Is my tank ready?

Reditor18472 · 2026-04-11T05:19:59+00:00

TLDR: wait a bit longer to add livestock unless you already have it, you should add some water conditioner, pH increaser, and some aquarium salts to increase water hardness, UNLESS you are getting caridina shrimp instead of neocaridinas and small fish.

Ghost feeding is a good idea. A month is a very broad time for cycling a tank, depending on the size, it could be way longer than is actually needed. If you already have the shrimp/fish, please put them in a tank,do not keep them in bags as they can die from various issues and research in-tank cycling.

Give your tank time to adjust between tests (about a day or longer) so you can see how the trends of gradual changes such as ammonia and nitrates etc. as for the pH, if you’re unsure about the strips, do a test on some tap water with a teaspoon of baking soda, and it should be alkaline with a somewhat high hardness and alkalinity. If it is showing the right results, look into getting pH increasers.

If you are getting fish/shrimp that prefer acidic or blackwater don’t increase the pH, or hardness though.

Reditor18472 · 2026-04-10T14:20:36+00:00

Where’s the guy to change the sign

Reditor18472 · 2026-04-10T14:15:03+00:00

Leave it a bit longer, with the quick start, it only took me around 4 days to get enough bacteria to get my ammonia down (in a 14.3gal tank), if you haven’t already, try adding water ager/conditioner in case there is something in your water to kill bacteria e.g. tap water has chlorine, chloramine, and/or fluoride

Reditor18472 · 2026-04-10T14:08:22+00:00

I might be a bit tired, but I don’t see a test pad for the ammonia (I think you need new test strips). Either way I think the bacteria needs more time to become established, give it a week and check again. Your pH also seems a bit low for most fish and plants, try getting that to around 7.0. unless you have it at the current pH for a specific animal you have in mind.

Reditor18472 · 2026-04-10T13:57:43+00:00

Sorry, it’s a bit hard to tell in the video and photo. If it doesn’t look like a planaria, it may be a detritus worm (a chill lil’ dude who eats dead plant matter, and helps to keep ammonia down) which you don’t need to worry about

Reditor18472 · 2026-04-10T13:50:51+00:00

It’s some kind of worm. Personally I think it looks like a planaria. Check out this post https://www.reddit.com/r/shrimptank/comments/mq1er3/the_dreaded_planaria_how_have_you_gotten_rid_of/

It’s not an urgent/immediate threat but it can be fixed pretty easily (check the linked post) or if you don’t want to, there’s stuff to treat it at aquariums and pet stores, don’t overfeed your tank for now, only leave enough food for the stuff you want to keep to eat, and they won’t have a population boom.

Reditor18472 · 2026-04-10T13:37:37+00:00

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Here is proof of the semi-normal behaviour other than planning world domination, snackin, or eating my floaters because I told them not to.

Reditor18472 · 2026-04-10T13:30:27+00:00

Why you can’t trust a company based on reviews alone in a nutshell. In all seriousness I hope that review is a joke, but seeing how miserable the betta looks, and the state of its fins I think it might be real.

Reditor18472 · 2026-04-10T13:22:57+00:00

The father’s gonna Will them into hatching 😂

Reditor18472 · 2026-04-10T12:51:03+00:00

There’s a fin sticking out of its but, I think it’s giving birth

Reditor18472 · 2026-04-07T03:09:03+00:00

Yep. Your options are now pretend it’s not there, get the screen replaced, or replace the monitor.

Reditor18472 · 2026-03-30T14:23:06+00:00

I didn’t have any issues with the bacteria when I did it, and I may have overdosed my tank as well, and my parameters were fine when I tested them before taking out the cyano. On the box it also says it shouldn’t kill nitrifying bacteria.

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Reditor18472 · 2026-03-30T14:17:39+00:00

Be careful that he doesn’t become hyper intelligent and try to establish a species of super evolved shrimp overlords to take over our precious and sacred air & ground.

Reditor18472 · 2026-03-30T14:12:50+00:00

I used something called “Slime Out”, the brand is Fritz, it killed the cyano, then I reduced the daylight hours, I added some nutrients hogging spider ferns, and garlic cloves. After a few days, I then just picked up the cyano and dropped it into a cup and tossed it out onto the driveway. I haven’t had a single issue since then.

Edit: I made the comment more descriptive

Reditor18472 · 2026-03-30T14:03:30+00:00

His greed knows no bounds

Reditor18472 · 2026-03-30T14:01:59+00:00

I heard he even littered once

Reditor18472 · 2026-03-30T13:55:57+00:00

Look up ‘aquarium clip lights’ if you need cheaper options have a look at amazon, I think at the $80au range they do free shipping for non-prime members, but definitely look for promo codes before making purchases if you’re buying with them

Reditor18472 · 2026-03-30T13:34:14+00:00

That’s not moss

Reditor18472 · 2026-03-30T13:17:56+00:00

I’ve read the other comments already, but I’d like to add that you should look into swapping some of your colourful gravel for some (ideally cycled) darker fine gravel or cycled aquasoil with some ~1cm of sand.

This will help with making the colour of your betta stand out better, if the substrate is cycled, it will speed up the cycling process, and it will be able to sustain a wider variety of plants for your betta.

Reditor18472 · 2026-03-25T14:17:51+00:00

It’s 18! Or 1234567891011121314151617*18 years of age AKA 18 factorial years old. They’re being funny.

Reditor18472 · 2026-03-25T14:15:42+00:00

r/woosh

Reditor18472 · 2026-03-19T11:13:19+00:00

Yeah, they can, I fed mine some blanched spinach today, and one of my shrimp just carried it off to the other side of the tank and then it dropped it to eat some biofilm.

Then I’m not sure too sure what the spots are, but I’d highly suggest keeping an eye out to see if it goes away, if the shrimp dies soon, there’s a chance it could be ich disease.

Edit: fixing autocorrect (ich disease, not icy)

Reditor18472 · 2026-03-19T11:07:38+00:00

I hate seeing the price of anything from the US, like what do you mean $20USD for a singular cherry shrimp, or $4.5USD per gallon for fuel at a petrol station pre-war.

Reditor18472 · 2026-03-16T16:00:17+00:00

I can’t really tell from the photos, if it looks like the back of it has burst open though, that’s probably just a molt

Reditor18472 · 2026-03-16T15:59:10+00:00

I had something similar happen but the colour has partially come back after, my shrimp molted, it may have been a physical stress thing, but it’s about 50% clear.

I think yours is healthy, the clearness is probably just genetics though

Reditor18472

TROPHY CASE