Been running about a year and a half now, and it barely resembles that bare cube from the first week. Buce has finally bulked out on the wood, rotala keeps pushing new growth under the twinstar, and the otos stay glued to the glass most mornings. Started with just hardscape and controsoil, no real plan beyond seeing what took off. Blue rilis are everywhere now, way more than the original count suggests.
Tank's looking pretty good at this point, moss has filled out nicely and the rotala finally recovered from that early melt. If I could go back I'd probably have planted fewer stems of rotala and given the buce more room from the start, feels a little crowded on that one side now. Otherwise happy with how the hardscape reads with everything grown in around it.
Swapped in the cooling fan today, box and packaging still sitting on the floor by the stand cause I haven't dealt with it yet. Wasn't expecting it to be this loud honestly, it's not crazy but it's a constant hum that I notice every time the room's quiet. Worth it for keeping temps down under the twinstar though, tank was creeping too warm in the afternoons without it.
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What's the dosing schedule looking like for the rotala and christmas moss in there
Just dosing thrive a couple times a week, nothing crazy precise. Rotala's the one that shows if I'm falling behind, gets kind of leggy and pale if I skip too long. Moss doesn't seem to care either way honestly.
Jack LongQuestionOtos in a 5 gallon, brave lol. How do you keep enough food around for them that small
Honestly just let algae and biofilm build up on the hardscape and glass before adding them, and I don't scrub every surface during cleaning so they've always got something to graze. Supplementing lightly with algae wafers too since 5 gallons doesn't grow enough on its own long term.
5 gallons and you're already tweaking layout, respect. what's your dosing look like with no CO2
No CO2 in this one either, just dosing thrive a couple times a week at reduced dose since it's only 5 gallons. Light's not blasting so growth is slow but steady, rotala's the main thing that tells me if I'm underdosing.