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I watched several Youtube videos about hatching/raising mystery snails. In one video, a fellow with a tank that had many mystery snails, he said that if he doesn't add a whole can of green beans every day, snails will leave the tank in search of food. Yikes!

Update: along with many other snails, I count at least 36 small golden mystery snails...

It's a matter of perspective... I see snails as a valuable member of the clean-up crew, reducing organic waste so bacteria can more easily finish the job. See Mulm, and Algae, and Snails, Oh My! :)

At a club meeting auction a month or so ago I got 3 Golden Mystery Snails. I put them in my 60g display tank. A week or two later, I noticed an egg case up on the HOB filter. After some research, I made a hatchery from a small plastic container lined with a wet paper towel. When the eggs began...

Pricing is often what the market will bear. Every manufacturer wants to make MONEY and it's often competition that drives prices down. (If your product doesn't move, you take less profit to get more sales). I wouldn't buy a tank with built in filtration as I like the choice. I agree that...

I sometimes think that thinking in terms of absolutes limits our thinking to what's right and what's wrong. You come across many that feel strongly about one thing or another, only to discover some others that do nearly the opposite with undeniable success. So what's right and what's wrong? The...

...and the Guru wannabees will argue like a troll when what they've 'learned' is challenged. I guess that's just the way it goes sometimes. Another time on a Youtube channel a fellow had some snails in a container and saw waste...so he concluded that snails must increase the bio-load in his...

This is just one of many bad advice or Myths of the Fishkeeping Hobby. Sadly, many well meaning hobbyist's parrot what they've 'heard' and believe to be true. And some will even get upset if you try to correct them. I'll never forget the time I saw a photo of a 55g tank with three (3) large...

You can lead a horse to drink, but you can't make him water!

Culturing Daphnia Daphnia Take 2 Daphnia

Yes they do! Plants, especially fast growing floating plants use ammonia as their nitrogen source...so this ammonia used is not converted into nitrites and nitrates by beneficial bacteria - so they indirectly reduce potential nitrates. My friend Byron has often started new tanks with lots of...

Some hobbyists use osmocote capsules and report success, but I feel that osmocote is an agricultural fertilizer not best suited for aquarium use and you rarely if ever hear of the failures. I'd stick to a root tab intended for aquarium use (I like the Seachem product). As for caves, I confess...

One step above and beyond the 'out of the box' Python is Partial Water Changes - Fast and Easy using an inexpensive submersible pump like the Ecoplus 396 submersible pump to drain water, then a faucet adapter or Python like connector (I had one of these in the 70's for our water bed) to refill...

When it comes to food it's every fish for him/her self.

Quick and easy! (yep, I made a video) Here's the Whole Story. Alternatively one might pump out using a submersible pump, then use a faucet adaptor (or Python like device) to add water back to the tank...remembering to use the appropriate amount of conditioner as/if required.

I never suggested that you 'rigged' anything, merely that you may have overlooked a chemical reaction that suppressed the color change in the test results leading to a false conclusion. Conditioners that do so merely convert ammonia to ammonium and DETOXIFY nitrites and nitrates which allows...

I'm on the edge of my seat...but still thinking that there must be some chemical reaction that yields a false positive in the test, hiding the true nitrates. Now I'm not a chemist and have no idea what might be in API's Stress Coat or the Red Sea test, but I'm sure if there was some magic elixir...

I'm with @Colin_T...Angels are cichlids and can be aggressive, especially if/when a mated pair lay eggs. On the other hand, in larger tanks with available cover and line of sight breaks, Angels can be just fine in community tanks...but they will most often be the bosses of the tank.

To my knowledge, there is no FDA for pet products so as long as these products sell and make money, they're staying on the shelf. Like so much marketing hype and caring hobbyists that think they're doing the best they can....Well there you go! The 'problem' is that many of these products are in...

I am no stranger to high nitrates in source water (see My Nitrate Fight!). But that doesn't diminish the skepticism over additives believed or perceived to reduce or eliminate nitrates...I just don't believe such a product exists. And frankly, you may well be better off with higher nitrates than...

Like Byron, I am very skeptical of any additive that truly reduces nitrates. If there was such a thing, as Byron points out, as word spread like wild fire, every single hobbyist would be using it and the manufacturer would have a gold mine!!! I also agree with Byron about aloe vera not to...

Welcome! :hi: I hope the following may help some... Breeding Fish Live Food Cultures and Collection

Although it's true that aquatic plants typically 'prefer' ammonia or ammonium as their nitrogen source, some plants and algae will use nitrates. As a matter of fact, there are gadgets like the Santa Monica Filtration HOG1 Algae Scrubber designed to reduce nitrates. Now I believe that algae...

It's always a question of how many fish can be managed in a given size aquarium. Now for a moment, lets set aside that some species simply REQUIRE many of their own kind in order to be content...and lets just focus on bio-load relative to tank size. I'll just cut to the bottom line. It all...

Glad you asked... There are some that swear by little or no water changes...but they are few and far between. I'll admit that in some rare cases, with a low bio-load, lots of plants, especially fast growing floating plants, and advanced bio-filtration, water changes can be reduced, if not...

With an air stone it might be okay, but I think I might use two buckets for that many fish!...but it's short term crowding to be sure.

:)

Live Foods Cultures & Collection

As I wrote in my article "One Thing Led to Another", it didn't stop there...in 2018 I joined the Central New York Aquarium Society fish club and as a way to give back, I began paticipating in the club's writer award program, writing articles for the newsletter, the Reflector. In December of...

I have long felt that the aquariumscience.org website contains some valuable information. It was that very site that long ago got me to rethink filtration with respect to the biology that develops and may mature in a filter such that routine cleaning is actually detrimental to the desired...

Two months is quite new and likely explains the cloudiness due to a bacteria bloom. Now the tank may very well be 'cycled' with sufficient beneficial bacteria to process ammonia->nitrites->nitrates, but as Byron points out in his article Bacteria in the Freshwater Aquarium, there's a host of...

Of course, Byron is correct. I'm a bit of a 'freak' about routine water changes and if you've seen any of my posts, you'd often see me quote "Typically there's no such thing as too much clean, fresh water". HOWEVER, there are exceptions to every rule....and admittedly there are reports of...

As with all hobbyists, the choices are totally up to you. Now I'm not really a fan of high tech as I think that although it may be great for plants, it can be very hard on the fish. I've participated in a planted tank forum for quite some time and lost track of the times a CO2 system...

For the really interested (and/or the obsessive?) here's a deep dive into Filtration and Water Quality. Some really good articles from myself, Byron, and Greg Sage of Select Aquatics of Erie Co.

You can have a bacterial bloom w/o seeing significant changes in parameters - it's simply excess bacteria with an increase in organics. You don't mention If you have gravel, but there may be a lot of 'stuff' down under and a good gravel vacuuming may help. I tend to like 50% weekly water changes...

I've seen a few automated water change systems and large indoor fish farms use flow through systems. Tanks have overflows, and water is often added using sprinkler controls on timers and for water treated with chlorine, large carbon filters are used (wouldn't work for chloramine). Now I don't...

Nope...tanks that are drilled for an overflow are easily plugged to use either a HOB or Canister filter.