Paranoid? I hope so. Why won't these hermits, well, come out of their shell?

Just tested the Nitrates. Level is absolutely at 0. Without any shadow of doubt, and this kit is about a month old. Do I need to check for copper as someone mentioned earlier?

 

It couldn't hurt... OR, you could just add a polyfilter to your tank to absorb the copper, just in case. It would also absorb any other impurities that might be in there as well... it's supposed to turn a copper-green color if copper is present, so then you'd know and it would be removed at the same time... probably the same price or less than a Cu test kit.

 

So I went to the LFS today after school. After much deliberating, I got about 4 blue hermits, and some kind of ordinary crab... I'm not sure what kind yet (I know that's ridiculous, but the way it was eating the algae at the LFS made me want it immediately). I also got 4 turban snails, as well as a poly filter like you suggested. It hasn't changed color yet, so I'm guessing my water is ok. Also, I compared my pH with that of their water, and it's pretty much exactly the same. The minute I placed the new livestock in the tank, they started eating. They're just devouring this algae.

I guess I just got bad stock last time. :-/

 

cool! polyfilters are great... it probably won't turn color right away, but you can keep it in there until it turns really dark... great for removing all kinds of bad stuff.