Sorry its not purely BN - but I do love my Apisto's as well. A. Macmastri have spawned again (despite this, note how he's managed to be very prevelant in the photo). This time she dug her own cave under the java fern. The salvinia natans is now covering half the tank - so next week the freebies will be back !

that looks Stunning the plats are thriving, do you use C02 for them? also what lighting do you have for them

I use SeaChem Flourish every other water change (25% twice a week to keep the quality up for the Apistos). I have high phosphates in my tap water so I need fast growing plants to suck it up. A standard 25w tropical flourescent light - which I replace every six months - so its not too bright for the fish and CO2 injection is on very low and on when the lights are on. Its just enough to top up the CO2 (I won't bore you with the exact readings) and lower the pH a little. Its like everything in fishkeeping - little and often - so a *little* CO2 helps your plants and the fish always come first.

Very nice beautiful tank. Apisto's are such pretty fish.

Tank looks great MarkOrm, I've always wanted a heavy planted tank but can't be donkeyed with the cleaning.
How often do you vaccum that tank? Must be fun having to replant everything when you've finished vaccuming.
J

Very clean and crisp shot mark.....

that looks stunning mark i love it

Thanks for the comments guys - really chuffed with it.

Kurosaki J wrote:

Tank looks great MarkOrm, I've always wanted a heavy planted tank but can't be donkeyed with the cleaning. How often do you vaccum that tank? Must be fun having to replant everything when you've finished vaccuming. J

All the plants are weighted and my substrate is sand - so cleaning doesn't mean ripping them out thankfully. I use a fairly small syphon with cleaner and do half the tank each change - gets up the mulm nicely. The sand is great as it doesn't get clogged up with waste as I tend to find gravel does do you don't need to disturb it much. Also the crypts are planted with a plant food tab. With a decent bottom and planting cleaning isn't too much work at all.

Absolutely superb tank and photo...I enjoyed it greatly, thanks for sharing..
I am an apisto fan also...Beautiful little fish...

I really like the A. Panduro
Pleasant Dreams

Hey Mooo - went with the A. Panduro's today. They're juvenile so have some growing to do - Male is just over an inch female about 3/4. Not very colourful in shop but looked very healthy so fingers crossed will start to grow and feed. I switched the light on for a few minutes to feed - they both took glassworm which is a good sign and the male is already showing that sky blue shimmer. Little female is showing red on tail and starting to go gold. Will be lights on tomorrow afternoon so will see. Fingers crossed ! Pictures in a couple of days once I know if they're OK.

Awesome, Congrats on your purchase, I love em, cute little fish, with huge personalities.
Can't wait to see em once they settle in, then they will colour up well..

Well I sourced a lovely little pair of A. Panduro - and they've been feeding up on glassworm. Here's a quick shot of the male who is developing well with lovely electric blue colours. I hope to get some of the female with him for you over the weekend.

Awesome, I hope to see some more happy snaps of them soon..