Oh, forgot to mention, I replaced the bacopa with anacharis in all tanks. I did like the bacopa a lot, but I really do need to maximise real estate for fast-growing stems rather than slower growing ones. I think it's still pretty, so ah well. Looking forward to the last of the plants arriving and hopefully the last planting day in quite some time!
Also looking forward to the Motley Crue/Kiss concert tomorrow night and the Offspring one the day after, hehehe. It's gonna be a blast!
Just gonna chuck some pictures on here of the tanks in their current state to avoid cluttering up other threads because y'know, sometimes you're just itching to post photos, even if they're unlikely to be seen. XD
So because I'm a total *insert expletive here* moron, and did a water change that included hot water from the tap, I've been having to fish dead shrimp out of my tanks. Not only do I feel positively AWFUL for causing such a thing to happen, for my ignorance that contributed to these deaths, but I'm terribly afraid that I might miss one because the tanks are now so heavily planted I can't get underneath everything to search... And it'll be ammonia poisoned until I do a complete tear-down of all the tanks, and start from scratch... AGAIN.
After the last month, and with the ridiculously hot weather here again, I can't bear the thought of completely re-doing all the tanks for a third time... I just feel so very, very stupid for not knowing that using the hot water tap might introduce copper into the water. How did I not know this before? How, in my reading, did I miss something so important?! UGH!!
There's still a couple of survivors, little troopers that they are. I don't know if they'll keep on living, I really hope that they do. Some people would call me stupid for caring SO MUCH about the little guys I suppose, but yeah... The death of pets is always painful, whether they're big or small, new or old. And knowing it's directly MY FAULT is not a good feeling.
Last edited by Sparrowhawk; 03-06-2013 at 07:04 PM.
You are definitely not stupid for caring so much! Honestly, I didn't know about hot tap water, either 0_0 how does that work? Does it have to be a certain temp to leech copper or whatever it does? I always use the same temp water straight from the tap... I guess I don't have shrimp either, though.
And also, I love seeing everyone's planted tanks! And I'm sure others do, too! Especially since I'm setting up my own... I don't think posting pictures on the planted tanks show and tell thread would be an issue because obviously everyone looking at that thread wants to see plenty of planted tank pictures :p also, I love seeing everyone's fish/shrimp/snails/whatever else. Of course we all want our own pretty tanks and aquatic friends but its awesome when everyone else shares theirs, too :)
According to a few threads I read on the Planted Tank forum, yeah, it's the temperature of the water going through the pipes that can cause the metal to leech into the water. It would've been great to have that information on all the shrimp-keeping-101 type pages out there and not have to search for "Why are my RCS all dying?!" to get any answers though... Guess it's not that much of a stretch to expect people to research a little more than what's offered readily by info pages, but if you're stupid like me... *headdesk*
I love seeing everyone else's tanks too! Part of the reason I joined the Planted Tank forum was because I'd already gone through all the picture threads in our planted section over here, hahaha!
Hope you'll post loads of pictures when you set yours up! XD
Trust me, pictures galore, lol :p with a 2 week QT time on my girls (who will hopefully arrive next week) it will be awhile until I have the actual tank set up. However, I think I might see what I can do with the QT tank :)
Been thinking about this whole issue of maybe needing to tear all the tanks down if push comes to shove with the shrimp issue... Perhaps it's not such a bad thing. After finally visiting Subscape as LittleBettaFish suggested (it's soooo awesome there!! ^.^) I've been getting excited about their cheap 30cm cube tanks. They're only $10 more than I paid for my current tanks, and despite measuring up to only a slightly larger footprint, hold almost double the water! If a tear-down is necessary, though it'll be a sad and tedious process, I could be getting 7.13 gallon tanks! Which means... I could start NPTs!!
It's a bit hard to try and contain my excitement about that prospect, much less express it via text, haha. I'd still be running the same lights though, which might bring me down from medium to medium-low light, but I'm sure I can work with that. Keep the wisteria, anacharis, water sprite and hygro as my stems and get some more to fill it out a little, keep the anubias and moss, perhaps get one or two other moss varieties, maybe make a carpet of moss (?) and eeeeep!! Way too exciting.
The drawback to this is that I couldn't justify spending over $100, and tearing down my already nice-looking tanks unless a very bad thing happened: the shrimp not making it and not being able to find them to remove them amidst all the plants. So while I would love to upgrade, I really don't want the only reason I can justify an upgrade to come to be, y'know?
So, it would seem there is a consensus in this house (this is a rare thing, everyone who lives here actually agreeing on something!) that we should re-do all the tanks into NPTs. I've been weighing up pros and cons, and the only drawback is the work initially, and that things won't look as "pretty" as they do at the moment. If less pretty means more livable for the inhabitants, I am so totally down with that!
And I feel as though there should be some dramatic music for this announcement, because it's totally unexpected: My grandmother is encouraging me to upgrade the size of the tanks. This is unheard of! She's loving the plants, and liking the idea of bigger tanks! Wheeeee!!
Now I just have to investigate options for lids for these cube tanks, figure out placement, like whether I'll ditch the one on the shelf and get a piece of wood to cover the extra 2cm I'd need to fit 3 cubes on my dresser (I wouldn't be able to get my hand in the gap for planting or acclimating anything if a cube were to go on the shelf) or what I'm going to do...
It could be that your plant is eldoea, which prefers cold to temperate conditions.
What you want is hydrilla. Looks practically the same, grows like a weed and can tolerate warmer water.
I would offer you some, but I've had to set-up so many tanks lately that I had to actually buy a couple more bunches the other day as I didn't have enough.
If you aren't averse to shipping and want to give hydrilla a go, contact Dave at Aquagreen and see if he doesn't have some available. It's where I get mine from and he is great to deal with and very generous with his bunch sizes.
Check out the eBook Betta Fish Care Made Easy
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