Well, my driftwood came today and I must say, its awesome! I wish it was just a couple inches taller, so in the future I might consider buying another one and using this for one of my other tanks, but right now, I'm absolutely stoked! The aquascaping is also done for now. I am planning on getting a few vals and maybe a couple of swords or something, but once the dwarf chain sword and pearlweed fill in I think it will be very neat! Today's param test: pH 8.2, Ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 15. Will do a water change and one more test on friday, then picking up my 6 puffers and 4-5 otos on Saturday if test results are good! Since I used BB loaded filter media and plants from my other tanks and seeded the tank with snails, I'm hoping that test results will show that it is pretty well cycled. Even so, I will be doing at least 2 water changes a week for the first month or two and keep a very close eye on my params.
Current stock:
Flora:
3 Anubias nana (i think, was just labled anubias at the store) tied to the driftwood
4 Windelov's java fern tied to the driftwood
1 regular java fern tied to the driftwood
3 cuttings of guppy grass twined under the driftwood branches
1 baby regular java fern planted by the left rock
6 cuttings of pearlweed spread throughout the sand
1 adult and 2 baby dwarf chain sword
1 unidentified grass/val like plant that wasnt labeled at the pet store
4 small indian ferns left floating (might add a couple more, but dont want to block too much light)
Fauna:
23 pond/bladder snails
6 brown/leopard ramshorn snails.
Hopefully the snails have been busy over this last week and a half laying eggs and such. There's not too many places for them escape the puffers until the carpet plants grow a bit better, so we'll have to see if any survive long enough to keep a population going. i've been feeding them 1/4 algae wafer every 3 days or so depending on how fast they finish it to hopefully let them realize that there's a bunch of food. I'm also picking up a zuchini on Sat. for the otos since there's no algae in that tank.
My boyfriend snuck his face in this one lol.