Decided to upload a bunch of pics to show how my tanks are doing, yep, in the mood to show off a little bit 
Starting with my main 3 foot tank.....
This was amongst the first pictures of this tank when it was set up back in May 2016
Plants starting to grow and you can see one of the small tanks at the end of this tank as well, barely started setting that little 5 gal up for shrimps and snails, think was fishless cycling actually...
Elodea plants starting to take off, grows like a rocket, not unsual to take out 2 or 3 feet of this elodea at the end of every 2 weeks or so.
As the tank is now, took the elodea out as was making the tank too crowded plantwise. The right hand side of the tank starting to get a bit much so a prune down will be done in the near future. The CPD's like this area as they swim in and out of the plants all the time while the lambchops rasboras hang out usually in the middle tank area.
Crypts growing real well, about the size of a football now, started slightly smaller than tennis ball size i guess. (The grey ball is a mineral ball for the shrimps, about 1 inch in diameter)
Water Lettuce, grows real well. This was taken just after water change today, reduced down.
Water Lettuce taken just as started the water change, this is normal after 7 days.
The 5 Gal shrimp tank, set up middle of May of last year.
Plants as they are now. Grown out and filled the gaps as I hoped it would
I promise you there ARE shrimps and snails in this tank, just camera shy I reckon
One of the Ramshorns, nice size its growing out to be, about an inch in diameter as well.
(the 'white' specks you acn see in the pic is just the air bubbles from the filter)
My 2.5 foot tank, had mixed results with this tank. Set up really nicely as I wanted back in December 2015.
Soon after, things started to go wrong on this tank. Called it 'the tank of death' as nothing really grew and had some unexplained fish death, including the Whiptail Catfish and a lot of Assassin Snails died as well.
Decided it was something to do with the substrate (silica sand mixed with sansibar grey sand). As well as the T5 lights as algae grew in this tank like nothing else, diatoms and a type of hair algae which was real ugly and truly disapointing, almost gave up on the tank altogether tbh.
Changed the lights to T8's and the substrate as well as adding new plants. Stopped Co2. Also completely changed the filter flow set up as well, spraybar at end of tank rather than at back of tank.
I unfortunately did not take a picture of the new set up tank at the time but this is as it is now. Plants have started to grow nicely and added water lettuce.
This was done perhaps 5 months ago and no algae or fish deaths since then.
Now this tank is slowly no longer being called 'the tank of death'.......... knock on wood
Today added some anubias that I nicked from the main 3 foot tank, looks good methinks. Simply tied on the wood with a black cable tie, will cut the cable tie off when the plant has rooted to the wood in a month or two.
Full tank shots of all 3 tanks as they are now. Got to say it looks good
Keeping it simple and keeping up the maintenace with due diligence has paid off here as all the tanks are going strong now
Starting with my main 3 foot tank.....
This was amongst the first pictures of this tank when it was set up back in May 2016
Plants starting to grow and you can see one of the small tanks at the end of this tank as well, barely started setting that little 5 gal up for shrimps and snails, think was fishless cycling actually...
Elodea plants starting to take off, grows like a rocket, not unsual to take out 2 or 3 feet of this elodea at the end of every 2 weeks or so.
As the tank is now, took the elodea out as was making the tank too crowded plantwise. The right hand side of the tank starting to get a bit much so a prune down will be done in the near future. The CPD's like this area as they swim in and out of the plants all the time while the lambchops rasboras hang out usually in the middle tank area.
Crypts growing real well, about the size of a football now, started slightly smaller than tennis ball size i guess. (The grey ball is a mineral ball for the shrimps, about 1 inch in diameter)
Water Lettuce, grows real well. This was taken just after water change today, reduced down.
Water Lettuce taken just as started the water change, this is normal after 7 days.
The 5 Gal shrimp tank, set up middle of May of last year.
Plants as they are now. Grown out and filled the gaps as I hoped it would
I promise you there ARE shrimps and snails in this tank, just camera shy I reckon
One of the Ramshorns, nice size its growing out to be, about an inch in diameter as well.
(the 'white' specks you acn see in the pic is just the air bubbles from the filter)
My 2.5 foot tank, had mixed results with this tank. Set up really nicely as I wanted back in December 2015.
Soon after, things started to go wrong on this tank. Called it 'the tank of death' as nothing really grew and had some unexplained fish death, including the Whiptail Catfish and a lot of Assassin Snails died as well.
Decided it was something to do with the substrate (silica sand mixed with sansibar grey sand). As well as the T5 lights as algae grew in this tank like nothing else, diatoms and a type of hair algae which was real ugly and truly disapointing, almost gave up on the tank altogether tbh.
Changed the lights to T8's and the substrate as well as adding new plants. Stopped Co2. Also completely changed the filter flow set up as well, spraybar at end of tank rather than at back of tank.
I unfortunately did not take a picture of the new set up tank at the time but this is as it is now. Plants have started to grow nicely and added water lettuce.
This was done perhaps 5 months ago and no algae or fish deaths since then.
Now this tank is slowly no longer being called 'the tank of death'.......... knock on wood
Today added some anubias that I nicked from the main 3 foot tank, looks good methinks. Simply tied on the wood with a black cable tie, will cut the cable tie off when the plant has rooted to the wood in a month or two.
Full tank shots of all 3 tanks as they are now. Got to say it looks good
Keeping it simple and keeping up the maintenace with due diligence has paid off here as all the tanks are going strong now
