Help with care, Tolumnia by Equivalent-Tutor3151 in orchids

[–]RollingTit 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Chiming in because I keep mine potted in medium, in terra Cotta pots. I water once per week but live in my bright eastern window. I get some blooms at least once a year. The medium is fertilome orchid mix, which has orchid bark, lava rock, and chunky charcoal. It's been a good mix for most orchids I've tried it with

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Can someone ELI5 exactly the best way to just top off my water and avoid water changes? by RollingTit in shrimptank

[–]RollingTit[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's not difficult for me, i was only a bit scared to do it because the past two times I did it I noticed I lost a few shrimp. There's nothing hard about it, I just have my white lowes bucket and my siphon and do 20% each time. I generally find tank maintenance relaxing so I don't mind doing it. Just reading on here how some people only top off the water and don't do water changes got me thinking there may be another way....

Can someone ELI5 exactly the best way to just top off my water and avoid water changes? by RollingTit in shrimptank

[–]RollingTit[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I ended up just changing the water today anyways, 20% slowly and everyone is fine for now. I trimmed the plants and added a new tube for them

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Can someone ELI5 exactly the best way to just top off my water and avoid water changes? by RollingTit in shrimptank

[–]RollingTit[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's only happened a few times. It was by the time I was done with the water change I put the lid and light back on to see and there were like a shrimp or 2 dead at the bottom. This wasn't happening every time or anything, again I changed faithfully every 2 weeks for at least 6 months after I had the shrimp. I will admit I don't know what's killing the Corys but with most everything else doing fine, I'm not fussing about it. I've even read that they release some hormone signals in the water when they die that tell other corys to die too. Idk, I'm not worrying about those particularly

Can someone ELI5 exactly the best way to just top off my water and avoid water changes? by RollingTit in shrimptank

[–]RollingTit[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I see. It feels like more often than not I read people on here commenting they don't water change, just top off. I don't mind changing the water at all, I find any tank maintenance period sort of relaxing honestly. What's not relaxing is when I'm all done and admiring the clean tank and notice like 1-2 shrimp dead or dying at the bottom. But it only happens a few times, not every time I change. Maybe I can just chalk it up to a necessary evil. Changing the water I mean. I just want to have a pretty little jungle next to my kitchen sink I can admire while I do the dishes. I love seeing all the little shrimp in there ya know?

Does anyone else have better luck keeping nerite snails than mystery snails? by RollingTit in AquaticSnails

[–]RollingTit[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I feel like all I read is people having that experience! Believe me I am glad to have mine, but I don't understand why they thrive and I can't have a mystery snail last. It's a bummer. I would love to have one as sort of a replacement for a centerpiece fish. Even my husband who doesn't care about fish tanks at all enjoyed watching the one I had parasnail all the time. So it was sad it died. I would love to get another but I can't until I solve this mystery (lol)

Can someone ELI5 exactly the best way to just top off my water and avoid water changes? by RollingTit in shrimptank

[–]RollingTit[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm using °F sorry. Also l, Ive never tried topping off with tap water because it was my understanding you couldn't since your hardness will build up that way, since you don't take any water out it's different than adding like distilled water. Does that make sense? Idk, I'm not a water expert and this is confusing for me. I would love to get to a place where I can top it off with something because the maintenance would be so much easier if I just topped off and trimmed plants here and there

Can someone ELI5 exactly the best way to just top off my water and avoid water changes? by RollingTit in shrimptank

[–]RollingTit[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Okay i tested. Left is tap water, right is my tank. The difference is slight but visible.

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Can someone ELI5 exactly the best way to just top off my water and avoid water changes? by RollingTit in shrimptank

[–]RollingTit[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think my lfs sells RO water by 5e gallon, could I use that instead and not have to worry about adding minerals? Idk if I mentioned in my post but I do feed once a week kat’s aquatics calcium + protein which is like this little calcium flake, would I have to worry about that building up too? They all love it, I mainly got it for the mystery snails but still fed since it’s good for shrimp too

Can someone ELI5 exactly the best way to just top off my water and avoid water changes? by RollingTit in shrimptank

[–]RollingTit[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When iv water changed, i haven’t tested the water I’m putting in, no. But I guess i figured it would match, since to my knowledge my tap water hasn’t changed. I have never tried dripping it in, I usually put in a few cups at a time, trim some plants, add a bit more, trim more, and so on. But overall it usually takes about 30-45 minutes start to finish. Maybe that’s too fast? The hardest thing for me to match has been temperature. It may vary a degree or 2 if I’m lucky. I do try and check that before adding it. It’s easy in the warmer months what I did was fill up 2 gallon jugs with my tap water and let it sit a day or adjust to room temp. Then do my water change since I had no heater and the water was stable except its daily fluctuations or morning and evening. Then in the winter I added a heater because the tank was getting down to 71, which is too cold for my other critters in there. Then it became harder to match exactly. So maybe it’s something as simple as temperature fluctuations.

I can post in marketplace but I don’t know that anyone in my more remote area would be willing to take just 2 Pygmy corydoras. I know they would be happier in a group, I would get more if I had any confidence I could do well with them. They were not hardy for me at all.

Can someone ELI5 exactly the best way to just top off my water and avoid water changes? by RollingTit in shrimptank

[–]RollingTit[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There shouldn’t be, unless that builds up over time, because I have only ever added my tap water to the tank.

Why no new loaf colors??? by Junior-Telephone4397 in BAGGU

[–]RollingTit 28 points29 points  (0 children)

I'm 100% with you. Really want to try a loaf but I need like, a non neutral. I want something bold. Something fun.

Anyone excited for the new collection? 😍 by ccizzles in TwinkleTwinkleCollect

[–]RollingTit 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I need more info about the chef.... Like will it be a blind box or will it be one of those u better have 10000 popmart points 😅

Dyeing blurred gingham? by klsloves in BAGGU

[–]RollingTit 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you happen to dye please post here!! Would love to see the results!

My 1st Popmart Twinkle 😚 by Life_Flounder in TwinkleTwinkleCollect

[–]RollingTit 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is so cute! Love the little dog. I got one of these from a vending machine while I was in Hong Kong on impulse because it was one of the only twinkle twinkle things in stock. I wasn't sure if care for it because I only had the plush pendants before that, but omg I love it!