanec hold the copyright. Dr Hovanec left Marineland and set up his own company so that company holds the copyright. Marineland was taken over by Tetra so...

It is advisable to do either a plant cycle with a lot of fast growing plants and no added ammonia OR a fishless cycle using ammonia and wait until the cycle has finished before adding plants. Fishless cycling involves having a lot of ammonia in the water for days or weeks as you are finding...

Yes, Stability does not contain the right nitrite eaters. The use of the correct species is copyrighted and only Dr Tim's One & Only and Tetra Safe Start can use the correct species as those companies are copyright holders.

White coudiness is either dust from the substrate (which will settle) or a bacterial bloom. These bacteria are not the ones we want to grow. The ones we want to grow multiply slowly, they live in biofilm which is attached to surfaces, and they feed on nitrogen based food. Bloom bacteria...

Those readings were because not enough ammonia had been added to grow enough bacteria. The OP is now well into a fishless cycle and is waiting for ammonia to drop after adding the correct amount of ammonia.