@AllisonC eeek. That doesn’t sound good. Can/could you fix it?

Bruce is practicing - but it’s still quite a long way until he can fend for himself.

@Stephie awww! He's so cute!

As my tanks go, I'm working on them. The LFS did some water testing for me yesterday and set me up with a plan of attack. I've got a different/more potent water conditioner that can also tackle the chloramines and ammonia they're currently adding to the water, as well as some additional plants to help consume the ammonia/nitrites/nitrates as the cycle gets going again in the bigger tank (the smaller one I'm leaving without the added plants for now).

I also got some used filter media from one of their tanks to cut in half and shove into both of mine, to add a good/known viable bacterial load to both tanks, and some water from one of the tanks to do water replacements on the betta (who's actually doing very well in the cup so far, though he's angry about the downsizing of his space)

It's only observational, but I have noticed that, as of this morning, the water in the larger tank has cleared up again. It's been noticeably clouded since before I found the issue with spiking ammonia, which seems to have all happened after I did a quick cleanup to remove the remnants of the decaying food I put in to kick off the original cycle

The smaller tank is too small to really know if it's clear or clouded. The larger one requires me looking through it the long way to really see whether it's cloudy or not

Tomorrow afternoon, I'll be taking some fresh water samples over to the LFS for re-testing and further evaluation. I think I might buy a couple more of the floating plants, too, they're fun to watch drift around :)

Oh! And the solution for the tap quality was "use five times more water conditioner than normal" along with switching to Prime from a store brand conditioner.

Sounds like a really complicated process. With lots of chemistry and biology involved? Keeping my fingers crossed for you and especially your animals!

Thank you :) I'm definitely glad to have a really good local shop nearby that can help me out on this, they have decades of experience there to help fix water parameters. :) After getting the ammonia back under control, I'll likely need to adjust hardness in the larger tank, so I'll be going to them for that, too

The last time I "had" an aquarium was when my family had a terribly overstocked 10 gallon tank back in the 80s, so it's a big learning experience for me!

We have “get an aquarium” on our not-so-urgent wish list. But before we tackle this, it’s going to take a lot of research first before plunging (pun intended) into this kind of adventure.

Higher priority, pet-wise: Get a puppy.

@Stephie o.m.g. is he ever cute!!!

@anongoodnurse This evening I forgot the basic weaning rule and offered milk first. What got him happy and excited this afternoon (see above) was flat out rejected. Duh.

Hi, is this new question pets.stackexchange.com/questions/28214/… really on-topic for our site? What does The Litter Box chat think about this? I'm reluctant to do anything before consulting it.

@lila I am by far not familiar enough with the site to give a qualified answer. But I would say no.

And the photo is not the asker’s cat, just a random stock photo. Sans attribution, of course.

As far as I could understand the question is about constructing home-made device worn as a collar by a cat/dog with GPS locator and a shock collar. The person wants the collar to zap the cat/dog with a safe amount of power if it wanders too far away from home, based on the GPS signal. Also, it has to have a vibration as a warning before zapping. That's how I could describe it as I understand.

In other words, they want to replicate something that can be bought, albeit for dogs.

@AllisonC @Stephie Thanks for quick responses and your opinions! I also think it's off-topic, but on the other hand I wonder whether for example Electrical Engineering Stack have necessary experience to know, I mean, safe parameters for cats/dogs.

I don’t think pet owners do know them. If someone does, it should be an electrical engineer.

Give me a minute please, I need to think how to translate my thoughts to English what I mean.

What I mean - yes, my main though would be that this is definitely for electrical engineering stack. But, on the other hand, medical equpiment is often also a complicated masterpiece of electrical engineering, I think like MRI or computer tomograph. A deep EE expertise is needed to construct those and understand their working principles, but you still need a person experienced in medicine to safely operate those.

I mean this shock collar isn't medical device, but I think the analogy applies in a way that a medic (veterinarian in this case) should be also consulted whether it is constructed safely or not.

But not a pet owner, I’d say. Knowing with which level of electric current you can safely shock your pet isn’t a pet keeper’s domain.

@Stephie I think that you're right, but Pets is not only for owners but also veterinarians. Let me say by the way that personally I'm completely against using any kind of shock collars, not to mention I'd absolutely advise not to attempt constructing them oneself.

Okay I would need to think whether to cast a close vote and see whether other people would do, for now thank you really much for your insight, it was helpful and heartwarming to have quick responses.