Hello all!
I haven't really been good about keeping a tank journal before, but I've found a couple other journals to be really helpful lately so I figured I'd make one and maybe someone will find mine helpful.
The tank in question is 2 years old now,.. I set it up as a shrimp tank, but always had a heck of a time keeping any shrimp in it, or keeping moss. The shrimp would breed, but I'd have lots of unexplained deaths, enough that the population would eventually die off.
Shot from around that time:
IMG_8168 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr
IMG_8263 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr
Recently I discovered that the Scuds I thought were so fun, AND that I tried so hard to make sure I took home from the LFS were the cause of my 2 years of trouble! Apparently not only do they eat Moss like crazy, but they also eat shrimp after molting.
So! Hungry for revenge due to all this suffering they caused I went on the war path. First I transferred the 2 shrimp I had in there to my work tank and tried a 15X overdose of Excel since I don't use it anymore and had some laying around. I did that just before leaving for work, and when I came home I found all the scuds out and playing, happy and free. Next I poured 2 cups of bleach in. After 10 min they were still alive, but not happy. I then sucked out all the substrate that was falling apart anyway and removed everything for a good wash in the tub.
Every plant, piece of drift wood, filter, and piece of equipment was bleached, rinsed and returned to the tank. Anything replaceable has been replaced, and the substrate has been removed.
The tank is now BB and I'm on high alert for Scuds. I have Amazonia coming in soon to replace the old Fluval substrate, and I intend to get some more drift wood.
For now the tank sits like this, starting a new cycle at 2 years old:
10G by Wiskey2727, on Flickr
Thanks for reading! More progress to come.
Whiskey
I haven't really been good about keeping a tank journal before, but I've found a couple other journals to be really helpful lately so I figured I'd make one and maybe someone will find mine helpful.
The tank in question is 2 years old now,.. I set it up as a shrimp tank, but always had a heck of a time keeping any shrimp in it, or keeping moss. The shrimp would breed, but I'd have lots of unexplained deaths, enough that the population would eventually die off.
Shot from around that time:
IMG_8168 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr
IMG_8263 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr
Recently I discovered that the Scuds I thought were so fun, AND that I tried so hard to make sure I took home from the LFS were the cause of my 2 years of trouble! Apparently not only do they eat Moss like crazy, but they also eat shrimp after molting.
So! Hungry for revenge due to all this suffering they caused I went on the war path. First I transferred the 2 shrimp I had in there to my work tank and tried a 15X overdose of Excel since I don't use it anymore and had some laying around. I did that just before leaving for work, and when I came home I found all the scuds out and playing, happy and free. Next I poured 2 cups of bleach in. After 10 min they were still alive, but not happy. I then sucked out all the substrate that was falling apart anyway and removed everything for a good wash in the tub.
Every plant, piece of drift wood, filter, and piece of equipment was bleached, rinsed and returned to the tank. Anything replaceable has been replaced, and the substrate has been removed.
The tank is now BB and I'm on high alert for Scuds. I have Amazonia coming in soon to replace the old Fluval substrate, and I intend to get some more drift wood.
For now the tank sits like this, starting a new cycle at 2 years old:
10G by Wiskey2727, on Flickr
Thanks for reading! More progress to come.
Whiskey