After the water finally cleared, I snapped a few photos to show how everything looked once the dust had settled. So far so good!

I’m hoping that as the plants and mosses fill out, they’re keep a similar feel of a forest of sorts, able to diffuse rays of sunlight through their growth. Some of the shots of this tank with strong light from the side with very little from above were rather breathtaking to see.

After the tank had been running for a few days and tested all clear for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, and reasonable pH, I added in a few ghost shrimp and snails to begin developing the ecosystem. The driftwood develops a sludge coating of sorts that the snails loved to munch down on. The shrimp helped keep the detritus to a minimum and helped me gauge how habitable the tank could be for future additions.

I chose ghost shrimp because of their low cost and hardiness. I added ramshorn snails to maintain the colony I started for my puffer fish as a food source a few months previous. Some of the ramshorns were so pretty that I couldn’t bring myself to feed them to my puffers…

Overall, the tank is settling in nicely. Can’t wait to see it with more growth!