So woke up sunday morning and to my surprise after soaking all night the bucket was almost completely clear. Decided just to boil them (again) for another hour each with not very much of the tannins coming out during that.
Went through the process of setting them up in different configurations on a table next to the tank. Making sure that each of them would even fit the tank. Is it just me or does something like this literally take hours/days to decide? It took me almost 1.5 hours to just decide on which pieces to take from the store. :-/ After much thought the decision was final and I pulled the old ornament did a quick gravel sweep to pull about a gallon of water out to make room. Added in the driftwood pieces and it barely fit (there are 2 - 1 inch sections that I'm not going to be able to fit a mag float around). I can't believe what a difference in the look of the tank it has made. I'll try to get some pics up this week sometime.
So now its time to plant shop. Already got the wysteria and java fern for the back wall so that takes any larger background kinda plants out of the equation. At this point I'm thinking this...
The way the driftwood sits there is a nice tray that might be perfect for an Anubias Barteri petite. Either java moss, taiwan moss, or Fissidens spontanus for the extending driftwood pieces. Then pulling out the mondo grass and just adding a few marimo balls to sit on the substrate. I think without higher lighting and CO2 that I would be hoping for too much to try glosso or HC right?
Lighting is 1.8wpg on for 7 hours daily, lunar light rest of the time.
Adding 1ml of flourish and excel every other day.
Everything is growing nicely and there is even a fresh growth of wysteria at substrate level (will get a pic of that too) and surprisingly I can actually see growth on the java fern already.
cheers. |