First dip into a "proper" planted tank.

[Wolf6]

Looks like its going well as a whole most of the carpet seems to be growing. Shopkeeper that sold me my oto's recommended to me to give them some extra food like courgette (which I've seen people recommend here as well) in new tanks, as those often havent really matured enough for them to find enough food and many often dont go for wafers at first.

 

[NorthernDan]

Looks like its going well as a whole most of the carpet seems to be growing. Shopkeeper that sold me my oto's recommended to me to give them some extra food like courgette (which I've seen people recommend here as well) in new tanks, as those often havent really matured enough for them to find enough food and many often dont go for wafers at first.

Yea I've been putting the courgette in which they seem to love. Plenty of diatoms and the wood had been soaking so already had plenty of the mould type stuff on it. I've kept ottos with numerous tanks over the years from community to discus and can honestly say I find them the trickiest to keep out of any fish. I've read about the gut bacteria die off during transit and the way they are caught but who knows. Such a shame as they are perfect for many of our needs with planted tanks.

 

[NorthernDan]

Just another little update on this one. First off let me say I'm having a lot of fun messing around with this and hopefully should put me in good stead for the future big one.
Starting from where I left off....

Another weeks growth after the last picture. I started to notice maybe I'd made a mistake in only cutting the top 2/3 inch of the Ludwigia. Was getting very top heavy.
The battle with hair algae(I think) started to intensify. It's not too bad though. Can manually remove most of it although I do think its impacting my carpets growth.
Unfortunately I went down to one Otto as expected. This little guy is still healthy enough now so hopefully this one is going to last.
I also made a trip to the newest forum sponsor at Horizon Aquatics and purchased 20 Green neons and half a dozen Cherry shrimp. The neons showed up with whitespot a day later but a quick dose of Esha whitespot treatment sorted them right out.
Oh! I also moved the rotala which seems to be doing very little to more of the mid ground and replanted cuttings of the Hygrophila guanensis in the back left.

After noticing my error I decided to go trial and error and cut the ludwigia right back beneath the wood. My thinking was that each stem would now produce 2 or 3 heads and give a much fuller look. It also allowed me to plant larger cuttings towards the back right corner so should hopefully give a much fuller background when grown in.
Fish are all fine, hardly ever see the shrimp but I'm sure they are in there.

So another week goes by and I see some beautiful honey gourami. I'd pencilled them in as the perfect fish to finish the tank off (out of the smaller "feature" fish they seemed least likely to eat shrimp although Its still quite the possibility). The only thing that I'd read is that gourami really dislike flow. My tank has quite a decent flow rate given its intention is for marine so I was on the fence. I've been quite surprised at how these little guys seem to enjoy going right into the strongest currents of my tank. There is plenty of sheltered spots around the crypts and among the stems but these guys seem to seek out the wildest parts of the tank! Great fish to watch and I'm probably 80% sure I managed to get myself a trio of 1m to 2f.
While I was in the shop I treat myself to a couple of nerites and a pot of Salvinia Natans to help in my fight against algae.
My master plan with the ludwigia seems to be taking shape and I've noticed really strong and quite long root structures forming with the monte carlo so I'm hoping this is a sign it might be ready to take off.
I haven't seen to much of the shrimp since the gourami went in. They may just be playing it safe with slightly larger fish or they may be getting picked off. Time will tell I guess.

 

[alto]

Half a dozen cherry shrimp - for shrimp to feel comfortable (brazen wanderers) they need rather more numbers, 10-12 is a better minimum number (when these shrimp first entered the hobby, no one would sell fewer than 10), select a mix of sizes as you’re more likely to obtain mixed sexes, males are always smaller, and often less intensely coloured, though most shrimp sp. can quickly vary color intensity

Light level - are you still running 60%?
Especially with the floating plant now multiplying, your MC may benefit from more light - that right back corner may be a “dead” spot with limited CO2 + less light, so MC is less inclined to grow in that direction

Nesaea crassicaulis can usually recover as long as you have some intact healthy stem with leaf nodes, just trim away all the melt/about to melt leafs and stem ... but it’s also a rampant grower if happy

Ammannia crassicaulis - Tropica Aquarium Plants

The right aquarium plants

tropica.com

Of course by now your tank undoubtedly looks quite different

 

[NorthernDan]

Half a dozen cherry shrimp - for shrimp to feel comfortable (brazen wanderers) they need rather more numbers, 10-12 is a better minimum number (when these shrimp first entered the hobby, no one would sell fewer than 10), select a mix of sizes as you’re more likely to obtain mixed sexes, males are always smaller, and often less intensely coloured, though most shrimp sp. can quickly vary color intensity

Light level - are you still running 60%?
Especially with the floating plant now multiplying, your MC may benefit from more light - that right back corner may be a “dead” spot with limited CO2 + less light, so MC is less inclined to grow in that direction

Nesaea crassicaulis can usually recover as long as you have some intact healthy stem with leaf nodes, just trim away all the melt/about to melt leafs and stem ... but it’s also a rampant grower if happy

Ammannia crassicaulis - Tropica Aquarium Plants

The right aquarium plants

tropica.com

Of course by now your tank undoubtedly looks quite different

Thanks @alto. I've not seen any cherries for yonks so I'm assuming they've fell to the Honey Gourami. I did add a few Amano shrimp a few weeks back and they are doing great. As you probably just seen on my other thread unfortunately I've just lost a gourami so I'm down to one. I really need to stop getting suckered in at my local pets at home.

Yes im still running at 60%. I'll probably up it to 75% for a few weeks and see if that makes a difference. I'll also get another pot of monte carlo when I'm at Horizon next and fill in that back corner. It was growing there at some point but I made a few mistakes when I refilled the tank during a water change that really stirred that area up and it never seemed to have recovered.

The introduction of the salvinia has really solved my algae issues. You are hard pressed to find any now and I'm having to remove net fulls of salvinia on nearly a weekly basis. I had a few of the lobelia reach above and beyond the surface so they've had a good chomp back.

I haven't been taking pictures weekly as of late (newborn arrived) but I'll get a few more up soon I hope.
Thanks.