Full aquarium setup-please comment and suggest

I know vacuuming is impossible with your wad of plants but have you considered a liquid bacterial supplement to reduce the mulm? Blowing up your picture to get a look at the snails, I see it's very thick...almost certainly the root cause of the snail problem, and it will be tough to get rid of a burrowing snail with that much nutrient source under the gravel.
 
The NZ mud snail does sound like a good fit with the size you describe, but I can't find any pictures of these snails where they aren't completely dark. That pic looks like your snails have patterns, do they? It's hard to tell with a pic that isn't in sharp focus.
 
I vacuum every time I change water. Not too hard but takes some time. Remember that the snail picture is from last year. Before my apple snails multiplied. Now the apple snails take care of the mulm. They love eating it.
 
Hmm, you may have New Zealand mud snails then, although I've never heard of these as hitchhikers on commercial aquarium plants...plants from the wild though, maybe.

Sorry, in your pic it looked like the snails had white tops, maybe not!
 
They may have white tops but i think this is because it's old shell and it loses some pigment?
I have found this to happen with my apple/mystery snails as they grow old.
I have never had any plants from the wild. And I wash all my "questionable" new plants with a tiny bit of bleach to kill anything bad.
The mini-snails do serve a function though. They tell me when I am over feeding by exploding in numbers.
 
I like it. I couldn't have such a planted tank but I like looking at them. Very native looking. Like you took a chunk of the wild and put it in the tank
 
i personally would have a much more 'sculptured' tank that made it easier to see the fish, and easier to keep the maintenance up on the tank for me. i'd also keep much less in there as far as livestock, concentrating on keeping one or two species in decent sized groups with perhaps a peaceful 'centrepiece' fish.

IMO wild tanks are nice when they are somebody else's mess, lol.
 
Really? I don't think it looks that natural :/ but I guess that's what I'm going for by putting a ton of plants in there. I enjoy sitting by the tank and searching around for the creatures for many minutes at a time. The plants give them places to hide. The whole setup is very nice in that it shows me some rare behavior of the creatures I keep in it. I think they feel more secure with all the plants :)


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