A little spring cleaning was in order for Christmas (will add pics later!)
The US Fissidens moss mats were looking a bit rough. US Fissidens you can't just trim, all the charm is in thse pretty little feathered ends. You can pluck it to shorten it, but I didn't have enough to do so, so I took them out instead and respread the moss over the mats. I secured the moss with nylon coated stainless steel beading wire which worked surprisingly well. Here's hoping the mat will look great in a few months, especially with CO2
My Windelov java fern is pupping like crazy. I took the driftwood out for the first time in 6 months and trimmed the pups off and gave the wood a quick rinse. There's a little bit of algae growing on the wood so a quick rub helped dislodge the worst of it. It was also a chance to manually pull off some of the dying hair algae. Man, that stuff really hangs on! The pups were put into a little mesh bag and back into the tank for sale later on.
The Blyxa seems to be happy with the CO2 and is no longer going stalky to get up higher and closer to the light. I'll have to thin it out though as they are now crowding each other as they start to fill out into a nice shape.
The Red Rotala is not happy. I really cut it and the stems are still re-rooting into the gravel. Saw for the first time yesterday new growth, but it's small. I'm seriously considering getting rid of it and replacing with something else, as it has never really been happy in tropical water with lots of melt.
The crypts appear to have decided to be low maintenance. Yay! Nothing needed <3
The flame moss I bought a few weeks ago is siestaing in glass jars in tap water. I had them on the sill of the kitchen but they started to yellow without direct light, so I moved them to the computer room, where they will get a couple of hours of good sunlight. Hopefully this will do the job! I also removed the christmas moss tangled up with my US Fissidens and popped that in its own jar to g
Nigel is doing well. He developed a little fin rot as I was caught out with dirty water leaving it an extra week - nitrates shot up to 80ppm! A 30% change followed by a 50% change the next day. It's been two days and I have to test the water again to see how it's looking. I daresay deep cleaning the gravel and pulling out the driftwood disturbed the substrate a bit. He's otherwise perky and spending him time being charming and staring at you through the glass demanding food! He's still scavenging at the loach's pellet and a bit fat as a result; I'm fresh out of ideas right now as to how to fix that problem, but I'm sure I'll think of something
My three Kuhli loaches are doing well. They are quite relaxed and spend most of their days peeking out from their many hidey holes. They spend a gratifying amount of time in open view, lounging on the moss mats eating their pellet. They are not concerned about Nigel at all any more, even when he hovers over them with his face a few mm away from the pellet, before he has a go at the pellet. It's pretty cute to watch actually, the loaches chomping away, little busy whiskers, and Nigel hovering over the top like some protective mama.
My Christmas present arrived as well; a nano drop checker
The CO2 is going swimmingly and this is just a precaution. My water tested as 5 hardness so I'm using that in the drop checker, along with drops from the pH tester in my master test kit
This is much cheaper than buying 'special' drop checker solution!
Anyhow Merry Christmas to everyone from Nigel and the crew and lots of love. I'll post some pics later. Sadly Santa didn't bring me a new camera so I'll have to cough up for one myself!
You'll find the ones that will work in your tank soon enough! Just got to keep experimenting! 
Nigel looks so cute.
