Got into this after seeing a friend's low tech setup and thinking I could do a moodier version with dark wood. Danios and amano shrimp ended up being the easy part, the moss took way longer to fill in than the driftwood did lol.
Photo Timeline
First fish going inPhoto Date · day 30Cycling, still sparsePhoto Date Just filledPhoto Date
Journal
5 updates
Note
week 6ish
Did a water change and a light trim on the hygrophila today. Found a ramshorn snail wedged inside the spiderwood, no idea how long it was hiding there. Moss is thickening up nicely, danios were hyped about the disturbance.
Note
day 30
Added the first celestial pearl danios today, bag's floating on the surface right now. Tank feels completely different with something actually swimming in it, even just a few of them. Carpet's filling in some gaps but still got a ways to go.
Is that spiderwood tinting the water at all? Celestial pearl danios look great against it
Tank owner replied
Yeah a little, water's got a faint tea tint to it. Nothing crazy, just enough to notice against the substrate. Worth it for how the danios pop against the wood though
Danios look great against that spiderwood. Did the tank stay stable through the shrimp to danio transition or did you have to rework the bioload at all?
My rotala goes through phases like this too, some weeks it just sits there. How's the CO2 distribution in that tank, curious if it's more of a flow issue than a soil one
The danio colors against all that moss is really nice - how often are you dosing CO2 with the sponge filters running, does it fight the flow at all?
Tank owner replied
No CO2 in this one, just sponge filters and low-ish light so the plants get by without it. Flow's pretty gentle honestly, danios don't seem bothered at all lol
Brooke Hassan
Minh WilliamsQuestion
Finley MartinezQuestion
Hannah LopezQuestion
Nova JamesQuestion
Katie James
Skyler Rodriguez