EbiBunBun

Nice tank! Its so nice with the big moss ball. This is the hard part waiting with the empty tank.

You are better off getting PFS from Home Depot or a place like that. LFS is just adding more to the price. I was going to go with PFS but then I found this random bag of garden sand in my plant stuff. It is about the same size grain as 20\40 black blasting sand. Depending on the PFS it would be about the same size but some is a bit more buff in color, which would still look great.

Blue dream Neo enjoying the new set up and sand

I am continuing with the water changes and added purigen. So far no bad reactions from my berried female. Also removed the snail. This tank has always been stable and easy to keep below 10ppm until I added the snail and heater. So she will go live alone until I can figure what to do with her. There are only 13 shrimp in there so things should get under control easily enough. I just kinda freaked out because I thought all the shrimp would die if the nitrates were over 20ppm. I'm very happy they aren't dead, just a bit confused. Is this more a thing for the Caridina shrimp, or are Pumpkin Neos just very hardy?

It is very hard to see the blue against black. I had black sand in my Blue Dreams tank and even with a decent LED light it was hard to see them. I just put a cap of an off white sand and it has made a huge difference. Now I can see them no matter where they are.

I did tests on my 3.5 gal and the Nitrates were at 40! This is the last of the bottles of testing solutions from a Freshwater testing kit. I have a new bottle of testing fluid so I am going to double check it. So what to do now? I had added a nerite and some more shrimp about week ago and didn't realize that the tiny water changes (1\2 gallon at a time) were not enough anymore. All of the inhabitants seem fine, I even got my first berried pumpkin this last week. So I did the usual water change. I was afraid to do more since I have heard that the female could drop her eggs if there was a sudden change. I'm going to add a bag of purigen. Can I do water changes everyday? Or every other day? Should I try to add more plants?

She is trying to get the hang of it. In saw her eating upside down and she managed to get them all back in. Then I saw her later again right side up and two popped out again. Poor little derpy mama. I have now seen 3 more saddled females in the pumpkins! It seems she is setting off a competition among the females.

1. Poopians 2. Slycat929 3. Thegardenof Eder 4. Metageologist 5. EbiBunBun

How do you dose the clay/mud powders? Has anyone used bentonite clay?

My pumpkin with the giant saddle got berried last night but it seems that she isn't able to hold them all and some are hanging out. I wish I could take them off her! Poor thing its her first time and she's kinda goofing it up.

On my shrimp tanks I only use a 1\2" hose with a piece of pantyhose around the end and only siphon from the top of the tank very slowly. I'm guessing this would work to keep from sucking up babies too.

Flushing is so fun. I miss the supermarkets there. I will definitely be visiting Monster Aquarium. I guess it would be a good idea to pack a mini pump and airstone as well. Oh goodness I'm going to get in so much trouble.

I would have been cursing whole lot more if that was the case!

I'm just going to NYC to see family. So wondering how prepared I need to be in case. Maybe a couple breather bags and priority box. I would rather not ship if possible. Would I pack them like they come in the mail (breather bag, styrofoam, box) and put it in a safe spot in the suitcase?

If you were on a trip and happened to find some shrimp you wanted would you just mail them to yourself or try to fly with them?