Wow looks really cool. Doing this right seems quite hard.
this post was submitted on 30 Mar 2026
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It just takes patience. Everything happens slower in a tank like this. There's sifted dirt on the bottom and then sand on top of that, so the plants have plenty of nutrients in the substrate. I deliberately introduced the dreaded Malaysian trumpet snails to keep the substrate stirred up. Lots of plants, nothing fancy just plenty of stems, mostly pearlweed. I've been dealing with a lot of hair algae but I got some amanos shrimp a couple weeks ago and they're beating it back. It's just a little ecology and I think a lot about every change before I make it.
Malaysian trumpet snails, you say? My 75 gallon has a writhing mass for a substrate at feed time. They're so prolific they keep the glass clean at night.
Our spotted congo puffer is fat and sassy on crunchy snacks.
People get mad about them but I agree they work great and are mostly asleep when I'm awake.
Btw a siamese algae eater might be pereft for yor algae woes. Mine was added mainly for BBA but they really lived up to their name.
If your trumpets get too out of control: yoyo or clown loaches are great at snail control.
What a lively tank!
Celestial pearl danios are some of the prettiest aquarium fish lol they look like mini trout :D
They look a lot like Brook Trout which are my favorites so it's no accident I ended up keeping them!
Beautiful!
Got a non imgur link? It's blocked here
WTH. It was working fine, I wonder what happened.
Working for me at the moment.
With the serious drop in fertilizer, I bet people would be willing to pay you for the water.
the danios are screwing way too much.
Galaxy danios come from like tiny 3 puddles in northern Mexico, and that's it. They're a weird cross between super rare and ubiquitous.
Let them fuck.
I'm powerless to stop them.
Ahhhh, your tank is so pretty!
Love this setup idea! What filter are you using?
None! That hang on back refugium just has some hydroton to give the plants something to hold onto and there's a power head pushing water around but that's it.