Diatoms, Ghost shrimp and Moonlights, OH MY! (PICTURES!)

[RTR]

Ghosts are fine at low-end brackish levels, as already mentioned, likely it is closer to home for them than pure FW, and for most species they do breed in BW and the fry feed on the plankton. My favorite species will breed in FW with a very short planktonic phase - which is the only one easily bred by hobbyists, IME.

F-8s and ghosts are unpredictable. If they are not eaten quickly, they may get to live indefinitely - or be eaten at any time. Puffers are capricious. I only rarely say "always" or equally rarely say "never about their behavior anymore.

Don't use the phosphate/silicate adsorbers if you have any live plants - they absolutely must have dissolved phosphate for survival. For live plants you have to pre-extract the phosphates/silicates from the water before using it, and then supplement the phosphates in the tank. A PITA.

[purplecandle]

I have a few questions about diatoms.

I have always had an issue with them. A lot of my tanks would be considered newer set ups especially by RTR's standards. But I do have one tank that has some age on it.

These diatoms show up once in a while an usually go away on there own....but if it does not seem to be going away on its own I sneak a pleco in there and its gone in a few hours. But, obviously I cannot do that to brackish tanks..so sometimes the diatoms can be a PITA.

I absolutely have never had any green algae, not sure what that means..

I have well water and I live in the Piedmont region of North Carolina with orange clay soil. My water is not clear. It always has a tinge to it as do most people around here, but it tastes great believe it or not. Tastes much better than the municipal sources around here.

Would you think my water has high levels of silicates? Where can I get my water tested? What tests should I ask for? What can I do about this?

[JRC3]

. . . isnt that cannibalism on the ghost shrimps part?

They eat anything...Including a lot of puffer poop.

[jmiller]

I bought 5 ghost shrimp last night and put them in the snail tank overnight before putting them in the main tank tonight. When checking them this morning I only had 4. My largest snail was on it with just the head left. Don't know if the it just died or the snails killed it.

[melbell86]

they eat the poop?! awesome i need to get some more. My diatom outbreak has spread to the sand as well. I am going to do a good cleaning of my tank tomorrow. Probably going to scrub the rocks with a toothbrush and clean the sides with an algae scrubber, and pick up some more ghosties. Only plankton (the original ghost shrimp) remains. The snails are still in there but i dont notice the tank any "cleaner". The tops of my rocks are completely brown and im noticing some green "plant like" algea growing on the rocks. they are small, and sway in the current of my tank. I dont have any live plants, so the silicate remover shouldnt be an issue, i hope.

[Pufferpunk]

I don't think "common" snails are murderers. More than likely, they were eating the dead shrimp.

[RTR]

+1 to PP's comment on the snail eating the dead shrimp. FW lacks the selection of predator snails that are not rare in tropical SW. None of the common FW/light BW tank snails can kill anything not already moribund. Just as do tankmates, snails are not adverse to free high-protein snacks. Recycling is not just in our compost piles.

Your county or state will likely have info on the ground water in your area - they will not certify your particular supply unless it is tested ($$$), but they will give you general info on the local aquifers and other ground water. Your taxes pay for that data (which you do not have to point out, they know it already) and most of those folks are helpful. In my area, the high silicate aquifers are all geologically old sandy veins - we have the other end of the same vein that made Corning Glass famous. (The glass companies use the sand, not the water.) Water from such does tend to have significant soluble silicates.

Without vascular plants, there is no disadvantage to using the resins to absorb the silicates. All i have used have to be replaced, we cannot recharge them.

[jmiller]

Your county or state will likely have info on the ground water in your area - they will not certify your particular supply unless it is tested ($$$), but they will give you general info on the local aquifers and other ground water.

Something like this?
http://www.elizabethtownky.org/pdf/2007 ... report.pdf

[mairdan13]

luckily enough a guy i know from my local church is a chemistry doctorate and responsible for the water quality of
most of Wales (for those on the other side of the pond thats about a third of the size of Britain - which is three
quarters of the UK... uh... yeah)

anyway i've only just realised the significance of this as far as my tank is concerned... D'oh!!!

right, where's my phone??

[RTR]

Yup - that is not unlike ours. EPA spells out the required info, but the locals may or may not include other reports they have - the tendency lately seems to be to omit those not required. But they will give you the info if you ask and they have it.

Few folks pay much attention to the water supply, which seems strange to me as a long-time hobbyist. What is at least OK for humans and what is OK for fish can be two different things. Think about the disinfectants added... Plus they do provide some background on the general water parameters - hardness and alkalinity for example, and the biggie of nitrate. Those have direct impact on how we handle our tanks. It is a bit hard to keep nitrate below 10 ppm when the tap is at that level from the start.

So many folks move from one supply to another also. That can have a non-trivial impact of tank handling and even on the fish that you keep. You can always customize your water, but that is non-trivial cost and extra work. I prefer to keep fish happy in my local water supply with minimum handling (disinfectant removal and aging). I have done others, but then I know in advance that it will be more effort on my part.

[kit-kat]

How did you introduce your ghost shrimp? I would LOVE to have ghost shrimp with my 2 GSPs. Did you just plunk them in there or try to hide them first/sneak them into the tank?

[melbell86]

i purchased 10 of them (they 3 for $1 at my LFS) and dropped them in. He had already eaten when i first got them so he wasnt really interested in them right away. I saw him eat one, and occasionally i find shrimp bits on the bottom and the head count is down one. I still have 5 left out of the 10 that i got a few weeks ago and he doesnt seem very interested right now. They are really fun to watch, just dont get too attached and name them cause they most likely will all get eaten eventually, but then you can just get some more! Here is what i got a few weeks ago and i just plopped them in!