3 tank

Not at all, i just sometimes can't get around to doing it every week, so i do a larger change in case. The water in the tank is also super soft. I think the Langa soil i use sucks up almost all of the hardness, as when i tested for gH and kH it barely even registered on the kit.

Since I've started with the larger changes and double dosing of Scape, my Anubias have started really taking off (relatively speaking for Anubias), so one of those 2 must be the culprit. The cories seem a lot happier too, but that's probably because of the Green Neons giving them some peace of mind and distracting the Betta

 

So, the tank has been moved successfully. All livestock are doing well. One of the anubias was left uncovered for about 45 minutes during transport, and the affected leaves are all full of holes. Going to trim them off when i do a water change later today. Java fern is looking atrocious with no new leaves, for some unknown reason, so going to yank that out too. Got a refill for the bell CO2 system, so installed that again and turned up the light a bit. As such the BBA on everything is slowly fading away.

I'm planning on removing the rock from the background, and separating and replanting the crypts. One of the bits of advice i picked up in a video is that planting symmetry is useful for balance, so i plan on moving the crypt axelrodi from the back left corner to the back middle, and splitting up the crypt wendtii green into the back left and back right corners. I also have some hygrophila pinnatifida that i want to add, possibly glued to the top of the driftwood, along with some hydrocotyle tripartita that has been growing emersed. If i can get some bolbitis, i might see about wedging that in a chunk of driftwood and finding a place in the background too

 

Sounds like you have been really busy which is great

Looking forward to some more pictures

 

Thanks Maria! Hopefully i can grab some photos this evening.

I found the growth pattern differences between the crypt Axelrodi and crypt Wendtii to be kind weird. Wendtii stayed in the little clusters that i planted them in, whereas the Axelrodi spread out a lot. I now have personal proof that crypts are indeed root monsters though, so i definitely need to get some root tabs as soon as i can.

 

Looking forward to your pics.
The way you describe the tank an what you are doing, I can imagine what it could look like, but pics will confirm.

 

Photos attached. I added the hygro pinnatifida behind the driftwood but in front of the crypt axelrodi. This is directly underneath the light, so hopefully it will do ok. It has been grown emersed, so will probably drop its leaves, but i will wait and see.

I moved the water lily right against the back glass, and removed all but 2 of the established leaves and 1 baby, as i felt it was shading everything else too much. Removing the stones and shifting around the crypts has opened up a lot of space just above the substrate, so i can see the cories bustling around a lot easier.

Seeing as the leaves of the crypts have relatively long stems, i'm also thinking of removing the driftwood boundaries i put in place to stop the helanthium tenellum from spreading too much (right side of the large driftwood piece). Either it will spread at a similar height to what it is at now, or will get super long underneath the crypts because of the lower light. As the crypts have such massive root systems, especially in comparison to the helanthium tenellum, i'm not too concerned about root competition.

Pulling out the java fern has left the front of the driftwood a bit barren, so i need to find something to soften it. I'm half tempted by some moss, but the maintenance...

Apologies, I didn't realise the glass was so filthy until i looked at the photos. Also, i really need to spend some time learning how to take photos...

 

Quick update - not much has changed except that the lily now has 6 leaves with another on the way. BBA seems to be slowly spreading on the helanthium tenellum and crypt axelrodi rather than retreating, which is annoying. Searching for causes has been pretty much fruitless, giving the standard response of too much light and not enough CO2. I will admit to being a little bit bored of the scape - the fish behaviour is still interesting, but the plants have all pretty much stagnated (except for the lily which is intent on taking over the world).

Seeing as the betta is continuing his bullying ways, i'm going to have to get him a separate tank. I'm contemplating bumping the tank number up to 3 again - 1 community tank, 1 betta tank and 1 sparkling gourami tank. Betta and sparkling gourami would both be low tech 30 litre cubes, and community tank would be a high tech custom made 125 litre cube (50cm each dimension). I'd temper my enthusiasm and take my time around hardscape, plant selection etc. Time will tell i guess...

Oh, and the cats name is Mayhem. He and the betta have a standoff occasionally, but he hasn't put so much as a whisker into the tank yet

 

Decided to give the helanthium tenellum a trim last night. It hasn't been growing anywhere near as tall as described, settling in at around 3-4cm and curling over rather than growing straight up. It was also festooned with BBA, so i hacked it back as much as I felt safe to do and siphoned away the BBA. I'm still finding stray strands of moss hiding everywhere, which is pretty annoying as i haven't (purposefully) had moss in the tank for over a year. I didn't take any photos, as it looks pretty much exactly like it did with the last photo. Hopefully the trimming and a fresh bottle of Scape Complete will dissuade the BBA. I'm also going to try Flourish Advance again, seeing as @A new day gives it such rave reviews

 

Well, trimming the helanthium tenellum seems to have worked. Lots of new growth, all heading straight up. The crypt wendtii has lost its dense growth habit and started getting leggy, so will need to start trimming that. The lily went bonkers (think it finally found the osmocote pill i stuffed in near the roots) and had 15 leaves with 3 new ones on the way. I trimmed that back down to 3 leaves, just to make sure everything down below gets some light.

I also finally picked up a small bottle of Flourish Advance, just to run an experiment, and dropped the Scape Complete dose down to a single dose rather than double dosing. Picked up some different fish food too, as the Tetra Prima is getting a bit boring. Some Hikari VibraBites and MicroPellets.

I'm still putting together plans and researching a dirted tank for the betta, and a possible rescape for this tank. I just need to find a place for everything...

 

Terrible photos as requested

Set up next to my desk

Showing new growth of helanthium tenellum and leggy crypts:


There is still a lot of BBA on the HT and some of the crypt leaves, so come next water change i'll need to do some vigorous trimming

 

Thanks!

Mostly i'm just getting itchy fingers. The lack of noticeable plant progress (besides the all encompassing lily) made me lose a bit of motivation for a while. Once the betta tank plans are finalised, i'm hoping to nab a bunch of the plants from this tank and move them over to that. It would probably be the crypt wendtii green, anubias and lily, so this tank would be pretty sparse after that. At that point i might as well do a total restart of the tank, with some fresh substrate and different hardscape.

I like the suggestion of a midground-ish plant, seeing as the crypts are getting tall. I'd probably use something like s. repens, though i'm not sure how well that would do being shadowed by crypt leaves. Other option would be to trim off the crypts close to the boundary, as trimming the leaves regularly is supposed to keep the growth fairly compact.

There are so many ideas that i want to try now, I just don't have the space for an MTS problem

 

Looking very nice @fux940510

But I guess when the itchy fingers start...

I wanted to cry every time @f-fish ripped to pieces one of his stunning tanks!
But I guess its the artist in you at work

 

I like the idea of anubias on small rocks - i have about 20 tiny stones lying around that would be perfect for that, and i could split up an existing plant. Great thing is that they are easily re-used in future scapes.

Thanks Maria

For me it's one of those things where the more thought i put into it, the more motivated i am, the more i want to fiddle, which is the enemy of stability. The trouble is that having more tanks doesn't distribute the fiddling, just multiplies it

 

Coming along very nicely, well done

 

@A new day That is good news, thanks. I had some a while ago, and found that it takes a while to get settled and start producing new leaves. When i was moving them out of the tank, i noticed they had a massive root system compared to the amount of leaf mass, so that might be the reason for the delay in growth