40 gallon / 155liters - silent cycle - green or red? Stocking suggestions please!

[Essjay]

I've still got it - in both tanks now. It twists round other plants - mainly java moss in my shrimp tank and frogbit roots in my main tank - and the stems are so brittle they break when you try to pull it free. But I do remove as much as I can when I do a water change which keeps the amount under control.

 

[Cmdr_DASh]

Update:
- I received the new heater and installed it
- received the floating plants and added to the aquarium
- additional water tests - to be done later today
- unfortunately I'm getting some plants melting... I do have JBL AquaBasis Plus substrate (edited to correct), and I've been dosing liquid fertilizer in the water column, but less than the recommended amount. Other plants are doing good, even rotala, most is doing great and some is melting. The light calculator I use shows my light to be on the low side... I run it for 7h30m a day

Pics:

Melting:

Anubias flowering:

 

[Byron]

Which liquid fertilizer? And how much/often?

So-called enriched substrates are not always of much benefit. I cannot seem to find any info on what is in the JBL Aquasoil.

 

[Cmdr_DASh]

Which liquid fertilizer? And how much/often?

So-called enriched substrates are not always of much benefit. I cannot seem to find any info on what is in the JBL Aquasoil.

My bad, I have 5L of JBL AquaBasis Plus under the gravel https://www.jbl.de/?mod=products&func=detail&lang=en&id=2348

The fertilizer is called Flora Grow from Colombo. I've done 5 pumps after the water changes, so very little compared to what they recommend (1 pump for 5 liters). My thinking was that stem plants get fertilizer from substrate and Anubias and Java fern from the water column (liquid + what substrate may release).

Water measurements:

Date	t (oC)	KH (odKH)	GH	CO2	pH	NH4 (mg/l)	NO2 (mg/l)	NO3 (mg/l)
27.10.2021	24	7	8	38	7.6	0	0	0

CO2 is a direct test... not derived from KH and pH .. which doesn't match what I'm measuring... something is not aligning here.

edit: fixed CO2, reading fail originally

 

[Cmdr_DASh]

Since Limnophila sessiliflora is a very fast growing plant (I've read about 1 inch per day), I incline to believe it's probably missing NO3 which I'm not adding with the fertilizer that I have. I'm thinking to keep things as they are, let it melt, and perhaps if a few survive and it can grow back later once the bioload is higher. The other plants are generally doing well. I've added another half hour to the lighting schedule, for a total of 8h/day (and I know this is not the problem of Limnophila sessiliflora as it can grow in low light).

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

My Limno. does grow at a great rate, without additional ammonia. I do, however, have a full bioload.
Being a 'feathery' plant, it did provide a good base for algae, which can decimate leaves...until my shrimps got to grip and now it's algae-free.

 

[Cmdr_DASh]

My Limno. does grow at a great rate, without additional ammonia. I do, however, have a full bioload.
Being a 'feathery' plant, it did provide a good base for algae, which can decimate leaves...until my shrimps got to grip and now it's algae-free.

This makes also a lot of sense... perhaps that could be the issue as it does look brown.
When do I get green light to add shrimps?

 

[Cmdr_DASh]

Date	t (oC)	KH (odKH)	GH (odGH)	CO2	pH	NH4 (mg/l)	NO2 (mg/l)	NO3 (mg/l)	Notes
29.10.2021	24	8	8	26	7.6	0	0	0

Full measurements for all the tests I have. I think it all looks good and very likely my tank is fully cycled, 3 weeks and 1 day old.

 

[Cmdr_DASh]

It seems this is turning into an jurnal/update thread rather than the original intent of a discussion. If Moderators deem this is better suited in a different area of the forum, please move as you see fit.

The scary Halloween update:

- ammonia, nitrites, nitrates continue to read 0
- I decided to remove the snails before they lay eggs, but I may have been late (did this 2 days ago, on the 29th, so 22 days in). I may have been late as I've discovered what I think were snail eggs on the glass. I tried to clean it, but probably missed some. Yesterday evening I've seen 2 tiny snail babies.
- the floating plants I bought had stowaways... Is it even possible to add new plants without stowaways?
- I've seen 1 snail which I think is a pond snail... I can't find it anymore, but if I see it again I will remove it.
- more scary though, I've discovered 4 green caterpillars in the tank. They were wrapped in leaves from my plants. I wasn't sure what's going on in the beggining but I was suspicious:

I've unwrapped one to be sure. I'm looking to see if there are more, but it's tough to discover them.

- did regular maintenance yesterday
- I called the LFS to check if they have cherry shrimp... they didn't. I found a local breeder through the local ebay and went and got 9 very tiny bloody marry shrimp... he had the exact same water parameters as me.
- my tap water makes tiny bubbles that stick to plants for a while... a couple of cardinals had tiny bubbles on them after the maintenance... initially I thought these are air but then keept thinking about it and last night I started to suspect it's the dreaded ich... I'm now going to the store to buy medicine. I'm not so happy now about how all these things are going down, but will deal with it.
- the fish and the shrimp seem happy. The fish are swimming together, they are exploring and much more close to the whole environment. The fish are curious about the shrimp but the shrimps are so fast, they have no chance of catching them. The shrimps are already at home, eating stuff everywhere. I was worried my filter would be strong but they have no problems at all. In fact it's going to be absolutely fine for gouramis as well - the local shrimp breeder had many tanks and in one he had a gourami with much stronger flow (and much less plants than me)
- I'm not buying anymore plants... the current ones will need to grow and multiply

 

[Naughts]

I started to suspect it's the dreaded ich... I'm now going to the store to buy medicine.

Photos?
You don't need medicine for ich. Just raise the temperature to 30c/86f for 2 weeks.

 

[Cmdr_DASh]

Photos?
You don't need medicine for ich. Just raise the temperature to 30c/86f for 2 weeks.

I will try to take a picture... but it's hard to see with naked eye, let alone capture it with my phone.
I imagine that now that I have the shrimps I can't raise the temperature anymore...

This is what I'm thinking to buy to have at home - not going to use yet though: https://www.eshalabs.eu/europe/products/esha-exit.html

 

[Cmdr_DASh]

Posting a general video:

https://imgur.com/a/qvFwKT9

 

[Byron]

I will try to take a picture... but it's hard to see with naked eye, let alone capture it with my phone.
I imagine that now that I have the shrimps I can't raise the temperature anymore...

This is what I'm thinking to buy to have at home - not going to use yet though: https://www.eshalabs.eu/europe/products/esha-exit.html

Never use any so-called ich treatment. All of these do cause issues for fish, some more than others, and you have characins which are especially sensitive to any additive. Heat is all you need to deal with ich. Two weeks at 30C/86F will do it. I've no idea on the shrimp/temperature issue, but even if it is an issue, better lose the shrimp than harm the fish.

As for the pond snails...I really don't understand the fear people have over these innocuous snails. They are so useful, cleaning algae off the delicate plant leaves for example.

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

Two weeks at 30C/86F will do it. I've no idea on the shrimp/temperature issue, but even if it is an issue, better lose the shrimp than harm the fish.

30℃/80℉ is at the top of the range for shrimp. They won't be particularly happy and any weaker specimens may pass, but strong, healthy shrimp should be okay.

 

[Cmdr_DASh]

I'm just back home and I've just removed 3 more green caterpillars that have been eating away at my Limnophilas and making cocoons out of the plant leaves... I'm so frustrated about them... I'm not sure if any of my Limnophila will make it now...

Never use any so-called ich treatment. All of these do cause issues for fish, some more than others, and you have characinbs which are especially sensitive to any additive. Heat5 is all you need to deal with ich. Two weeks at 30C/86F will do it. I've no idea on the shrimp/temperature issue, but even if it is an issue, better lose the shrimp than harm the fish.

As for the pond snails...I really don't understand the fear people have over these innocuous snails. They are so useful, cleaning algae off the delicate plant leaves for example.

Thanks a lot for the info! First I want to make sure it's ich I'm looking at. I don't see more white spots than yesterday so perhaps it's something else, a fungus maybe. I'll try to photograph it as soon as I get a chance and ask here about it.

I have only one problem with bladder and or pond snails: excessive reproduction... I'm ok with 3-4 but not 50.

30℃/80℉ is at the top of the range for shrimp. They won't be particularly happy and any weaker specimens may pass, but strong, healthy shrimp should be okay.

The shrimps are really young, the largest is 1.5 cm long... Let's see what happens.