something different about my aquarium

this week, in an absolutely good way. I have been quite busy and not paying much attention to it, but paused yesterday walking past and noticed hey, it looks better! The plants look lush and healthy- crypt wendtii has that hammered texture in the leaves and a nice dark olive green hue, hygro and buces look glossy, bacopa leaves have doubled in size.

I just wish I knew what is the cause! Recently I changed three things- I switched out the filter pad from sponge to bonded Marineland cut-to-fit filter media. And finally, the intermittent flow clog has stopped. Even when I rinsed out prefilter sponge, it didn't cause the internal media to clog. So flow has been improved. Two: I have been very busy and missed feeding the fish a few times. So not as much nutrients have gone into the tank. Maybe that's a small plus. Three: I took some of the hornwort stems from the top of the tank, and anchored them with stones near substrate instead. So a bit more light is coming in from top (without the loss of nutrient uptake job those plants do).

I can't believe how gorgeous it suddenly looks. I'm afraid of being overwhelmed by some plants soon. And one of my aponogeton crispus is flowering!! I have let the water level drop a bit, even though the splashing sound annoys me, in order to let the flower stay above surface (can't prop the lid open, basement construction is going on and I'm concerned about dust/fumes getting into the tank). Last time I just oogled the thing, this time I'm attempting to get seed and maybe baby plants out of it. I gently brushed up and down the flower stalk with a feather. Crossing fingers.

Pics upcoming, when I'm not so insanely busy!