Hello All! I love this forum...just found it today. I have a couple of questions.
I have a 30 gallon tank that has been up and running for a couple of months and has already cycled. I have 4 Neon Tetras, 5 Hatchet Tetras, 1 Kissing Gourami, 2 Cory Cats, 1 Black Kuhli Loach, 5 Mystery snails (plus a baby Mystery), and several other baby snails that came from a plant (not sure if they are mystery or other, I was told a mix by the LFS. I have a live Hornwort plant and a live sword plant. The plants, the fish, and the snails are just thriving.
Everything else is plastic. I have an Aquatec 30-6 dual chamber filter and an 18" bubble rod. My lights are florescent, not sure of wattage and are on 12-14 hrs a day generally.
The only things I have been testing lately are
PH 6.6
Nitrite 0
The only things I add to the tank are NovAqua water conditioner (when doing water changes or adding a new fish)
Kent's Liquid Calcium for the snail's shells
Occasionally PH Increase to keep the PH from going to low, but generally I prefer to leave it alone as it doesn't seem to bother anyone and I know a lower PH means no toxicity if there were to be nitrite or ammonia problems.
I feel flake food once a day along with 1 algea wafer and occasionally in the evening will give frozen blood worms.
In the past week or two I have started seeing a rust colored substance on the bubble rod and now on the tops of the plants. I assumed it was a type of algea. After what I have read on here today I guess it is diatoms. I don't care if I have some algea, as long as I am not overrun...I like the fish to have a snack to nibble on and I am sure the snails love it too. I am thinking of getting a couple of Ottos tonight if I can find some since I wanted some more cats anyway. I already feed an algea wafer a day to supplement the snails and because my cats and gourami love it anyway. Does this seem like a good way to keep it under control?? I have seen the gourmai nibble at it a bit...but it doesn't seem enough to keep it from spreading
.
Also, my Mystery Snails are now twice the size that they were when I got them 3-4 months ago. I love that they are thriving, but doesn anyone know how big they are supposed to get??
Khuli Loaches....I was told they don't eat snails. Incorrectly it seems (whoops). Do they only eat tiny snails?? So far he hasn't seemed to bother my big snails or even my babies (a little smaller than a pencil eraser). I can't vouch for the tiny babies though. I wasn't really paying much attention to them since there were so many and there were so small.
Will other Loaches eat big snails, or do they to only eat the little guys.
Thanks in advance for all your help. This seems like a great place to share info.
Questions 
the biggest loach is about 4 inches long and he will eat snails slightly larger than a pencil eraser. 
