Huge change this week.
I decided the Pogostemon Helferi was silly behind the hardscape, barely visible from the front. Also the growth of the needle ferns was making the front of the tank very dim so I have moved some bits and bobs and at the same tank had a darned good clean.
First though I did change the CO2 diffusion again since the last post but it has been like this now for 6 days. Not a huge change, just that instead of it being in the open on the right and straight down I added an angled tube from an old knackered internal UV so that the diffuser is pointing in the same direct as the powerhead output. This means I can now fit it into the space behind the Philippine Java which should grow to hide it completely:
So onto the work. First thing I did was to remove all the hardscape pieces. Only 3 so not too much trouble:
As a sense of scale the bottom piece is 50cm long!!!
And this is what is left with no hardscape in (wahoo you can see some of the microrasboras. There are only 6 left of the original 12!!!)
This is my clip on light when I am scaping as the hood is not there to supply light:
The main changes then are that I removed the pogostemon helferi from the rear corner. Then removed the Crypt Parva from the front right corner. Replaced the 2 left pieces of hardscape (not the long one) as they were. then I replaced the long piece but instead of it coming from the front right corner it is a lot further toward the back. I then added some Crypt Wendtii behind it. The Parva I removed was then used in front of the Wendtii (the whole length of the tank.) Finally I replanted the Pogostemon Helferi in the front right corner.
This is how it looks now:
This is the left part of the tank. The front half of this side is complete and looks great IMO. Very full and an awesome mixture of shapes and colours, the Philippine in the rear needs to fill out to complete this side:
And this is the Pogostemon on the front right:
And although its not incredibly visible the Wendtii will get taller here at the back:
Finally we have the 2 drop checkers side by side which I will do a test on tomorrow to see which reacts quicker. Although you can see they are different colours this is not a fair test at the moment because the teardrop has 2ml in it and the Chameleon 1½ml 4dKH. I will put equal in them tomorrow and start a separate thread on the test.
So what do you think?
AC