A tale of 4 tanks

[Wills]

So once the wood is completely obscured am I allowed to call it Dutch style
I am actually at a cross road now. I have enough Ludwigia to split and completely cover the left zone. So far I have intentionally left some bare sand to allow the pygmy cories some space. But in practice they love foraging through the undergrowth. In fact when the lights are out you could easily think the tank only contains boraras as (at times) everything else is hidden in the foliage

If the left side looked like the right that would be Dutch for me haha. You could fill that front left corner with S.Repens which would look cool but would fill the substrate for your cories bet they will still snuffle through the forest though haha

 

[AilyNC]

Gorgeous as ever. #4 is my favourite tank, the shape of the tank is great & it's looking amazing.

 

[seangee]

And then there were 2.
Its been a bit of a tough time for the tanks recently. At the back end of '23 I shattered my right shoulder blade and broke 5 ribs so for a long time minimal (probably much less than minimal) water changes and feeding was all I could manage and no plant or other maintenance. Then towards the end of '24 I got a new job which would be 100% home based so I treated myself to a powered stand-up desk. That meant the Office Space tank had to go, the inhabitents were relocated to the Flex and are happily co-existing with the shrimps. It was my Covid project and lived on my desk. Around the same time we planned a new floor for the downstairs of the house because of water damage - not fish tank related so I relocated the big community tank to my office which was unaffected.
Next to go was Thai Wonder. That one I bought as an emergency tank when my Sids started shredding the fins of my tetras - but I no longer have the Sids. I took that one down last night. Here is a pic from last week. The lambchops and BN have moved into the big tank. Here is the final pic of that one taken a few weeks ago. I also moved the HOB into the big tank to increase water flow at the surface.

The lambchops and cardinals make a really good mix although I can no longer call it my SA community. The BN is having a field day on the glass in her new home
The lid for the community tank has been a bit of a pain ever since I swapped out the light for an Aquasky so I finally created a new one that turned out rather well.

Since I was buying acrylic anyway I got a few extra strips - 2 to use as dividers in the substrate and 1 to create a baffle on the surface so that I can go back to having a darks side and a light side.
Things to do at tonights WC

• Stick the surface baffle in and move the frogbit to one side (above the anubias). I threw out the original anubias as there was a lot of BBA on them. Also I foolishly boiled the wood they were stuck to when I set up the tank around 10 years ago so it was starting to decompose quite badly. I just moved over what was in the tank I took down.
• Trim the spray bar so that it sits horizontally. I put the HOB back in last night and it looks a bit weird
• Replace the card backing on the rear wall

Things to do soon

• Replant the centre section. I cut everything back and removed loads but its quite tatty. I want to ensure the tank is stable and the added fish well are settled before I remove that volume of plant mass
• Top up the sand
• Wait for the frogbit to grow. I am finally clear of duckweed
• Top up the substrate
• Throw out the 20G - I've already caught myself thinking about things I could use it for

Here it is today

For now I think I will keep the flex but haven't decided on its future. Current thoughts are

• Keep it as is (ember tetras and neos) but give it a makeover
• Turn it into a shrimp only tank, move the embers into the big one and add caridinia - along with a makeover
• Turn it into a coral garden (SW)

 

[seangee]

Things to do at tonights WC

• Stick the surface baffle in and move the frogbit to one side (above the anubias). I threw out the original anubias as there was a lot of BBA on them. Also I foolishly boiled the wood they were stuck to when I set up the tank around 10 years ago so it was starting to decompose quite badly. I just moved over what was in the tank I took down.
• Trim the spray bar so that it sits horizontally. I put the HOB back in last night and it looks a bit weird
• Replace the card backing on the rear wall

For tonight I'll have to accept two out of three. The baffle did not stay stuck but I have a temp fix in place and will tackle later.
Also noticed that I should replace the blue film backing on the left with plain black card. You don't actually notice it in the flesh, but I don't have to move the tank again to get to it

Excuse the bubbles and mucky hand prints

 

[connorlindeman]

Theres something about neons that keeps calling me back. Your pictures make me want to get a big shoal for my 40g.