Matt's 64 Litre Tank

Thanks for sharing. Really lovely! Sparkling gourami is indeed stunning and rams are so attractive.

Love the decor and the fish look great.

In my imaginary tank (no space for anymore) I have always wanted sparkling gouramis, do yours croak?

Looking good 

Didn't exactly want to make a new topic for this so apologies for using an old one...

Quick update, I've received plants from both Sue and Paddy recently.  Thank you both so much for this, I really must remember to return the favour when I have something worth offering!

The Hornwort and Hygrophila seem to be rejuvenating after their journeys.  I initially struggled with the Hornwort. Having planted it, it was loosing a lot of needles but I then tried it floating and I believe that the extra light made available to it has allowed it to fair much better. I now have half floating and another half weighted down with lead but resting on top of a rock and wood structure to bring it closer to the light to see how it gets on.  The sparkling gourami like having floating plants to play with,  previous attempts to have pennywort floating were appreciated but others in the tank were too hungry apparently to let this survive, Pistia Stratiotes struggles with my filter flow too so this is looking to be a good alternative.

The Hygrophila has only just been put in the tank today,  it did not appreciate being put in a dark box and thrown around by the postman at all despite Paddys excellent shipping package.  I had it in a bowl on the window sill for a few days with a crumbled root tab a couple of flakes of food and 1 drop of liquid carbon each day.  Happily, things seem to be going well, 2 of 4 'sprigs' have got new and or healthy looking growth and these are the ones I added to the tank earlier. I'm hoping the proper environment will now encourage them to grow well.  I will put some tank water into the bowl tomorrow to encourage the remaining sprigs and see how both sets get on but I'm remaining quite hopeful for them both.

I do hope I can keep these gifts alive, my track record is not in my favour...

Nice looking tanks! I wouldn't worry too much about the Hygrophila, the stuff is pretty indestructible. I'd wager you'll be chopping it down within the month!

Paddy please dont apologise,  if it wasn't for your efforts I'm sure that I would have recieved a brown rotting sludge rather than something which is already sprouting as you indicated (see top 'sprig' in the bowl). I'm going to give the remaining bits some tank water now. They are yet to show any signs of rejuvination - as soon as they do they will get put in the tank and old vegetation taken off. I just don't want them to a) rot in the tank and b) they would more than likely get eaten like the pennywort if I dont give them a fighting chance...

For fans I hitchikers guide to the galaxy... I'm sure there are a couple of ravenous planteaterbeasts in my tank... otherwise known as rams...

Update: one of the two remaining 'sprigs' has some healthy looking growth on top this morning so might get put in the tank later with its lower leaves removed, it will look a little like a pom pom but it might get some new growth along the stem if I'm lucky like the health piece in the tank now.

I keep considering flohrish (or other cheaper alternatives) then deciding that I am best picking plants that just grow without it and the liquid carbon I bought to get something which is more sustainable... I hate to think how much heating 140 litres of water will cost me when I upgrade my tank so running costs such as this need to be kept minimal to my eyes... then again I am known for being a bit tight...

Christmas is coming early to the 64litre  (doddery Santa emoji)

I have new Spider wood soaking currently and new led lights on the way.   

This is the first real step I'm taking towards the eventual upgrade of the tank to a 140 litre aquaoak.  Nothing will be rushed along the journey though and I've certainly got no plans to actually upgrade any time soon so no-one need get too excited!

I do have a well researched plan of what I want the upgraded tank to look like and so the 2 pieces of wood are destined for the upgrade tank.  They will replace one of the chunky pieces of wood in my current tank giving more water volume for me now (ie better water quality/space for more fish possibly...) and will be arranged alongside an existing piece in what will essentially be a more compact version of the arrangement in the new tank.

The lighting is to try and get my current plants growing - hopefully I am right that my current cheap underpowered led lighting is currently the limiting factor to plant growth.  With this new lighting i hope I can keep what i have now alive and grow them bigger for use in the new tank.  Any plants purchased for the new tank can them be established in my current tank first too, or that's the plan anyway!  As I write this I also think I may have come up with a cunning plan to reuse this lighting in the new tank... I'll investigate this in the morning!

At some point next year I hope to be able to change my current gravel substrate to sand too. Again this is the plan for the new tank because I want to keep corys.  I want to be able to move as much beneficial bacteria over to the new tank as possible to avoid what I can in terms of any fish in cycling that will have to be done so again this will be a tactical move (I get the feeling a few pygmy corys might make their way into my current tank though!).

This will leave a rock swap out and a filter to get cycled before the big move whenever that may be.

Rest assured I'll get some piccys posted when the new wood is in place.

Plans to upgrade a tank... I'm looking forward to regular updates and piccies. 
I'll try not to be impatient. 

Thanks!

As of last night I was still getting a lot of colour off the wood so it looks like any rescaping will have to wait until next weekend.  The new light will probably be the first change in that case (tho my wife keeps threatening to wrap it and put it under the tree).

In other news I added some red root floater (Phyllanthus fluitans) to my tank last weekend and whilst it has lost quite a few leaves it has also grown a lot of new green ones. It came with some free snails (removed) and some free duckweed which I might add once I've seen how everything responds to the new light. I want something that will keep the sparking gourami happy but I think floating plants for them need more leaf area and less root as they are not responding in the same way to it. It is the first red plant I've had and it looks great, it has encouraged me to try other 'coloured' plants. I need to prove to myself that I can keep them alive first though