This little tank, the smallest I currently have running, is doing surprisingly well! I’d been scared about the upkeep such a small tank might require to maintain its stability, but it has been on of the easier tanks in my current collection. Water changes are fast since I usually change out under a gallon at a time. The lace leaf java ferns are very low maintenance plants, and the shrimp have been keeping everything clean. My one battle with this tank is currently being waged against the snail population. At first, pond snails were a huge benefit to keeping the tank clean and balanced. Now, they mostly obstruct my view!

This is the first time that I actually prepared the tank ahead of time for a photo shoot. I made sure to complete a water change and glass cleaning the day before taking photos. I also pumped as much light into the tank as I could without letting light bleed out into the room. This way, glare and reflections off the front surface were greatly reduced.

I am still having trouble finding a lighting setup that will illuminate both the tank and protruding piece of wood equally, but, for now, I’m quite happy with how well these photos came out. Some of the later shots really show off the wood breaking the surface of the water.

I also removed the floating plants about halfway through the shoot. After, when looking through all the photos, the floater-free shots all seemed to come out much better! I added them back in after the shoot, since their sudden removal could possibly cause a sudden swing in tank conditions, but I’ll be trying to slowly phase them out in the future.

I’m quite happy with this tank for now. I’ll update on how it progresses as the javas grow and hopefully Orange Sunkist Caridina shrimp begin to breed!