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Something in between.

I've come to realise that I'm a fickle and impatient human being :bored:
I haven't had much luck with my tanks so far and I've spent quite a lot of cash redoing them now and then. This hobby seems to require an element of trial and error and a lot of patience but I really want this to work out this time and I want it to look great now!

I think the fish would prefer some cover from floating plants as the light substrate seems to make the feel a bit exposed. Their colours look lighter and they are hanging around the bottom more. But, will blocking out light mean that some of the plants I've used, like the echinodorus tenellus and hygrophila pinnatifida, won't get enough and not grow how I would like them to?.

I wish I had a time machine so I could go into the future and see what the different outcomes would be!

Anyway all the plants are in and I can see new growth on most things. I have set up a wavemaker as well as the filter to ensure good circulation. Maybe I should just wait a while and see what happens or put the floaters in and and also wait to see what happens.....or switch on some Co2 and try to balance it as a medium light aquarium....oh poo :(:lol:
 
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That's the worst thing not knowing the out come i would imagine when u want some thing so badly time seems to go backwards lol. But the way I'm going to look at my first few is a learning curve and experiment to see how things grow hope u get the results u want bex
 
I changed the title because this is no longer low tech. I've found in the past this tank always does much better with a little Co2.
I have quite a few in vitro plants and two that prefer medium lighting so I really want them to have the best start.

I'm hoping I can always adjust and slow things down later on when all the plants have taken off. My son has a low tech 5 gallon in his room already so I'm going to tinker with this one a little first to see what works best.

The hygro pinnatifida never showed up so I asked for a refund from the seller and ordered from someone else. I may plants some on the wood and some in the soil. I like the idea of it spreading along with the moss.
 
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Tank update:
The Co2 is running quite low at the moment until I can afford a solenoid but it works just fine at the moment. I will do a video soon because I have no idea how to do macro photography.

There is some new growth on a few plants and some crypt melt going down. The buce "deep purple" looks like it's dying off. I've glued some of the pinnafitida on the wood, the dream is for it to spread along and mingle in with the moss, it looks strange at the moment but I will trim the larger plants once it starts spreading.

The fish have coloured up and are looking happier. I've been doing big water changes most days. No ammonia or nitrite but I can't measure my nitrates at the moment so I'm just assuming they are hight and doing 50% every day.

The wood had started to develop fuzzy fungus patches but my apple snails are making light work of it. I love these little, purple guys!
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Oh this is very nice. I like the serene look but always end up cluttered.

Thank you, the fish don't seem keen on the lack of plants and light coloured substrate, it was overgrown before. Hopefully the dwarf sword should cover it up and the crypt balansae should grow longer and give them a little shade.
 
ooooh! I noticed this morning that the pinnatifida on the wood has little plants coming out the side. I'm very excited to see how it will grow.

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I also noticed that I scratched my glass quite a lot while cleaning the tank :thumbdown: they are very light scratches though so they can be polished out at some point.

The fish seem to have regained their colour and I'm going to pick up some more Glowlight Danios to add to the three I've adopted. They are getting a bit nippy and aggressive to hopefully making their group larger will chill them out a tad.
 
òTank update: Everything seems to be growing well apart from the Bruce deep purple. The apple snails seem to have developed a taste for it and keep shaving the rhizome smaller and smaller. They may have stated taking a nibble at the others too.
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I've removed what's left of the deep purple and decided to try to grow it out emersed to see if I can save it.
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I don't want to have to evict the apple snails but I will banish their purple behinds if they don't stop snacking on the buces....They are flipping expensive!

The co2 is off for the moment because I'm having problems with the solenoid and preset working pressure and I've been too busy to fix it. I'm thinking maybe it's a sign that I should just continue as planned and keep it low tech. I have been adding ferts a little to keep the rhizome plants happy.
 
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Tank looks good Bex. I too am a most impatient person. The most successful planted tank I have is the shrimp tank that gets minimal interference and zero ferts. I even have a stem plant doing so well it has been trimmed a few times!

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Hi BexM
If instead of gravel if U put them over moist soil once they put some roots in it they will take off nicely benefiting from the soil nutrients.Had some tiny little plantlets from various Bucephalandra that managed to save in my propagator.They still quite slow growers but it is worthed when they bounce back.
Regards Konsa
 
Hi BexM
If instead of gravel if U put them over moist soil once they put some roots in it they will take off nicely benefiting from the soil nutrients.Had some tiny little plantlets from various Bucephalandra that managed to save in my propagator.They still quite slow growers but it is worthed when they bounce back.
Regards Konsa
thanks for the advice! there is soil under the gravel but I suppose I don't really need it. I'll take it out.
 
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