more tank thoughts

I am starting to think of my serpae tetras by name. The biggest, mature one is Scrappy- been through a lot probably, and its dorsal has an uneven edge that grew out again clear. Midsized one with brightest gleam who always holds its dorsal fin jerked upright and displays to everyone- is Punk. Smallest is Mint- as in, bright like a newly-minted penny.

Sometimes on really cloudy days or during a thunderstorm I pull the backing off the window tank to see it bright with light through the plant foliage. I don't think I'm going to do that anymore, though. The plants are getting used to slow growth that matches the lack of ferts- if I expose them to more light too frequently, won't that make them want to speed it up and cause die-off? I noticed one week when I did this often, the hornwort started shedding a lot and changing its growth pattern.

Suddenly concerned about my betta tank. It's not just mulm anymore- tiny black fuzzy crap is showing up all over the driftwood and rhizomes. Some kind of algae? Ugh. I fear it's really going downhill. Maybe I should remove Samblu for a day, take all the hardscape out and give it a good scrub, look for snail carcasses, vacuum the substrate deeply, give it a reset as it were. But I'm really afraid if I try that I will get an ammonia spike, bacteria bloom, dead fish...