[gabi.loraine]

feel free to laugh at this line of questions… how many MTS is too many?
I’m reaching a point where I think we’ve reached our limit… they’ve started eating my Salvinia (if it’s not the super overpopulated MTS it might be the emerging population of baby ramshorns or nerite, I can’t tell) and there’s so many of the MTS babies grabbing onto the surface of the water…

so… basically not sure if they’re still welcome or if I should start purging them whenever I next do a water change?

 

[mistergreen]

Are you sure they’re eating your Salvinia? I don’t see damaged leaves.

 

[gabi.loraine]

Are you sure they’re eating your Salvinia? I don’t see damaged leaves.

yep look…

 

[mistergreen]

hmmm, floating plants are tasty to all herbivores. You can scoop out the snails to reduce the numbers, otherwise, the snails are harmless.

 

[spaquarista]

I had a moment like that myself, but not because they were causing much damage, only because the MTS were starting to climb the glass in unnerving numbers. I started scooping them out by the handfuls at one point, there was probably an over abundance of fish food, which I dialed back. (Mind you, this is in a 30 gallon tank, so there are easily still hundreds of them in there).

This isn't really advice, just sharing a moment when I decided it was a bit much for me!!

 

[MudLily]

I feel like it's more likely that they're eating parts of the leaf which are already dead, giving the appearance that bites are being taken out of the living tissue. This is what they, and most - but not all - aquarium snails, are more known to do - eating the soft dead parts.

The population numbers should stabilize. You can naturally help reduce their numbers with scavenging competitors (eg. shrimp) and feeding sparingly.

 

[dwalstad]

I doubt that the snails are eating the plants. Floating plants disintegrate from nutrient deficiencies or just old age.

Some of your plants don't look as green as they should be. Most likely the chlorosis is an iron deficiency. When mine start falling apart, I add either a micronutrient fertilizer or chelated iron.

 

[gabi.loraine]

I feel like it's more likely that they're eating parts of the leaf which are already dead, giving the appearance that bites are being taken out of the living tissue. This is what they, and most - but not all - aquarium snails, are more known to do - eating the soft dead parts.

Yes that’s exactly what I know to be true, and that’s why it’s so weird to me because it looks like they’ve been munched on the greenest most succulent parts…

I doubt that the snails are eating the plants. Floating plants disintegrate from nutrient deficiencies or just old age.

Some of your plants don't look as green as they should be. Most likely the chlorosis is an iron deficiency. When mine start falling apart, I add either a micronutrient fertilizer or chelated iron.

I was going to say I thought the color was off because the photo I posted earlier was at night time and it could be the screen, but upon inspection right now… they do look kind of dull… do you think this could possibly be related to the green water?
I’ll get to reading about Fe in the meantime though.

 

[dwalstad]

The algae could very well be inhibiting the floating plants. They may be competing for iron. If so, be careful; iron fertilization may stimulate even more algae growth. That's where the water changes come in. I would do the water changes, then add the iron.
Yes, I appreciate your reading about iron (Section 'Iron and Algae Control' in Chapter X of my book). Very important nutrient in terms of algae and floating plants. (Submerged plants can get their iron from the substrate, but floating plants and algae have to get it from the water, and the iron supply is very limited.
I have given you some ideas, but in the end, only you can sort this out.
Good luck!

 

[TheWooster]

MTS. Multiple Tank Syndrome, sadly there is no cure. Must buy more tanks!

 

[dwalstad]

It's a disease for sure, but what better way to spend your time!

 

[gabi.loraine]

The algae could very well be inhibiting the floating plants. They may be competing for iron. If so, be careful; iron fertilization may stimulate even more algae growth. That's where the water changes come in. I would do the water changes, then add the iron.
Yes, I appreciate your reading about iron (Section 'Iron and Algae Control' in Chapter X of my book). Very important nutrient in terms of algae and floating plants. (Submerged plants can get their iron from the substrate, but floating plants and algae have to get it from the water, and the iron supply is very limited.
I have given you some ideas, but in the end, only you can sort this out.
Good luck!

Any suggestions on how to actually add the iron? 😅 can I buy iron supplements in the farmacy? do I have to order a special aquarium product? can anyone point me to instructions on how to do that?

 

[jatcar95]

Any suggestions on how to actually add the iron? 😅 can I buy iron supplements in the farmacy? do I have to order a special aquarium product? can anyone point me to instructions on how to do that?

I ordered this: DTPA Chelated Iron (Fe 11%) Aquarium Fertilizer - 0.5lb Jar

$10 and it will probably last me the rest of my lifetime, plus that of a few generations after. I used this calculator to figure out how much powder to mix into a spare bottle: https://rotalabutterfly.com/nutrient-calculator.php. You can use the calculator to first figure out the recommended dosage for your tank (bowl) size. Then choose "DIY" and using "a solution" and it lets you plug in how big your bottle is and how much you want to dose per day, it will tell you how much powder to add to make the solution. For me it's 2ml dose per day for a 6.5 gallon (I don't actually does every day though). I mix 1/4tsp into 100ml water to create the solution, and it lasts me for both of my tanks about a month. So you can see how I will never run out of powder

 

[gabi.loraine]

I found this one at my LFS, but it doesnt say chelated, and they told me it might harm my shrimp (meaning I would need to isolate the shrimp or the floating plants … which would be super impractical)

@dwalstad what is your recommendation?

thank you so much
Gabi

 

[mistergreen]

There shouldn't be issues with shrimps if you add the directed amount or even less.

 

[MudLily]

It's almost certainly fine with your shrimp.

That SeaChem product adds ~0.22ppm if you follow the directions.

NilcoG's specially marketed, dilluted, "shrimp-safe" version of Thrive adds 0.2ppm if you follow the directions. So pretty comparable.

 

[jatcar95]

I found this one at my LFS, but it doesnt say chelated, and they told me it might harm my shrimp (meaning I would need to isolate the shrimp or the floating plants … which would be super impractical)

View attachment 75003
View attachment 75002
View attachment 75004

@dwalstad what is your recommendation?

thank you so much
Gabi

This is what I originally used before switching to the powder form. This stuff works great! Never hurt my shrimp. Only problem is the price...I think a small bottle like yours costs as much as an entire tub of powder, which will make a nearly infinite amount of solution. Whereas I started going through a bottle of this in a couple weeks.

 

[gabi.loraine]

ah… they had a larger bottle for $8… I just did the calculation and I need to use less than 1mL per dose… so… won’t it last me a very long time? how often do we do this?

ETA: the bottle I showed in the photos would have been like $3 so not so bad either

 

[gabi.loraine]

For me it's 2ml dose per day for a 6.5 gallon (I don't actually does every day though)

so that’s twice as much (proportionate) as mine? but maybe it’s a different concentration? how much iron do these salvinia need 😅

 

[jatcar95]

Yeah for me at least, the dosing has been more of a "gut feeling" than a science. For my 6.5g I do 2ml every other day or so. If the floaters are growing well, I dial it back a bit. If they start getting smaller, I add more often.

The calculator I linked does have recommended ppm for the tank I believe. You can choose from various methods of dosing. Looks like for Walstad it has decided around 0.5ppm:

Again though, the numbers are not as important. Each tank varies so much with how many plants there are, how deficient in iron they are, etc, etc. You can use this as a baseline, but then you kinda just have to figure out what works for you.