So, yeah, a small 2nd week update:
Everything is chugging along nicely, am about to do the first clean on the Oase 600 prefilter... I've been putting it off for a while since I really need to restructure the inside of the cabinet first. If your cabinet feels to roomy, stuff a big freaking external filter in there, problem solved. It's a mess really:
All the electric stuff needs to go on the right hand side. Looking out for a magnet for my tools. Might need someting for plant/fish food too, not sure what to do here yet...
Lots of growth happening, C. crispatula making new leaves, prompting me to remove some more of the old leaves that had a bit of algae on them.
Aponogeton finally taking off! I'm chuffed! These are plants I for some reason don't see too often (no idea why -- they are exceptional IMHO). Aquasabi was out of stock (usually are), but I signed up to an email alert, and got one after a while. I picked up 2 bulbs ASAP and dumped them in my 45P. This was some 6 months ago. And they were not pleased. They didn't grow much, and one lost all leaves, probably didn't like being under a blanket of java moss... The other stopped growing, produced a plantlet on a stalk, and grinded to a halt. Now new leaves are shooting on all three bulbs and the largest are doing some serious rooting. Can't wait for these to fill in!
Two old bulbs on the right, new one to the left, all with new shoots.
The guys are in:
His brother from another mother:
It was the plan all along to get some Otos. The habrosus kind of dropped into the bag because I liked them a lot. Still do. Their size is perfect for the sense of scale I want to achieve.
LFS guy was feeling generous so I got one more of each species; total tally 7 otos, 13 cories.
Seven Otos are a bit overkill, but I hope they will fit in nicely. Not seeing yuge amounts of schooling from either, Otos go around on their own mostly, the cories in groups of 2-6.
I'm not going for more fish for the foreseeable future, tank is plenty busy now.
Feeding frenzy at the OK Corral:
Ending up on the obligatory FTS:
There's some stuff happening along the road after this pic, more on that later.