gillznglass

Was an extreme alkaline joke. I do have around 8.9.

I don't envy you having to balance those water parameters. That is tough. With low or no kh, Co2 may cause some huge pH swings. It would be nice if there was a Co2 sensor that would regulate Co2 to keep a target pH. May help not to dose at night.

Well water sandpoint well, Montana. It comes out of the tap so does that count? 590. Mostly kh, and probably glyphosphate. PH 45637389234.4. Very alkaline. 1 micron sediment filter and 2 carbon blocks, 2 tds. Priceless.

Q: How is Pristine different from Seachem Stability? A: Pristine uses bio-augmentation, a non-chemical and natural method, to improve water quality. It contains different strains of bacteria that have a high affinity for larger proteins such as sludge buildup on substrate, waterfalls, rocks, etc. It also helps rid your tank of the oil slick on the surface of the water, typically a result of overfeeding.

Interesting. Reminds me of Dr Tim's waste away and refresh. I wonder if they use the same strains. Eco balance from Dr Tim's is interesting too. Sometimes this it really helps to get an out of balance tank back in order. I've only tried eco balance in the shrimp tanks. Seems to me borneo wild works great in them. Seachem makes first rate stuff though. Would kind of like to try this. it is odd that it works both in fresh and salt. Dr Tim's makes different types for fresh and salt. I would really like to know if it is shrimp safe. I think refresh is not invert safe so there are some products of this type that are not. If anyone wants to contact Seachem and report here that would be great. If not I'll write them this weekend and post back what they say. Good find shrimple.

Price drop. Same number and details in the above post, but $30.00 for 5 and $12.00 continental U.S. Shipping. We will only ship Mondays and Tuesdays.

Blue berries! Lots of em. Nice shrimp.

Thanks everybody for all the input. Lots of good suggestions.

Guess I'll just stick with good old food grade.

Wow. Just wow. Unreal tanks and shrimp. Thanks for being here, and welcome.

Up for sale, are 5 blue crays that belong to this forum member Wygglz. I am the other half Wygglz, and take care of the tanks. They are kept in their own tank which has 250 TDS 100% RO water re-mineralized with Seachem Equilibrium, at a ph of 6.0 to 6.2. Ph is achieved with a non phosphate buffer, Seachem acid and alkaline buffer. They live on white inert sand with Java moss and a few plants. They are fed with multiple different foods. These will be juvenile crays. Price is $35.00 plus $15.00 shipping via Pay Pal in the Continental U.S. Please PM me for any information, and PM Wygglz if you would like to purchase them. Thank you. Gillz

The weaker or older bacteria die off first and then others will follow suit until it balances with the food source. I don't know if a die off like that can produce adverse effects. But if you look at Kaldness K1 bio media or equivalents the purpose of the moving bed is to knock off old and weak bacteria so new ones may grow in their place. Also, in a fishless cycle, it is important to do a large water change before introducing aquatics. My guess would be some dead bacteria end up in the water column and then are removed by filtration or water changes. Also dead bacteria fit into the organic matter category which purigen is golden at. Good activated carbon will do it as well. I use Seachem matrix carbon to remove meds, and purigen for daily use. The fact that purigen can be regenerated is great.

Purigen will potentially remove all organic compounds, much the same way activated carbon can. However unlike activated carbon, it has a much larger capacity and it is always consistent. Seachem makes a really good fairly consistent activated carbon with some special tools. Got to have the special tools. Think of it like this, if it was alive at one time, and dies, it is definitely an organic compound. Things like meds fall in to that category as well which can be really confusing, since meds were not alive. Well at least most. So it is easier to think of anything inert in your tank is not an organic compound. Things like calcium and magnesium are inert even though aquatic life uses those minerals. If purigen took those out the salty shrimp bill would really suck. Nitrite, is not to be confused with Nitrate. It often is, because they are close. So here is how it works. Ammonia is converted to Nitrite by a bacteria called Nitrosomonas. Then Nitrite is converted to Nitrate by Nitrobacter. So there are two different bacteria responsible for the completion of the nitrogen cycle. So Nitrosomonas will not start to live and reproduce without the presence of ammonia. Nitrobacter will not live or reproduce without the presence of Nitrite, so Nitrobacter is completely dependent on the presence of Nitrosomonas. Nitrobacter grows and reproduces at a much slower rate than Nitrosomonas. So the cycle usually stalls on waiting for Nitrobacter to catch up. They ride the short bus. In your question, you say Nitrite, which is the first thing ammonia is converted too. The only thing that can make Nitrite 0 is enough Nitrosomonas. So if there is less ammonia there will be less Nitrite, but not without Nitrosomonas. However here is the thing to remember. The total amount of ammonia will not make the bacteria which has a life cycle, grow any faster. It will just allow them to make more little baby bacteria. The more food, the more critters will survive. When the food goes away, well, lets just say it ain't pretty for the Nitro's. Since it takes a fixed time for the bacteria to mature enough to do their job, putting more ammonia in will not help the situation. In fact, too much ammonia will have a reverse effect and wipe the Nitro's out. So in your question will it delay the development of Nirobacter? In essence no, because Nitrobacter need nitrites. And if there is ammonia there will eventually be Nitrites usually long before the nitrobacter start to thrive. This is why most cycles stall, due to the excess Nitrite. It is not really stalling however it just appears that way. As long as there is some Nitrate, your nitrobacter are alive, and they will eventually catch up. Then they will die off when the Nitrite is not available. Do a large water change to lower nitrite, and all the sudden you have enough nitrobacter to handle the initial ammonia production. So in essence the nitrobacter are now in balance with the amount of ammonia being produced. To sum this up purigen can not increase the time a cycle completes, but it can affect the number of living bacteria. The number of living bacteria are proportionate to the balanced amount of ammonia in the tank. More critters and dead stuff, more ammonia, more bacteria. So this is really why purigen will not reduce the cycle time of a tank, it will just reduce the number of living bacteria because there is less food. I hope this make sense.

So in the fuge, i have some form of green hair algae that is thriving. I have thought about isolating the tank and treating it with h2o2 but there are two yo-yo loaches in there, and would have to move them to get the level of h2o2 strong enough to wipe it out. How have you gotten rid of this stuff? Shrimp and loach safe would be great.

Welcome to the pit. Ah bugger what kind of shrimp is that in your avatar? That an offspring of your yellows? You may want to lower the radiation level in your tank.