3 Questions....

[Pam-daMonium]

1. I have a 2 gallon jar that I am waiting breathlessly to cycle and a 2 liter jar as a backup. The small one has brown spots on the glass. Are those the brown algae or diatoms so many have mentioned? I can't tell if there are any on the black lava. The greenish splotch on the lower left is just a camera effect.

Ammonia = 3-ish-ppm, Nitrite = 0.5pmm, Nitrate = 10ppm.

If the small jar is cycling, would putting some of that water in the larger jar help the 2 gallon to cycle?

2. The 2-gallon jar that had the water replaced per Mr Mustafa. It houses the mossball, that is fine, it's just sitting there looking cute, and the algaeball, that is not doing fine. It is unraveling and the color looks sickly. Ammonia in this tank is 0.5ppm, no nitrite, no nitrate. Poor algaeball! Is it beyond hope?

3. With the evening temps falling to near freezing, the window has closed for me to send for Malaysian Trumpet Snails online and there are none nearby. Is there a viable substitute? I already tried Nerites, but could not keep them alive.

Thank you, Shrimpophiles!

[Pam-daMonium]

I had to travel into New Jersey, USA, a few days ago, so I stopped at "Beital's Aquariums" in Pearl River. It was not a shiny megastore like a PetSmart, but a bit messy. They must have had 60ish tanks at least, some huge, both freshwater and saltwater, with some very large fish. They had sharks about 12" long and some rays about 13ish" in diameter. Their living corals were at least twice the size of those for sale at my nearby PetCo.

They had snails : Nerite, Apple, and a species about the size of a nickel with blunt conical shells, but no Malaysian Trumpet Snails. >_< They had some black lava rocks in one tank, though, so I bought the smallest one at 7 lbs because it has a lot more nooks and crannies than my PetCo lava. (PLEASE don't tell my partner that I paid $30 for a rock!)

None of the tanks were labeled, so I don't know any of the species. And unfortunately, the guys there didn't know about brackish aquariums, but if you want a ray, they have them!

[Shrimplythebest]

It looks like some kind of algae or something in the smaller jar, which makes me think it's probably ready for opae ula. The algaeball in the larger jar may need more light. I found when I decreased the light for my tank in an effort to control other algae growth, my chaeto stopped growing and started looking paler. Once I increased the light, it started growing quickly again and its color improved.

[Pam-daMonium]

Thank you, Shrimplythebest.

I was hoping that it's good algae. If I put some of the water and/or small lava rocks in the bigger jar, will that help the bigger jar to sprout algae?

"Tanks"!