danielt

Let us discuss about HOB filtration. I'm using this kind of filters on 13 tanks. In my opinion they are better than sponge filters and provide a better filtration when space is an issue. Having canister filters on 13 tanks would take the same space as the tanks themselves Any of you are using? What's your experience with them?

Since you don't deal with salt water, any RO unit will do. Shrimp don't make a difference if the RO unit puts out water at 10-15ppm TDS.

Agreed with the above. BKKs are doing well in full RO treated with Bee Shrimp Mineral GH+. I'm hoping they will breed at some point. I'm new to them as well. Just got around to take some pics of them tonight. Will update the gallery album when I have enough time.

Yep! Works for me too, thanks!

A word of caution while switching to full RO use, you will need to remineralize the RO anyway. Don't make the switch from tap to just RO as it will mess with hardness which seems already low and might explain why the neos aren't doing well. For neos, a gH of 6-7 is quite ok, lower and they start to have molting issues or shell issues. First, I would try to increase the gH in the tank to something close to 6 dgH. SaltyShrimp Bee Mineral raises just gH with minimal impact to TDS. Start doing water changes of about 5% every couple of days with tap water having a gH of 6. Afterwards, you can switch to RO remineralized to the same 6 degrees of hardness. You might want to consider buying a TDS meter if you don't have one already.

I was about to suggest the same This needs a separate thread.

That's why i advised for ramshorn snails. They don't eat plants like the apple snail does, they reproduce and also grow to a size that makes them easy to fish out if they overwhelm the tank. I had a huge problem with common snails like physa. Since they so tiny and had to resort to assassin snails to bring their population down.

Ramshorn is the answer and some plants.

Or you can put a stocking with fish food in it.

Well yeah, the mulberry stuff is stomach churning. Haven't smelled something that awful my entire life, the jar is sealed with wax

I'll see what happens, just put a test container to work.

.

I don't know how your TDS meter works or how much bacterial solution you used. I just did a test of what I use. In 5L of water with a measured TDS of 164ppm I've poured 5ml of Tetra SafeStart and the TDS raised to 175ppm. I don't use a whole bottle and don't follow their instructions as I'm just "topping-up" the bacteria. Another thing to note, the TDS will be higher until de bacteria is consumed or just replenishes the old population. As the bacterial population is refreshed, other components from the water are absorbed and it balances out a bit.