First Aquarium!

[Rikatix]

Thanks, Varanus. I'm going to throw a drop or two of prime in there... should be no problem even a month in, should it?

[Varanus]

Thanks, Varanus. I'm going to throw a drop or two of prime in there... should be no problem even a month in, should it?

I don't think so. Prime doesn't interfere with cycling, it just changes ammonia to a less toxic form for a time.

[Rikatix]

Would i be better off using API quick start instead of prime?

[Varanus]

Would i be better off using API quick start instead of prime?

I've always used Prime myself so I can't really say.

[Mustafa]

put the snails in ammonia free water, its killing them. you can do water changes to reduce the ammonia, it wont slow down the tank cycle.

they may survive the ammonia but it isnt healthy for them and should be avoided at all costs.

They don't really care. Some creatures are a lot less sensitive to various chemicals than others. These snails belong to the "I don't care about commonly encountered ammonia levels. I'm just going to continue eating." variety. So, keeping the snails in the tank was the right decision. I would never recommend keeping snails in the tanks during the cycling period if I knew it was bad for them. Usually when I recommend something it's from years of experience, personal experiments and scouring scientific literature. In this case...all of the above.

[Mustafa]

Anyway, welcome to the hobby Rikatix! Just wait it out. Prime is harmless, but I don't think you even need to do anything at all. It's been colder so cycling takes a lot longer than usual. It'll happen eventually. Even without test kits you'll know eventually because you'll suddenly notice lots of surface algae growing everywhere. I'd just sit back and relax and wait for the algae to grow.

Supershrimp are actually much more resilient when it comes to ammonia than all the freshwater shrimp that I've had experience with. Whereas other shrimp die at the mere *mention* of ammonia, these guys kind of just sit there and wait for better times. But...you may lose one or two if your ammonia levels are too high. That's why I recommend waiting at least a few weeks and ideally until algae start growing. Your ammonia levels seem unusually high (and rising) because I think that your rocks (and possibly substrate) came with lots of organic material (dead algae etc.) that has been decaying. Normally, a Supershrimp tank with completely inert decoration/substrate won't register any ammonia at all (at least not levels we can register with our kits).

So, don't worry and just wait it out.

[Rikatix]

Anyway, welcome to the hobby Rikatix! Just wait it out. Prime is harmless, but I don't think you even need to do anything at all. It's been colder so cycling takes a lot longer than usual. It'll happen eventually. Even without test kits you'll know eventually because you'll suddenly notice lots of surface algae growing everywhere. I'd just sit back and relax and wait for the algae to grow.

Supershrimp are actually much more resilient when it comes to ammonia than all the freshwater shrimp that I've had experience with. Whereas other shrimp die at the mere *mention* of ammonia, these guys kind of just sit there and wait for better times. But...you may lose one or two if your ammonia levels are too high. That's why I recommend waiting at least a few weeks and ideally until algae start growing. Your ammonia levels seem unusually high (and rising) because I think that your rocks (and possibly substrate) came with lots of organic material (dead algae etc.) that has been decaying. Normally, a Supershrimp tank with completely inert decoration/substrate won't register any ammonia at all (at least not levels we can register with our kits).

So, don't worry and just wait it out.

Thank you so much for responding! Glad to hear I don't need to do anything more than wait, I can do that. In retrospect I should have done a much better job cleaning the substrate/decorative rocks and stuff, but thats in the past now!

I'll check it again in a week or two then, it's about to be in the 80's around here so maybe the tank will pick it up. Right now I just have the 4 super shrimp that came with my sphere. The tank is only 3 gallons, but hoping these shrimp can manage to reproduce in a few months perhaps. would be quite a success story!

Thanks again! Love the site, loads of great information.

[Mech]

put the snails in ammonia free water, its killing them. you can do water changes to reduce the ammonia, it wont slow down the tank cycle.

they may survive the ammonia but it isnt healthy for them and should be avoided at all costs.

They don't really care. Some creatures are a lot less sensitive to various chemicals than others. These snails belong to the "I don't care about commonly encountered ammonia levels. I'm just going to continue eating." variety. So, keeping the snails in the tank was the right decision. I would never recommend keeping snails in the tanks during the cycling period if I knew it was bad for them. Usually when I recommend something it's from years of experience, personal experiments and scouring scientific literature. In this case...all of the above.

just because snails may not die doesn't mean they are not suffering in the tank though.

[Mustafa]

just because snails may not die doesn't mean they are not suffering in the tank though.

--And it doesn't mean they are either. Plus, how do you know? Did you interview them? With such simple animals we have to kinda go by observation: Do they eat? Do they act normally? Do they even reproduce? Yep...they are happy. Speculating about possible suffering with zero evidence (and a bunch of evidence to the contrary, see above) isn't going to be helpful and just lead to wild hypotheses.

[Rikatix]

Still no movement on the Ammonia, pretty solid 4, it would appear.

I've also included some pictures of the tank for the first time in a long time. The rock in the back is freckled with brown spots that are growing larger and in new spots every day. They have even appeared on the back of the red lava rock to the right, but I did not take pictures of those. Additionally on the right side of the tank, and I have included a picture of this, you can see all kinds of brown stuff growing. It too is becoming more visible and spreading out a little bit more each day. The weather has warmed up significantly the past two weeks and the ambient temperature around the tank has been lifted from hovering at around 63-66F to hovering around 71-74F.

After google-researching I came across some information that suggested that the brown stuff growing on the rocks and on the right side of the tank is not actually algae at all but what is known as diatoms. They apparently indicate the presence of silicates, which I suppose could have come from the sand or rocks. Either that or they are receiving too little light was another possibility, I read. But their tank light is set to a timer that I have turned on for about 16 hours per day. And its in a room that receives natural sunlight.

The snails have shown only tiny amounts of movement for some time with really only two that ever move and even they have been silent lately. I know these guys are hearty and I was thinking maybe they were not moving to conserve energy and wait until more food is available. But some just haven't moved at all in over a week. Starting to wonder about them... Every now and then I zoom the camera in on them and can see they sometimes stick some antenna or other body part out and it moves in the water so I don't think they are dead, just curious why they are barely moving after being so active when I first got them.

One other note. The back rock had been growing some green stuff on the backside, it was getting thicker and I thought a bloom was about to start! ... but now it is almost completely disappeared and seems to be fading all the way away. I'm curious what was happening here.

[jonesinfershrimp]

if the snails arent moving, the ammonia levels may be a little high. my suggestion is a 50% water change. some might object, but from the minuet i put my snails in my tank they have been NONSTOP moving and eating.

[Mech]

you have ammonia in your tank, ammonia will kill pretty much all snails and shrimp. Ignore the information about water changes shouldn't be done... you need to keep ammonia and nitrites as low as you can. Opae ula deal perfectly with parameter swings (its what the are good at) so changing tank water out is not a problem for them.

[NancyM]

Sorry you're having trouble. I don't know if my ammonia levels ever got that high. I never checked it after reading the section on how to care for supershrimp here. I don't know if changing out some of the water would help, but it can't hurt and will make you feel like you're doing something positive. Good luck!

[Rikatix]

OK, it seems like changing the water will relieve some of the stress, so I will do that. Thanks for all the input.

[Rikatix]

Did about a 50% water change a few days ago.

The Ammonia is currently reading somewhere between 1-2ppm
Nitrites, about 25ppm
and Nitrates 0ppm

The snails haven't moved in so many days now, thinking about scooping them up with a spoon or something and moving them to a shallow bowl...hope they aren't dead but I'm starting to feel bad about them. Saw online to sniff them and bad smells are associated with these guys being dead. I picked up a couple and didn't smell anything toooooo foul beyond what you might expect from something that lives in a pool of stagnant water.

In other news the rid lava rock on the right appears to be growing a small section of green stuff so maybe this tank is about to turn a corner for the best... probably need to plan on ordering more snails from Mustafa once I see the ammonia dropping.