Well, it's only been two days since my last post, so not much has changed.
I have Flourite Onyx Sand as the substrate in there, and I don't like it. As far as being Flourite Sand, it's not a problem, although, in retrospect, it's a bit of a waste since I have no root feeders in there. My problem with it is that the name is misleading. Onyx brings to mind black, lustrous, and glassy, much like obsidian does, at least for me. It's gray. Granted, I wouldn't have had a problem with the gray if I wasn't expecting gray, but still, I'm not terribly pleased by its appearance.
Anyway, the only actual "update" I have is that I went after the tank before covering it up last night (I have another thread http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?272828-The-ants-go-marching and I was spraying stuff last night) and used a flashlight, and saw 8 or 9 tiny juvies on the bit of algae wafer I threw in there. The population is too low to justify a full wafer. I saw about 15 RCS last night. Earlier in the day, I saw about a dozen, but none were the tiny shrimplets, so I know there are plenty of hiding places. I also saw one that was very lethargic, and I won't be surprised to find that it died when I next look.
I do wonder if I got some bum stock. I bought some RCS from a guy on here (and haven't seen him since), and then I wiped out my biological filter a week or so later. I was somewhat disappointed because I wanted to diversify the gene pool a bit, and the RCS I received were much more pale than the pictures I was sent. However, there was quite the problem with getting the shipment of RCS to me, because every single one was DOA on the first shipment, and probably a third in the second, but the second had enough freebies as extras that I still ended up with almost as many as I paid for. I assumed it was due to the differences in weather between our locations. Now, since I've seen no activity from the guy for a while, I wonder if he had some bacterial illness in his RCS, whether he knew it or not, and I am now the proud owner of that. It may have been easier to diagnose if I hadn't killed off my biological filter at the same time, but it is what it is. I'm just feeding and looking, trying to see something positive happening aside from bladder snail reproduction. Those things are just loving the tank set up, because for snails that don't reproduce quickly, they're reproducing quickly, so I know something in there isn't happy, specifically for the shrimp. It could just be that the hardiest of the ones that survived the weeks of crashed cycle (between not realizing it had crashed in the first place, and then getting it cycled again) are still dying off, and the once they're all gone, the deaths will stop. I have a few that were added after the cycle was reestablished, and the new juvies that have hatched, and the slightly older juvies that may have been impacted by the cycle while still in the egg, so we'll see, I guess.
I have Flourite Onyx Sand as the substrate in there, and I don't like it. As far as being Flourite Sand, it's not a problem, although, in retrospect, it's a bit of a waste since I have no root feeders in there. My problem with it is that the name is misleading. Onyx brings to mind black, lustrous, and glassy, much like obsidian does, at least for me. It's gray. Granted, I wouldn't have had a problem with the gray if I wasn't expecting gray, but still, I'm not terribly pleased by its appearance.
Anyway, the only actual "update" I have is that I went after the tank before covering it up last night (I have another thread http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?272828-The-ants-go-marching and I was spraying stuff last night) and used a flashlight, and saw 8 or 9 tiny juvies on the bit of algae wafer I threw in there. The population is too low to justify a full wafer. I saw about 15 RCS last night. Earlier in the day, I saw about a dozen, but none were the tiny shrimplets, so I know there are plenty of hiding places. I also saw one that was very lethargic, and I won't be surprised to find that it died when I next look.
I do wonder if I got some bum stock. I bought some RCS from a guy on here (and haven't seen him since), and then I wiped out my biological filter a week or so later. I was somewhat disappointed because I wanted to diversify the gene pool a bit, and the RCS I received were much more pale than the pictures I was sent. However, there was quite the problem with getting the shipment of RCS to me, because every single one was DOA on the first shipment, and probably a third in the second, but the second had enough freebies as extras that I still ended up with almost as many as I paid for. I assumed it was due to the differences in weather between our locations. Now, since I've seen no activity from the guy for a while, I wonder if he had some bacterial illness in his RCS, whether he knew it or not, and I am now the proud owner of that. It may have been easier to diagnose if I hadn't killed off my biological filter at the same time, but it is what it is. I'm just feeding and looking, trying to see something positive happening aside from bladder snail reproduction. Those things are just loving the tank set up, because for snails that don't reproduce quickly, they're reproducing quickly, so I know something in there isn't happy, specifically for the shrimp. It could just be that the hardiest of the ones that survived the weeks of crashed cycle (between not realizing it had crashed in the first place, and then getting it cycled again) are still dying off, and the once they're all gone, the deaths will stop. I have a few that were added after the cycle was reestablished, and the new juvies that have hatched, and the slightly older juvies that may have been impacted by the cycle while still in the egg, so we'll see, I guess.
