I've always avoided the light coloured wood just in case its pine (which can supposedly poison the tank) and also as its lighter and sinks slower its normally not wort the effort.

take a saw with you and hack off nice looking roots from the massive logs that wash up. (you know the logs that make you wish you had a 6m x 4m tank..... or is that just me??)

Mmm, I could do a beach mission. Really though I'm after very small bits, so pre-made or previously terrestrial wood may have to do the trick.

Rescaped everything in the weekend.

Very happy with how it turned out. Didn't use any driftwood in the end, it's a bit of a struggle maintaining a depth of perspective in a small tank but I think I've done OK, learning from my mistakes and following the golden ratio as best I can.

I'll take some pictures later.

I moved my fighter back in - small change to the filter (pushed foam media into the outflow pipe slowing the turnover rate), which should help his tail re-grow.

He's spent the last few months living in the hospital tank with no lights and just a bit of wood/moss to keep him company. Despite perfect water param's he got fin-rot AGAIN and I just finished a Furan dose.

Anyway he seems happier mucking around in the main tank now.

Long term I'm not sure what to do if he get's fin rot again, it's certainly disheartening. I feel confident it's him not me, but still.

Oh and more questions.

I'm getting good growth with a 7hr photo period and daily 1ml dose of excel flourish.

I've read conflicting reports about the need to dose other ferts - is there anything good out there in the market?

I want to set-up a DIY CO2 reactor, and was going to wait till my 100ml bottle of flourish ran out, however I've since read (Excel's own) information that says you can actually use injected CO2 + flourish simultaneously - has anyone tried this ?

just had a thought :nilly:

if you fancy a trip to Cornwall Park, down Twin Oak drive you can pick up all sorts of twiggy twigs that are made of wood that won't poison the tank. That's where I got mine from.

just had a thought :nilly:

if you fancy a trip to Cornwall Park, down Twin Oak drive you can pick up all sorts of twiggy twigs that are made of wood that won't poison the tank. That's where I got mine from.

Yeah that could work, I think I've done OK with no wood in mine for the time being.

I would have posted pics last night (threat useless without) but I was too busy last night fishing (catching stingrays).

Did your betta survive?

Caper

He did, although his tail never regrew. *edit, interspersed with generally looking rattier.

I'd say his finrot is "managed" rather than "cured".

I don't think he minds though.

Nice milestone last night, I didn't do a water change for 2 weeks and still found no detectable levels of nitrites/nitrates when testing.

Guess that makes the tank a mature dirted/walstad setup. I went ahead and did a water change anyway.

Haven't had an amazing carpet of my Lilaeopsis novae-zeelandiae form, although I haven't been been trimming it yet, as I've been waiting to get established.

I've been dosing 1ml of Excell Flourish, I may cut that down now and see what happens. Only detectable algae is of the Green Spot kind.

Want a few more crypts, and still may add a small bit of wood to add hight.

Mission successful so far!

Ta Da!

Looks great Doc.

I'm begining to enjoy the smaller tanks over the larger tanks now. :thup:

Problem I have with it now is that the Amazon Sword in the front right has grown about 5x as fast as everything else.

I feel for it though, that was the first plant I ever got, and I think the only surviving one.

Debating now about using some valray ferts as well.

ATM I'm doing 1mil flourish daily, I'd like to start cutting that back too (although for $18 odd dollars for over half a year's worth of dosing maybe that's OK).

Also ummming and arrring about a DIY CO2 rig.

Anyway, I'm not super happy with the state of things, but it's all progress right.

I dream of having a bigger thank: I've de-rimmed my old quarantine tank (I think it's a whole 27 Litres or thereabouts).

I need to see if it's still watertight after this and we'll go from there.

The tank's looking really clean at the moment, I wouldn't change a lot about it :thup:

In regards to the sword, rehoming it to a larger tank is probably best. It's likely to be a common species so perhaps even exchanging it with another member who has a smaller sword or waiting till it fully matures and produces pups could work here. I can also offer you a few pygmy chain sword plants if you want to pick them up, they'd suit the scale of your aquarium a bit better 8)

Yeah, I quite like the hemmed in / overgrown thing with almost oversized plants (like

).I actually have another identical sword in the same position but further back, it's very hard to see and grown almost laterally due to having to compete for light (and the light from above being weaker).

If I removed the front sword I'd want a bit of driftwood to add some hight/depth to the tank.

One of the other issues (moaning) is the lack of flow I get in there, hence me having the outflow of the filter in a funny spot. I move it round quite a bit to get some different currents going on.

Final note is that the tank looks balanced from the front, but odd from a 3/4 view (where my couch is) it looks unbalanced.

That Jungle Bubble is genius! If I were you, I'd leave it how it is for now. You're making me want to plant another nano :nilly:

Ha everybody here waxes poetic about the austerity involved

In the mean time I'll keep harassing the wifey about allowing me to go bigger.

Bad news, Mr Betta is getting worse not better.

He's lost allot of color, becoming less active, and his fins are looking a little clamped. Noticed a small roughed up patch of scales too.

I've been doing large-ish water changes (pre-heating and mixing the water to minimize system shock), and keeping his diet varied.

Feeling pretty down about his prospects at the moment...

Betta are really fragile when they're sick, best of luck!

Mmmm.

I'll see what happens, I'd rather end his life than let him drag on miserably downwards.

I'm not sure what to do about the tank either.

I feel as though I've hit the wall with it at the moment, the lighting and flow issues are very frustrating.

On the brightside, you could replace your Betta with a Plakat or a few small shoaling fish allowing you to add a small pump/wavemaker.

On the brightside, you could replace your Betta with a Plakat or a few small shoaling fish allowing you to add a small pump/wavemaker.

I'm running a nominal 200LPH pump now (sounds tiny but that's over 10x volume per hour).

The issue is that due to the shape of the tank (essentially a U shape) I either create a vortex or lots of dead spots.

A 30L cube would be awesome as it would allow for a betta + ottos

Killing deadspots in a tank this size is really difficult. Linear flow from left to right has worked well for me.

Pictars

Hard to get good shots (as per).

Last one shows the puffed out scales along the top of his back near the head.

Can also see the rot beginning to eat away at the pectoral fins

Suggestions?

Along with the other ailments, he has developed dropsy. My suggestion would be to humanely destroy him

Euthanasied.

Clove oil followed by clove oil and vodka. Seemed to work well .