Doc4PC2

Hi,

 In my 3rd tank which I painstakingly tried to be as perfect of a tank as possible, after learning from everything from my first two tanks,

The water quality is:

Temp - 73 F

PH - 6.4 - 6.6

GH - 4 to 6

KH - 0 to 1

Sponge filter

Marineland Penguin BioWheel 200 HOB

Layer of Fluval Shrimp Stratum on bottom and Moon sand on top

Xmas moss only

one piece of Malaysian Driftwood

one Indian Almond Leaf

few of the miniature Alder cones

one air stone

RO water and Bee Shrimp Gh+ minerals, and nothing else with the water - TDS - 170

Ceramics in a moving bed filter.

Small UV sterilizer that I use occasionally. I turn it on for about two to three days, every other week.

10 to 15% water changes every other week

Today, I found this very tiny, smaller than a nat, white flies floating on the top of the water. They have white wings, and very, very tiny.

I have not idea where they came from, or how they got into the tank. My house is clean, and I don't have flies in my house. It is still

cold here in Montana. I have never even heard of this before?

I scooped them all out of the tank. I threw away the HOB filter, and boiled the HOB. I cleaned everything in around the tank. Every

line, every chord, every plugin, all glass, the glass tops, both sides, did a magnet algae cleaner on all four sides of the tank. Put

in a new filter, after cleaning and boiling the HOB, cleaned the ceramics. I added some Colony to the water that I added with the

new hob filter and the RO water.

All water parameters are the same, everything is okay, and the shrimp all seem fine. I have not hardly fed them at all, because

they seem to have plenty of bio film to eat and don't seem interested in anything I feed them, other than some organic frozen

spinach that I will put a small piece in, every two to three days. That is about it, so they are not getting overfed at all.

So far, since doing all of that, I have not seen another one of those flies floating on top of the water and it's been about

five hours.

But has anyone heard or seen these tiny white flies before floating on the top of the water in an aquarium before? If so,

what are they, where do they come from, how to I make sure I never get them again, will they harm the shrimp, is

there a best way to get rid of them? Any information would be greatly appreciated!

Hopefully, I will not get them back. They were quite a few of them, probably about 30 of them all total, all alive, and all

floating on top of the water. They are all gone, and I have not seen one since about 5 hours now, and since I cleaned

everything and did everything. But I sure have never heard or seen these before in any tank, fish, or shrimp.

Thanks for any help, Doc

Interesting...... The great things you learn on this forum

Thanks for the info everyone!

It seems like I am reading a lot that shrimp keepers like to keep Malaysian Trumpet snail with their shrimp.

Some like to keep the ramshorn, but it seem like the majority think it's good to keep Malaysian Trumpet snails

with their shrimps, but I really don't know why.

Is there a reason for this? What is the difference to keeping Malaysian Trumpet snails with shrimps versus

Ramshorns, or some other snail?  Does anyone know?

Thanks for the posts. I was thinking about just not using the carbon at all, but the shrimp seem to be all doing great, but I thought I would just put in a large sponge filter,

and use some ceramics, and just do away with the carbon filter. But, you are right too wicca32 too. If I take that out, it has all of the good bacteria on it, so I don't want

to just pull it out. My tanks is still too new, only about 9 to 10 weeks old, so I would have to keep it and let the sponge and ceramics build up first before I took the

carbon filter away.

I was wondering if anyone can tell me if they use the regular filter for their HOB's, or if you replace it

with ceramics, or something else.

I have the Marineland Penguin Biowheel 200's, and 100's HOB's, and I just use the filter that comes

with them. But they do have some carbon / charcoal with their filters.

I was wondering if I should not be using the carbon / charcoal at all in my shrimp tanks, or if I should

replace them and put ceramics in the filter instead of the carbon.

I haven't used any active carbon in my shrimp tanks. I do use a filter I made with filter material at

the bottom, then ceramics, then a filter pad, then peat, then a filter pad on top, with an air stone

in the bottom and holes in the top. It is  a cylinder with the media layered, and the air stone

on the bottom, and holes on the top.

But, do any of you replace your filter media in your HOB's? Do you take our the carbon / charcoal,

and put something else in it, or just use a filter pad?  Or is it okay just to use the filters that come

with your HOB's?

Thanks, Doc

Thanks, soothing shrimp, that is good to know. So no matter what, the nerite's I have now, won't increase because their eggs won't survive?

Wow, great stuff to know!

dukendabears, send me a message, because I am interested, and thanks!

Does anyone know where I can buy some King Kong shrimp, or even Black Panda Shrimps?

Love it, again, a great growing list!  One day, the RAOK's will have a couple of hundred on it!

Wow, the list is growing. I love to see it!

thanks for the tips. I appreciate that. I don't really have a problem with the snail and the shrimp, I just don't want the snail to overtake my tank, but

I seem to have nerites, and ramshorns. I would like my tank to only have the ramshorns or Malaysia trumpet snails, and not have nerites.

From what I understand, the ramshorns and the mayaysia trumpet snails are the best snails to keep with CRS, CBS, Tigers, Yellow neons, blues, shrimps.

So, I am trying to keep the nerites population from exploding, is all.  I think it is probably a good thing to have some snails with your shrimps. But I

went back and forth trying to decide about them.   lol

Hey wicca32, I tried the lettuce thing, but didn't get a single snail interested. Some of the shrimp picked at a little, but

that's about it. I put a small piece of regular iceberg lettuce, with a plant anchor on it, and put it into the substrate with

a small piece poking up from the substrate, and left it there for about 8 hours, and not a single snail?  Did I do

something wrong?

So, true!

Good, because my water is pristine. Every parameter is line with where it is supposed to be.

Wow, those look awesome! Both yours and your buddies.  The shrink wrap idea is a good idea. I could try that, because they aren't very big.

The square intake is only about 5/8" X 7/8" square, and the surface skimmer is just your normal small skimmer.

They are all doing just fine. I love them, I don't know about anyone else, but

the shrimp you get from Will at The Shrimp Tank, are awesome!  And NO,

that is not an advertisement for him. Just my opinion.

And bostoneric, I keep my lights on for 9 hours, on daylight, 5 hours on the blue softer lighting,

and the rest of the time, the light is off at night. They are on timers this way.  The tanks are not

where the sun hits them at all, so I don't know where those small patches of green alge are coming

from. Plus there are these tiny, almost looks like the smallest thread you have ever seen coming

off the moss. Like a fishing line is in the water, only really, really thin fishing line that is white, clear.

Like a very long spider web, and only one long one coming up from the moss?

That look like great work! Say, do you know where I can get a square to round adapter. I have a Penguin  Marineland BioWheel 200 and BioWheel 100,

and the intakes are square, but I wanted to hook up a surface skimmer, but it is round, so I am trying to find a adapter that will go from square (the biowheel intake) to

round (the surface skimmer) ?

Thanks for any answer!

Good to meet you, and I hope you do pass it along to another generation, that would be great!

Great stuff to know, thanks gang!

Got my new shrimp today from The Shrimp Tank with Will.

They are very tiny, but healthy and doing fine, so far.

I love the way, that Will packs them. He does it right.

They are safe and sound when they get here, and I think

if the post office played kick ball with them, they would still

be okay. Stressed, by okay.   lol

They are tiny tiger shrimp and some CRS. They are mostly

all babies, which is fine with me, but wow, are they tiny.

I really worry about the stainless steel mesh intake. I worry

that the fry can still get sucked up by it, they just look so

microscopic, but so far, I have not found any in my filters,

Thank God!

I really can't believe the size of the babies. You know they are small,

but as a newbie to this arena, the reality of seeing just how tiny they

are, is amazing to me. Nothing like how I imagined them to be.

The are way, way, way..... smaller.   lol

So, now I have some CRS, CBS, and Tigers. All seem to be

doing fine.

I do get some small patches of green alge like material on the sponge?

My water quality is perfect. I test it everyday, so I have no idea where

this small patch of alge comes from. The moss and plants should be

taken care of it, along with the filters? There isn't much of it, but I

am surprised it is there.

so, you use it like bait, a trap, to take out a good bunch of them. That is a great idea, that I will

have to remember.  Thanks, wicca32

Welcome to the best Shrimp forum online!

Wow, that is great. Thanks everyone for your answers. That helps. I think they are okay, and will help keep the tank clean.

I guess I will just have to keep an eye on them and if they start to get too many, I will take them out, one at a time. I guess.

That is interesting what wicca32 said about putting a piece of lettuce in the tank, and by the next day, the snails are gone.

I have not heard of that before. Are you talking about just a regular piece of lettuce? Have you tried this before wicca32?

I recently got some plants, moss, etc and now I have lots of snails. Which is fine. There are al lot of tiny, tiny baby snails, but they grow very fast, and I am seeing more and more of them with my crystal red shrimp.

What I want to know is how everyone feels about the snails that are shrimp keepers.

Pros, cons, opinions, good, bad, helpful, problem issues with them, good things about them? Anything that can help me with the snails. Keeping them, leaving them be, get rid of them, help them, let them multiply, etc. I need as many opinions on them as I can get from shrimp keepers. Are there a lot of shrimp keepers that have snails? Help please, I need to make a decision on them.

Thanks so much, Doc