hydrophyte said:
paul.in.kendal said:
This is a very nice setup. I like that
Staurogyne very much.
That's very kind - thanks very much indeed!
To be honest , although I really love it as a plant, I'm not totally convinced my unconventional positioning of the staurogyne works as well as it might. In the flesh, it's fine, as people engage with a tank from lots of different angles, rather than just foursquare like an FTS. I'll be interested to see how it develops over time.
The Hairgrass isn't doing it for me at the moment. Scruffy, scrappy, curling in all directions, lacking much colour and creating a right mess when trimmed, its continued presence is very much under review. If it fills out into a nice regular shag-pile carpet, it'll stay. Otherwise...
I've just done a major clean and prune. I gave the rotala a fairly savage hack back. Although it hadn't reached the surface (as approved), it was growing thick and strong, so I thought it was ripe for it. I'm starting to see how well it works positioned behind the rocks - all those scruffy lower bits out of sight. Nice call, Dan C!
Basic maintenance is starting to get easier. First time I stripped down the pipework etc. for a proper clean I got in a right mess repriming the filter (the 2180 has two inlets). Jim at TGM had recommended at the outset using a pump to prime, and I was faffing around moving it from one inlet pipe to the other, splashing water out of the refilled tank and getting nowhere fast. This time, after rereading my Eheim manual, I reprimed with the tank two-thirds full and simply stuck my thumb over the end of one inlet pipe while holding the pump on the end of the other one - much simpler!
I know that may sound blindingly obvious to some of you, but trust me, I've still got a lot of catching up to do on the very basic stuff.
The otos seem to really love it when the biofilm on the glass is disturbed. Since the clean up they've been charging round in a gang, obviously enjoying the clean water and seemingly spoilt for choice on what to munch on next. What lovely, characterful and helpful fish!