Been battling a few problems
...I decided to use fine grain sized Colombo Flora Base for the foreground and it's proven a nightmare to keep the plant leaves free of sediment. Many have suffered necrosis as a result, and this added to the usual melt...so overall I've had massive die off and addition of organics to the water column; and therefore a surface scum the thickness of the like you wouldn't believe
Even 50-100% daily water changes had little effect for the first week or so. At one point I was sorely tempted to tear the whole thing down and start again...my frustrations have been so massive
I've also got a massive polychaete worm invasion from somewhere...plants actually...but I suppose that's ok - more free live food for the fish when I eventually add them. But it's damn ugly and frankly turns my stomach
However, it's not all bad I really turned up the gas, lighting, and fertz to get the plants established (maybe why the die off was so rapid and overwhelming) so growth has more than kept a pace. And the forlorn Rotala sp. green that I was sent by Seapets has miraculously sprung to life and is bushy and halfway to the surface
However, it's a mess quite frankly, and I need to re-position my epiphytes; they aren't adding to the scape as much as I would like (smothering more like). I'll post a warts and all photo soon before I do a bit of a clean up and rescape...