My observations

[raytan12]

Observed my tank, discovered these:
1) some of my malayan shrimps are turning brownish, some even darker brown, is there anything wrong with them?
2) my water seems abit cloudy about 10%. what can ido to make the cloudiness go away?
3) the water level in the tank seems to be going down, water evaporates so fast that i need to top it up everyday. is this normal?
4) when i trim my hairgrass, how can i make sure that those that are cut do not mess up my tank? any tips to make the cutting easy and making my tank neat and tidy?
for my 1.5ft tank, i have 36W of light altogether (from 2x18W). I used timer to control the lighting, bought theben, quite user firendly, thanks alot to Simon and Nizz, i think i got it at high price at $22 and discovered that Nature is selling only at about $18 or $19 if i am not wrong. my lighting is now controlled and there's so much convenience.

thanks alot

[nizz]

Hi Ray
Gd to hear everything is going well wif u. I understand ur anxiety as i was there too when my tanks were newly set up.
1) Browning shrimps...sorry can't help u there.
2) Cloudy water for a new set up is quite normal...(I'm assuming this is a new tank setup)...just give it a few days to clear up. In the mean time, u cld try cutting down ur feed, reduce ur lighting period & don fertilise.
3) Water evaporation is quite normal, esp in the last week or so when the weather has been extremely hot. It evaporates faster if u have installed a fan to cool the tank. Just top up the water when u feel necessary.
4) How often do u trim ur hairgrass? They grow so fast? My hairgrass has grown to almost 1ft long, but i'm not trimming it just yet...how abt if u trim them b4 u do partial water change...when u suck up the water can suck up the cuttings as well? Just an idea...

BTW, wat's u lighting period like?

Nizz

[raytan12]

from 8am-1pm and 7pm to 2am

[David]

hi raytan12

1).....usually yamatoes and malayan shrimps goes darker through time especially if the your substrate is dark.....i believe this is normal

2).....when you mentioned cloudy...is it particle or chalky cloudy......if it is particle, you could either adjust your rainbar or outlet of the reactor to face the inlet pipe, and/or change your filter wool....if it is chalky cloudy, its an bacterial bloom.......did you change a large amount of water recently or washed your filter?
3)....water evaporation varies from tank to tank, place to place.......for me, topping my tanks up every day is normal......nevertheless check for leaks in your filtration system and your tank.
4)....as for the hairgrass, just cut the top lay like a barber......let the leaf blade float to the top and use a net to haul them out.....remember to shut your filter.


hi nizz....good to see you again ....need more echino?

[DEA]

Observed my tank, discovered these:
1) some of my malayan shrimps are turning brownish, some even darker brown, is there anything wrong with them?

nope, nothing wrong
fun to see, really



alas this poor bugger just passed away

2) my water seems abit cloudy about 10%. what can ido to make the cloudiness go away?

filter floss
lots of filter floss compacted in the top chamber of a canister filter, making sure it doesn't touch the impeller tho

3) the water level in the tank seems to be going down, water evaporates so fast that i need to top it up everyday. is this normal?

fan or no fan? no fan, hmmm, not quite right
fan, perfectly normal

4) when i trim my hairgrass, how can i make sure that those that are cut do not mess up my tank? any tips to make the cutting easy and making my tank neat and tidy?

what i do is i use a pair of scissors to disconnect the ones i want to remove from the entire lawn
then i simply pull it up while siphoning

hth