plant report tenner

So I had to move some plants in the tenner, to make room for new ones. In particular, had to take out all the rotala indica from the front (since now I have species actually meant to be carpeting foreground plants) and put it in the background, just behind the skull. It was a shame to pull up those indica stems because they had actually taken hold! Lovely white roots on each one. I should have gotten a picture of that nice growth but couldn't stop in the middle of things to dry my hands for the camera.

The dwarf rotundifolia went back there, too. Discarded half of it and only replanted the stems that had leaves grown out larger, healthier-looking. So here you can see arranged behind the skull from left to right there's rotala rotundifolia (dwarf), rotala indica and creeping jenny.

I also moved all the bacopa caroliniana stems to be together alongside the wisteria back there. Can kind of see it in this side view picture.

I removed the scuffed and dingy plastic panel from the other side (blocks some ambient window light) and replaced with a thinner plastic sheet that came off some packaging. I hope it will continue to cut just enough to avoid the GSA coming back. I like being able to see clearly into that end of the tank again.

To me the ludwigias seem characterized by their aerial roots. Funny, I went to move a piece of this in the background, and found that some of those side roots coming out of the stem, were burrowing into the sponge of the little filter! They know where the nutrients are!

A little bit of windelov fern had come loose from the driftwood spot so I fastened it to the stone in the corner. Now there's three bits on there making a neat little cluster.

Anubias barteria is sending out a new leaf. I had to lift its driftwood piece out to fasten on the fissidens moss, and while it was out of the tank trimmed the long roots underneath. Otherwise its kind of messy to put back, and this encourages more growth. Already the barteri has 'walked' its rhizome nearly all the way off its driftwood moorings. Soon I will have to trim and retie it to keep in place.

I have found a good tool for cleaning hard GSA off the glass- plastic fake credit cards, the kinds that come in promotional mailers. They scrape nicely and are a bit flexible, I found it was much easier to reach into corners and alongside plants than with the algae scrubber pad. Just have to be sure there are no infant snails on the glass- I accidentally made a scratch already. But my four-year-old noticed the difference after I'd cleaned some hard algae off: "Mommy, the tank looks so clean!" Nice.