full tank

I am finally becoming pleased with the look of my main aquarium.

Two weeks ago I once again reduced the photoperiod- so now it's only eight hours light total. Two hours of that are fade-in, and half of it all is limited spectrum, very reduced. Still up on blocks and with one plastic layer taped over the LEDs. It seems I might have finally found the right level. There's a bit of brown algae and thread algae cropping up here and there, but most of the plants look the best they have in a long while.

Quite telling too, is the fish activity. The cherry barbs are often busy with spawning behavior. The smallest male looks beat up- he's always very insistent on flirting with the females and I think the bigger males don't like it. Part of his tail is missing. I'm considering pulling him from the tank and putting him in with Oliver. The betta used to have two small barbs in his tank no problem, but it's been a long time so I'm not sure how he would react now.