Nano Christmas Build !

Oh wow that looks so good!

 

Thanks for the encouragement T. Guppy. Really looking forward to watching everything grow and fill in !

 

Brilliant and inspiring

 

Favorite angle of the tank! Growth has been amazing so far.

The rotala rotundifolia "orange juice" is coloring up so quickly

Excuse the surface scum... need to get on that

 

It is growing in really nice, so exciting! I love the rotala. By far one of my favourite plants

 

Weve got shrimp!

Found some awesome Blue Dreams from Silverstream aquatics. Nelize was so helpful and really gave me some beauties. Would definitely check her out if youre interested in some Neocaridina.
I got myself a nice group of 10 to start off my colony and theyve been out 24/7 since adding them to the tank over the weekend
Trust them to all go into hiding when the camera comes out though lol.

 

After a busy Christmas and New Year, I thought I'd update this thread a bit.

The tank had to go into survival mode for a few weeks while I was away. Unfortunately being away and being unable to monitor it, the uglies got a good hold of it.

With the light on full intensity ( really wanted my plants to grow quickly lol), I had some serious BBA and some green algae on the plants and hardscape.

I reduced the lighting and cut back on fertilizers and within a couple weeks I got the tank back to where I wanted it again.

 

Managed to find a beautiful male honey gourami to call the tank home too. Wanted a " center piece " fish and this guy really fits the bill ! He was instantly at home building bubble nests and coloring up.

I knew the gourami was going to be a bit of a risk with the shrimp, but its worked out really well. He'll have a good at them every now and then but overall he's well behaved and let's them do thier thing. The adults are almost the same size as him, so he only really picks off a few of the very small ones.

Here he is just in the tank. Early December

 

Then a bit of an impulse buy... saw this beauty at the pet store and couldn't resist.

Anubias barteri " vergiated ".
Didn't really have space for it, but I made space lol. This is late December

 

A late Christmas present to me and the final members of my tank. A school of 6 pygmy Cory's. Unfortunately one didn't make the move to my tank but the remaining 5 are happy as can be. They add so much interest to the tank. I really enjoy watching them zoom across the tank to find a new leaf to sit on.

 

Then I found some Java moss growing amongst the plants at the back of the tank, no idea how it got there, must've come in as a tiny piece on one of the plants.

I know how quickly it can take over a tank, so I recently pulled it from the back and am trying my hand at growing a moss ball using a small pebble. This will make it easy to maintain. And still provide a great food source for the blue dreams. The shrimp love the idea.

 

And lastly a FTS from tonight. Absolutely loving the tank. I do 2 50% water changes a week and dose Flourish after each water change. There's almost no algae and the the tank is really flourishing. Finally hitting its groove after the initial ups and downs.

 

Tank looks amazing @LukeJHB, I think you gotta do quarterly pics of this build

 

Thanks a lot Iggy! Really appreciate the compliment. Will definitely try stick to quarterly pics

 

Your tank is looking absolutely amazing!

 

Nice to here from you Guppy ! Thanks for the compliment .

How's your tank coming along ?

 

It's there Been busy so keep forgetting it exists until the water level drops and the water from the filter outlet makes a noise, as if it's calling me to refill it and check on everyone inside.

 

The tank is on autopilot at the moment. A water change and plant trim once a month is all its needing. Occasional dose of fertilizer too. Super happy with the growth.

No new additions plants or fish wise. I have been on the lookout for some lambchop rasboras. If I see some I might grab 6 to add some more movement to the water column