Tag Archives: gravel

Can I use small aquarium snails in my bamboo vase to eat algae?

Posted on November 13, 2010 by admin| 2 Comments

I have a medium-sized vase with about 10 pieces of lucky bamboo in water, with gravel about halfway up. The roots extend all the way through the gravel to the bottom of the vase. The sides of the vase are now covered in algae, even though I change the water regularly. I don’t think it’s a huge problem, but I’m wondering if I buy a handful of small freshwater snails at the local pet-store, if they’ll be able to survive in that kind of space, and whether they will eat the algae. Should I buy snails or small shrimp? Can I change the water and put in fresh cold water without killing them?

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Best Freshwater Invert to clean sand?

Posted on November 11, 2010 by admin| 2 Comments

I have a 10 gallon freshwater tank. It has 3 old zebra danios that are going to die soon from age, 2 pygmy cories,2 panda corys, and 2 african dwarf frogs. I used to have gravel and now sand. I do monthly water changes and i will hover over the sand with my gravel vac to keep it clean. I was just wondering what can i put in here that are cheaper and can live in a 10g ill be adding black khuli loaches. I asked my LFS and they said ghost shrimp will bully and might even kill my frogs. But i herd ppl have them togethrr peacefully. So i dont know what is best. I was also thinking about a apple or mystery snail. So what invert is best for my planet sand 10g freshwater aquarium?

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20 gallon tank too hot?

Posted on October 25, 2010 by admin| 4 Comments

Yesterday, I purchased my first aquarium from PetSmart. It is a top fin 20 gallon tank that came in a starter kit with a filter, chemical conditioning, ect. I set the tank up easily, conditioned the water, added the gravel and decorations and put in the thermometer that came with it. I ran the tank through the night with the light off. Now the thermometer which is a thin plastic one that lights up numbers in multiples of 2 depending on the temperature. When I checked it the numbers 80,82,84 where all lit. From what I’ve read, for freshwater tanks it should be anywhere from 72-80F. The tank is near a window, which is always closed a no light gets through, a ceiling fan that runs fairly fast, and an air conditioning vent. I live in Texas where it gets very hot during the summertime like this, but I guess I just need to know how to cool it down and keep it cool. By the way, when I do get fish I plan on getting a rubber lip pleco, a ghost shrimp, a mystery snail and maybe one other fish. Also should I probably go buy a new thermometer because this one is kind of a cheapie. Thanks in advance :)
Oh and I’m not using a heater because I was told not to by the person at PetSmart because of the already high temperature.
Okay thanks for all the answers, I got a new thermometer and it turns out the temp is at 79, so the old thermometer must have just been crappy :)

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Green Spotted Set Up Questions?

Posted on September 7, 2010 by admin| 1 Comment

so today i bought a gsp (i have had to tank set up and ready for three days with the filter running and stuff to make sure it was clean and ready). I have a heater, filter, aerator, gravel, one fake plant, one castle rock hide thing, and stuff. So today i bought him from walmart (had to, they are the only place that sells them but he is very healthy he’s brightly colored) any yeah, he’s in freshwater but i just got home from the petstore and bought instant ocean salt and a hydrometer and temperature gauge all in one thing, but my question is how much salt do i put in? and how often and how do i do it? i have a 5 gallon tank (he’s the only one but im getting one more, i know its too small but in about a year or sooner im gonna get a 15). but yeah how much salt? and how often? and one more thing i feed him tropical fish flakes and shrimp brine, and five snails (but my petstore doesnt sell them or crabs, mollusks etc., they just gave me those for starters) so are there any alternatives to trim down its beak?
i just bought a small filter, and small everything, i can’t upgrade to a bigger tank, i literally just bought everything i need and spent so much…unless i can put all the old stuff in a bigger aqaurium, and do they make frozen snails?

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Using black sand as a substrate?

Posted on September 1, 2010 by admin| 4 Comments

I have a ten gallon tank that currently has some blue standard aqarium gravel. It is freshwater, but I would still like to change the substrate to black sand. So how would I go about that? It is the home to a male betta, 3 cory cats and two ghost shrimp. Would I have to catch them and toss them in a bucket with the tank water and then scrape out all the gravel and add the black sand? Would my tank have to recycle even if I used the same filter and plants/decoration?

Also would it be okay to just get black play-sand and rinse it in a pillow case and then soak it for a week?
Okay, I can get the aqarium sand, but were would I keep my fish for two weeks?
Okay are you sure I don’t have to recylce? I know a lot of people don’t know what they are talking about, but I trust you as you usally give awsome advice. I am going to check around on some various fish forums just in case(:
Ooo I like the idea of having the gravel on the bottom and covering it with sand(: But eventually I might get a khulie loach or two and I think they would be surprised when they went to burrow…

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