Messy, untidied tank! All I did before taking the pic was wipe the water marks from the front glass, lol.
60L established 2019, currently in complete chaos, housing plants and fry that are for my new set up, still working on the hardscape/cycle right now though:
Validation photo:
It's technically my pygmy cory breeding colony tank, and still is. Bought seven pygmies, they bred like mad, and the fry raise themselves in here. Can't get a headcount since heavily planted, and I find good homes for batches of youngsters at times, but I'd guess around 30 pygmies of various sizes. Also houses two otos and my five retired elderly disabled male guppies.
But at the moment it's also housing six bronze youngsters from a previous spawn that are ready to find a new home, and approx 80 teeny bronze (or perhaps sterbai, not not sure yet) cory fry 'cos surprise spawn and nowhere else to put them! In the middle of creating a new set for their parent's tank before taking that one down, so they're very temporarily in here until new 34g is ready
Ammonia/nitrites at zero, nitrates haven't been above 20ppm in years. So yes, it's technically overstocked, but have been stepping up water changes. Clean the substrate with every water change. Was 50-70% weekly, now 40-50% 3-4 times per week, the cory fry still being super tiny, a lot of growing live plants and two filters, the water is being maintained well, so despite a lot of fish, it's manageable! Also adorable to see tiny pygmy and bronze cory fry all scooting about together!
Substrate is gravel at the back, super fine sand beach at the front as a feeding/play area. I use a lot of botanicals like alder cones and almond leaves, and I believe mulm from the gravel also helps to encourage lots of micro critters like the seed shrimp I see, as I'm convinced that is why the pygmy fry raise themselves in here and do so well. Plenty of micro critters for them to eat in between meals of Bug Bites, baby brine shrimp, and live microworms. Occasional blanched veg for the otos that the cories pick at too.
Haven't used any ferts for a while, but I shove seachem root tabs under the vallis, crypts and other heavy root feeders when I remember to, and never remember the liquid ferts. Light is just a Nicrew Skyline, filtration is a HOB and a double sponge filter with compartments for bio media.
Usual plants are vallis, limnophilia sessiliflora, hygrophilia 53B, some hydrocotyle tripartitia "Japan", various crypts and some mosses, and a few other plants I don't know the names of! Plants that are still in pots are for the new tank.