Matt's 220 Litre Aquaoak

It's worth trying alternative plants in your "bad" locations @fcmf . I put an anubias in my bad spot and it turned into a monster. (Huge, not nasty)

Glad you plan to increase their numbers in subsequent weeks. Much of the advice on here about 4+ per species is not up-to-date - recommendations now tend to be 6+ (or often 8-10+) but cross-check with Seriously Fish for each species to be sure. For the sake of a few weeks until you increase numbers, though, I'm sure 4 will be fine.

Just realised I forgot the crucial piece of information from the below... I've no intention of keeping my fish in minimum numbers now I have so much space!! I can only add a third additional stocking each week, to allow the filter bacteria to grow.  This weekends additions will be an additional third. Next weekends third will be a bigger third though so things should build up nicely

Changed about 90 litres tonight... not fun doing it with half buckets to refill as my tap thingy hasn't arrived yet! Fortunately I could easily do full buckets when emptying it!! Water has cleared up nicely as a result and the water I took out was definitely a light tea colour so it's definitely tannins that were affecting the water the last couple of days. I managed to siphon off a good amount of the white wood fuzz though I though this was also growing on the old wood... turns out it is some sort of algae.  I'll do some research on this in the morning. I've added a small dose of liquid carbon which should start to tackle this anyway. I was expecting some sort of algae growth given its a new set up in many ways.

Also moved across the last lot of plants from the 64 litre tank (Amazon swords and some crypts) and put root tabs under everything that I felt was a root feeder. I've put a photo below though apart from the Amazon sword you may not see much different as the crypts went behind the wood to grow bigger.  I'll post a photo of the 64 litre in the gallery thread. It looks nothing like it used to!

Well the plans changed....

I have bought the 2 additional rams and added them and my current ones to the tank.  They just didnt seem comfortable in the 64 litre any more for some reason.  They have coloured up and are out and about a lot more now so I think it was the right move.  So I now have 2 German blue rams, one golden and one neon. They look amazing together and I'm so glad I did this 

This was a bit of a large boost to the stocking so more plants were bought to try and help out on this front too.  The tank is now looking a lot more 'mature'.  I don't want to know how much I've spent on plants overall... it's a big number 

I also have boosted the numbers of galaxy rasbora in the 64 litre with the space created my the move of the rams.  These can be moved across next weekend or the weekend after and then I can also start to boost the numbers of the harlequins/cardinals/corys.

I also removed and boiled some of the branches of the old wood now in the 220 litre. I may do the same again... I have the dreaded black bearded algae growing    I suspect this will be an going battle...

The plans for the 64 litre have also changed following a trip to the LFS with Mrs Matt and very much for the better I think... more in the gallery thread!

Gosh, you've had a busy day.
Fantastic. 

I figure with a pair of two legged pets and a decent sized fish tank, I don't need a gym membership. When I'm not working, I'm either chasing around or lugging buckets of water across my house.

I scratched my last tank with sand using one of those magnetic cleaners.

One of the best things for cleaning the glass is a plastic plant label. Or one of those pot scrubbers that look like a brightly coloured knitted plastic ball.

The main problem I had with magnetic cleaners was the string that joins the two bits was too short to allow the bit inside the tank to get low down. When I used thick sewing thread instead it just rotted and fell apart. So I had to use the two halves without any string but the inside bit kept falling off and getting covered with sand. It was after this happened with my last tank that I failed to remove just one grain of sand and scratched the glass.

You have just reminded me that I haven't cleaned the inside of the glass for a few months and I can still see in fine. I have no idea why algae etc has suddenly vanished from the glass unless it's the stiphodons 

I find my nerite has a sort of OCD for cleaning the filters and front and side/algae-free panes over and over and over again until they're almost gleaming; however, he tends not to do much about breaking through the thick layer of algae on the back or other side pane. Yesterday, I had the magnetic cleaner out, having checked it diligently for sand grains beforehand, and tackled the thick layers of algae; typically, he then decided to QA my work, having not actually contributed much to cleaning those particular panes beforehand.

That tank looks lovely. 

Looking gorgeous.