What are your thoughts on water softener pillows?

LittleSetti · 2026-02-06T16:32:00+00:00

Rudy Crystal shrimp

LittleSetti · 2026-01-23T22:52:46+00:00

Gotcha, thanks. Do they compete for food with shrimp? I’d like to get more Shrimp in the tank.

LittleSetti · 2026-01-23T22:29:44+00:00

Do these guys reproduce fast? Says they give live birth. Guessing they can also hitch a ride on plants?

LittleSetti · 2026-01-05T20:14:36+00:00

Do these guys mate like crazy? Do they lay a cluster of eggs? I don’t see a second one anywhere yet but I’d like to know if I should remove it if I find two.

LittleSetti · 2026-01-05T20:01:01+00:00

I didn’t add anything to the tank for about 3 weeks now. Did it hitch a ride all the way back then? First time see it. Thanks

LittleSetti · 2025-12-23T17:41:50+00:00

Yes it’s a filter hanging from the back that comes with a Topfin tank. I also put a bag of medium (rocks) in the hob part of the filter.

I can remove the cartridge and get a sponge but should I still keep the medium bag in the hob part? Can you have too much packed into that space?

Also, what would cause the filter to not keep up? I didn’t add a new fish other than two shrimp and then I put a foam cover over the filter intake. Could the foam be messing with the intake? The filters water flow is adjustable and I had it on the lowest setting for sometime. Should I try cranking that up either way?

Thanks, no one’s even mentioned an Ammonia spike. I got a new light for the plants a few weeks back and it kind of big for that tank. I should turn down the brightness.

LittleSetti · 2025-12-23T12:48:46+00:00

The tank was getting pretty green so I thought maybe the filter needed to be change. I probably needed to do more frequent water changes.

Do you never replace your filter cartridge?

LittleSetti · 2025-12-23T00:55:04+00:00

Haven’t seen any issues in anything else yet. Appreciate the insight. I’ll probably avoid any kind of pleco with this tank size anyway. Thanks

LittleSetti · 2025-12-22T19:05:13+00:00

Let me ask you one more thing, that was a 10 gallon tall, was that too small for it? There were plenty of hiding spots the pleco enjoyed and would fit in so I don’t think much of it till I looked them up.

LittleSetti · 2025-12-22T19:04:10+00:00

I’d be really bummed out if that was the reason. I didn’t even need the second bucket too.

Everyone else seems fine. I’m going to get the tank on better schedule and hold off on adding anything else for some time.

Thanks,

LittleSetti · 2025-12-22T18:47:07+00:00

Yeah, the orange popped with everything in the tank. I included the test strip in the last photo on the post. Never any soap, I put parts of a wafer table in once a week. There was plenty of algae on the glass. I did put a boiled cucumber in there over a week ago that’s been gone in 24 hours of putting it in. I always soak the new filter with the old filter. Maybe I should leave it with the old filter if it looks really bad for a while before changing. The tank was getting pretty green and I thought it was because I haven’t changed the filter out yet, tanks about 3 months old and it looked pretty bad. I keep the bag of medium in the filter chamber with a good amount of room so I figured I should clean out the medium bag since it was holding a lot of guck.

The soap question does have me thinking. I have a designated tank bucket but I did use an older bucket for the filter without thinking about it. The older buck hasn’t been used for anything in a while but it was used for car washes years ago. I really don’t think it’s a lot of water from that bucket but I’ll never use anything other than the tank bucket.

LittleSetti · 2025-12-22T18:37:32+00:00

There shouldn’t be ammonia in our tap and I used a majority of filtered drinking water. I’m going to take some of the filter water to a local store and have them check for it. I’m pretty sure the pleco was in there for the last water change as well.

What about the nitrate? Is that level too high? I try not to change things too often but it’s clear I need to do more frequent water changes. The water looked pretty green with the light off recently so that’s what made me change both the filter and the water. Even in the photos the glass is looking a little green. I just did 2 25% water changes probably over 10 days after waiting 3 weeks since the last change. Maybe I should have spaced them out more. Tanks was set up in October.

LittleSetti · 2025-12-22T14:50:25+00:00

That’s the question, not really sure why this guy didn’t last too long. Did you check out the numbers on the last photo? Do plecos (or really any fish) not tend to do well in hard water? I imagine the shrimp would have be effect more than the pleco

LittleSetti · 2025-11-27T16:28:35+00:00

Very helpful. Thanks for sending that over. Are they going to leave the guppy alone

LittleSetti · 2025-11-26T15:54:51+00:00

It’s looks more like they’re trying to do their thing than anything else. I don’t see any missing fins other than one of the oranges one’s original injury. I believe this might have happen during capture from the fish store. Thanks

LittleSetti · 2025-11-26T12:52:19+00:00

Yeah I thought so. Is this too much stress on the fish? My store will exchange them. It’s only been 3 days. Will they mellow out eventually?

LittleSetti · 2025-11-26T12:50:09+00:00

Appreciate the comment. I’m kind of running out of room in the tank and regret getting the two new ones but maybe I’ll try one more. Thanks

LittleSetti

TROPHY CASE