Quick pic as it's four weeks from first planting. The big bit of wood, which was planted about 10 days ago is just starting to lose the 'freshly tied' look, which is very satisfying. (Amazing how the 1-2 grow moss turns dark green on planting, before growing, and after having arrived looking so pale and yellow). Having boiled the wood, and soaked it, AND painted it with liquid carbon prior to putting it in the tank, I seem to have avoided slime this time around.
All else is growing ok (ignoring the slow starters at the back) but the little patches of HC not so well. Oh, and the Green Neons seem to like to eat the new growth on the Pearl Grass. (That's blanched courgette on the right, to keep the Otos happy, which it really seems to, certainly more than my tinkering with the CO2 levels does).
I've made a DIY mini outlet with two holes drilled at angles to get the flow down to the substrate (and to add a little bit of ripple to the surface). Currently it's got a Fluval diffuser underneath it so the tank is quite fizzy during the day. Hopefully that whole setup will be more elegant when my inline atomiser arrives, but we'll see. When I come to clean the filter that outlet will probably prove a bit too forceful, and I'm wary of it blocking up too, but anyway.
I'm going to start dosing 3ml Neutro+ daily. Currently I'm experimenting with a Peace Lily in a pot growing out of the top, which'll probably end up stealing all of that!
Still trying to get a balance with the light level, photoperiod, and the ambient light in the room (got some GSA on the glass, though not masses).
The Pogostemon Stellata will obviously have to go because it'll want to be too big, though it seems very happy. I'd like to get hold of some Eleocharis Vivipara instead, to go with the other grasslike things at the back.
Blah blah...