Recent content by Bredfan

Nano - my last post was not directed at you. But I have to correct something.... "...and don't wanna research its whatever..." is a terrible mischaracterization of the entire exchange. I would encourage you to re-read it to get the proper context. Now.... THAT's all I have to say about...

I think this is all a bit ridiculous, with all due respect. So, let me get this straight.... I got to a fish store and start talking the owner. He tells me he's been in business for 13 years in the same location. I explain I'm a total newbie and need to understand how to get started. He...

Would adding a second heater, or getting a bigger one be a good choice? All I've been through, I don't want something that simple to throw me off!

Hi - The folks here at LR helped me through a bad start up. My tank is now stabilized and I wanted to share some conclusions, because it might help others who are just starting. I have learned so much in the past 3 months - all the hard way. Mistake number one was listening to the LFS...

I wasn't clear in my initial post... I started the tank with Tap, but I am doing water changes with RO from the LFS. What I'm wondering is if there WAS bad stuff in the tap water when I started, will it be a cause for persistent problems, or will it work itself out after a few months?

Hi - Knowing tap water has some bad things in it, does the water improve with time - with the cycle and with water changes - or can starting the tank with tap water cause persistent problems with water chemistry? I struggled to get my parameters settled down and correct - could the tap...

I am in almost exactly the same place as described here! (Just took a longer road to get here, but that's a story for another time). If I read this correctly.... with ph 8, Ammonia 0, nitrite 0, and nitrite .25 it is okay to add fishies? I am testing a tiny bit over ph8, 0 Ammonia, 0...

Cool. I looked and looked and could not find any pics online of these things - or any mention of them. I guess I didn't look hard enough... :-)

Here's another pic - this one with a zoom app on wife's iphone... blurry, but you can see the tentacles better...

He's in a terrible place to get a picture, but I did manage to get one pic of this: In the following pic, I'm looking down into the tank from the top. At the bottom of the photo is the snail's head - you can see his black antennae things. On the top side, you can barely see a small group of...

Hi - One of my two turbos has something weird on him (I think). I watched him as he stuck on the back of the aquarium - there were light colored tentacles emerging from out from under his shell. If his head was at 12 o'clock, there were tentacles coming out from 9:00 all the way around to...

So, I should ask the lfs for a few larger shells to drop into my tank? Sounds logical... And...just to kick this dead horse... When they are hatched, they come with no shell, and must go find one to live in? Seems like a recipe for a pretty high mortality rate...

This is the part of their physiology that I don't understand... do they "move" to a new shell? Do the climb out of their shell and grow a new one? If the shell is not part of the body, how do they grow? If it is part of the body why would I need extra shells? How does that process work?

My wife has (thankfully) really taken to the new tank. She was watching the tank really closely this evening and exclaimed, "Eww! What's that bug?" "Bug?" I asked. "Yeah, there's a little bug in there." She said she saw a tiny "bug" crawl out of of a piece of live rock, scurry down...

Okay...I've searched all over, but can't find any info on this... What is the life cycle of the dwarf hermit crabs in terms of their physical characteristics? How are they born? How do their shells develop, or do they choose them? I've seen what I think are shell-less bodies in the...