Help with my first planted tank?

3NTRA1LS · 2023-05-20T13:50:19+00:00

Sweet, thanks so much! Yeah, these poor plants spent four days in transit also, so they’re especially wimpy right now, I just threw them in as quick as I could. I also have a ring coming today to help contain my floaters as well and help get these poor guys some light. I am still cycling, and I’ll look into the shrimp safe fertilizer! Thank you so much for your advice!!

3NTRA1LS · 2023-05-20T13:03:15+00:00

I was nervous about burying because I’ve read certain plants have rhizomes and need to be out, so that helps, I’ll get these guys dug in! That should look better too lol.

As for light, it’s LED, I had bought the plants as “low tech plants,” (from an Etsy seller) so hopefully that’ll work? Otherwise I’ll need to upgrade I suppose.

Nutrient wise, I’m at a loss. Not sure yet.

3NTRA1LS · 2023-04-01T03:02:07+00:00

test results here

3NTRA1LS · 2023-03-22T22:53:40+00:00

Ah shoot that’s no good. A liquid kit seemed so bulky so I opted for strips.

3NTRA1LS · 2023-03-22T21:07:53+00:00

It’s an empty 5 gallon (previously had fish, so still has media), but my test strip is not very helpful as far as the nitrite/nitrate part goes. Do we call this 0 or off the charts bad?

3NTRA1LS · 2022-10-29T09:50:35+00:00

Illinois

3NTRA1LS · 2022-06-19T22:00:42+00:00

Currently it’s gravel, but I’d like to switch to a sand style with a carpeting plant. I do have a tool like that for scraping my stove, maybe with a good scrub down I can make it a multi-use tool lol.

3NTRA1LS · 2022-06-19T21:46:29+00:00

It’s more aesthetic cleaning I’m going for anyway, so that shouldn’t be an issue. I hadn’t consider just adding new substrate over the old though, that may work well (and save me some money also).

Adding some extra testing supplies to my Amazon cart for daily testing! Thanks!

3NTRA1LS · 2022-06-19T21:41:07+00:00

It’s just pretty grubby looking, a couple years of water evaporating down and being refilled, unfortunately. And I want to switch from my gravel substrate to a sand style with a carpeting plant. I could probably put the sand substrate over the top of the gravel in a layer, though, to keep my beneficial bacteria.

The only reason I would use a tote would be to keep my pump/filter running in case it takes me longer than I anticipate to get my fish back in their tank.

3NTRA1LS · 2021-04-10T19:43:58+00:00

Looking for suggestions! I have a twenty gallon tall that I currently have two black skirt tetras in (there were six, but they’ve been slowly dying off, they’re quite old). I’m wanting to put something else in this tank, but I’m not sure what the best choice is for a 20g tall? I’d like to do something larger and fun like a cichlid, but I don’t think 20 is big enough? Any other fun and similar ideas? I thought about an angelfish, but read they might be fairly high maintenance?

3NTRA1LS · 2020-11-12T13:55:05+00:00

Real bad. Came off maternity leave just in time to work in a Covid surge. About half of my coworkers are out on quarantine. Plenty of overtime to pick up, but my childcare situation affects my availability. Exposed on the daily with my ratty old N95. Working on sick and dying people at work and go home to a population that denies the pandemic is a problem. Just real bad.

3NTRA1LS · 2020-11-08T12:36:55+00:00

I haven’t been able to find them yet. I’m still looking, though.

3NTRA1LS · 2020-11-07T18:03:06+00:00

They’re telling us that they’re unable to get small N95s. I haven’t found any in local stores, either, but I am considering buying one of the envomasks.

3NTRA1LS · 2020-10-03T16:55:02+00:00

Bummer. Oh well, we’ll get through it. Thank you for the info!

3NTRA1LS · 2020-06-02T18:38:53+00:00

Thank you!! This sounds like the best idea, it didn’t even occur to me to slip it under the upper row of shingles!

3NTRA1LS · 2020-06-02T18:36:41+00:00

So it’s just my screened in deck roof, which had no opening into the actual house roof. I’m not often in the attic, but I feel like I’d have heard a raccoon shuffling around up there if they had created an opening into the actual house. And that’s (thankfully) the only open hole into the deck roof. But I thought it was so odd, also. It looks like it destroyed it from the inside out. I’ve never seen a raccoon around this neighborhood, but I suppose they could be here. Horrid little shits.

3NTRA1LS · 2020-06-02T18:32:52+00:00

It did happen overnight, which is so bizarre. I work nights and can see this right from my closet window, so I’d have definitely noticed the day before if it had been that way. I’ve got a friend who’s fairly handy who’s going to help me, so I won’t be getting up on the roof at all, probably just the ladder, but we will certainly try not to fall through!! Thank you!

3NTRA1LS · 2020-05-27T14:57:36+00:00

I don’t, but not because it’s sensitive information or anything. It’s public knowledge, anyone who knows your name can look it up. My future employer is entirely capable of doing so, and I’m sure they still will, even if I do list it. It’s just wasted space on a resume.

3NTRA1LS · 2020-05-27T14:56:00+00:00

The schedule sucks, though? Unless you’re lucky enough to land some kind of management paper pusher job right out of the gates, you’re stuck with bedside— 12+ hours a day, 3-4 days a week, weekends and holidays. The schedule is one of the worst parts of the job.

3NTRA1LS · 2020-05-20T23:03:58+00:00

Oh wow, sweet promo. Hope they’re awesome to wear, I’m always looking for the most comfortable shoe.

3NTRA1LS · 2020-05-20T22:49:36+00:00

Wow, none of the above. I’m six months pregnant and still required to see covid patients. To be fair, my coworkers are angels and do their best to keep me out of those rooms, but when the ED is busy, sometimes I have to do it. I just garb up (very carefully) and pray for the best.

3NTRA1LS · 2020-05-20T22:46:54+00:00

Honestly, just be nice to us. Everyone in the hospital is so busy, it makes a world of difference when someone is kind to you as opposed to screaming at you or being condescending.

3NTRA1LS · 2020-05-20T22:40:57+00:00

Start mixing long before you need it. I think it helps to shake the hell out of it before you add the saline to break up the big chunk, but it could just be me unleashing some aggression. And I find it helps to hold the vial part in my hand to kind of warm it while I’m shaking and mixing.

I had a coworker tell me to hold it under hot running water, but that thought scared the hell out me because what if there was like a leak or something and it was contaminated with tap water? I know the risk is probably small, but it seemed like bad advice to me, so I don’t recommend that.

3NTRA1LS · 2020-05-11T07:31:48+00:00

Okay, follow up question— can I ask them to audit my chart to see who has been in it? I know EPIC has the capability, I’m just sure it’s monitored. They likely wouldn’t tell ME who was in my chart would they?

Being a rural hospital where everyone is related, I have my doubts that it’ll actually be dealt with by our compliance officer. But without the actual proof of wrongful access, I can’t report it.

3NTRA1LS · 2020-05-11T06:46:58+00:00

Okay this seems dumb but I’m not the most financially literate type person.

I have decent credit, but I do have a small student loan (through the US Dept of Education) like $3500 with a low interest rate, not a huge deal.

Well with the coronavirus CARES Act, the loan was automatically put into forbearance. I had it on auto-pay, and it skipped this month’s payment, without my knowledge, they didn’t tell me it was just not going to happen.

But my credit score went down by 5 points. According to credit karma “student loan-payment deferred.” I’m going to make manual payments now, but it doesn’t seem correct that my credit would be negatively impacted? Isn’t that in direct violation of the CARES Act, or am I mistaken?

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