rescape

I redid Oliver's tank today (he's still not in it).

First removed all the hardscape pieces with plants on them.

Tank looked very empty without them.

Then replaced things in a different arrangement. I added a new piece of driftwood I've been boiling all week to remove tannins, and tied onto it some of the plants off the old driftwood log (which stinks).

Biggest difference is that I have hidden the skull behind the new log. Plan to get some subwassertang growing on that end of the driftwood to soften and obscure view of its edge.

I thought that all my rotalas in here looked poorly the way their tops hang down, but once I trimmed some of that off (and replanted elsewhere) looks decent in the corner.

On the other end I've turned around the piece that had smaller anubias on it- looks quite different this way. Windelov fern is like green tongues of flame. Wedged a bit of mopani wood in there too with some subwassertang on it. In the very front corner is one small plant left of some unidentified stem that I thought had all died. Still not sure what it is...

The most striking plants in here are the buces. I don't know if it's just the way their colors look against the dark mopani wood, but suddenly they seem to glow and look very blue. I love it.

Also tried to get a quick overhead shot, just because it is so different from the last time I did one.

I'm happy with how it turned out- but was surprised at how much dark, fine mulm came up when I was gently trying to move plants and hardscape around. And it stank. I siphoned out water twice and refilled fresh, because it got so cloudy couldn't see anything. The snails seem okay with it all. But I am not putting Oliver back in for a while- and will test parameters make sure there isn't a huge ammonia spike or high nitrates.