Parameters before the peat moss addition were:
Ammonia - 0.75 mg/l. A little high, but also exactly what the tap comes out. Hopefully my bacterial filter will soon catch up. In the mean time, I have added a dose of prime to detoxify the ammonia.
pH - 7.5 (tap is 8.0). Hopefully the peat will help with this
General hardness- 8
Carbonate hardness- 4
Nitrite- 0
View of the left hand side. There are three plantings of water wisteria (as well as some smaller offshoots) at the right and back. Back left is hornwort which is loosely anchored to the rock. Front left is some rotala which has some little shoots starting, and in the front right/center, two bits of mondo grass. Hopefully this will all fill in together to have a fluffy full back, and flattish grassy area concealing a little rock cave. Orange fish in the background is a gold gourami, and an otocinclus catfish can be seen eating algae off the mondo grass.
View of the right hand side. I can't recall the name of the broad leafed grass on the very right hand side. There are 3 plantings of rotala, a java fern in the back near the center of the front clearing, and two spots of micro sword. Most of the plants will grow tall, and the micro sword should fill in like a lawn. You can barely see the two rummy nose tetras in the back, and a dark grey otocinclus cat on the small rock near the front right-hand side.
View through the right hand side. A clump of hair algae in the front left hand side of the picture, which seems to have caught a bit of the frozen food I tossed in earlier. A small bushy nose pleco is next to the clump, and an otocinclus cat is right behind it. There is also hornwort and the back of the small cave, and the lone neon tetra on the left hand side.
A closeup of the bushy nose pleco. Micro sword to the right, Java fern to the left.
The gold gourami.
On the underside of one of the leaves, I found several new leaves and roots growing.
Another java fern shoot. An uncurling leaf on top and dangling roots beneath.
Coming off the left-hand back side of the micro sword, some new runners.
Mondo grass
An otocinclus catfish resting on a rock. These are really good algae eaters, and will even eat algae off plant leaves without harming them.
Some parrot's feather floating on the surface of the water, as well as some water wisteria.
Rotala with new growth at the base of the plant.
An example of the snails that are trying to over run the tank. No worries though, this gives me an excuse to get some dwarf ring loaches to eat them :)For algae control, there are 5 otocinclus catfish, one bushy nose pleco, and one albino bushy nose pleco. Two rummy nose tetras and one neon tetra also inhabit the tank. The tetras are schooling fish, so more will be added soon. Luckily so far none seem adversely effected by the lack of others.
