Ok you lot... plant dealer came round a couple days ago and planted yesterday done my water change and a general clean to the tank.. Here is what I got..
pogostemon helferi, vivipara & parvula...
Close ups suggest that maybe the pogostemon was grown immersed? I know it came from the far east so not sure. but It looks great and Im pleased with the quality...
I drained the water prior to a 50% water change and begun planting.. I must say that the EBI 1-2mm plant/shrimp substrate is great for planting.. I have had no issues with planting as I did in my previous tank and as for scale in a small cube it does wonders. Here are some photos of the cubes after planting... Note that the 2 filters get switched around the tank for a couple hours after planting so clear the "light smog" from the tanks
tank has been cycling 7 days now and I have been adding 6ml of carbonated water daily, 15 mins before lights on.. now when I fertilise and and add my carbonated water I feel I have to stir this up by hand to allow for the substances to really travel around the tanks with no filtration.. Im worried about algae attacking my hairgrass but my water changes are so frequent this past week I cant see this happening just yet..
I also managed to get the riccia pads finished early this week when they arrived and can already see shoots coming through... A worry I do have.. is that I had ordered two lots of riccia so I run the risk of maybe having patches of different riccia in different tanks.. I hope this isn't the case and if it is the case I hope they seem to blend and mould naturally with one another..
I do need to finish off the far left tank and get some more parvula and riccia dotted around the rocks to give it some natural life.. I didn't want to cloud the rock edges with parvula so decided to dot it in areas where I think would hold realism. Im planning on all the grass to get settled and not look so pencil like. so fingers crossed.
Cheers guys