This is the result of today's replanting. The hair netting in the side of the driftwood contains a knot of Java Moss that should branch out fairly rapidly in the improved light.

This morning, in an attempt to avoid doing any work, I trundled through the rain over to Justin's Ocean Aquarium. He had just opened. His wife and daughter were huddled around the desk eating breakfast while their cute mutt looked on them longingly. Their bunny was in its cage. The shop smelled violently of life.

I bought a wad of Micro Sword and a clump of Java Moss.

Six weeks ago, when I setup the tank, I started with a clump of Java Moss tied with netting to a stone at the bottom of the tank. It did precisely nothing for three weeks. This time, I've created a ball of it by tying netting around it and stuffing it into the eye of the driftwood. It's now several inches closer to two light sources than the original clump, so we'll see how it does. Fingers crossed.

The Micro Sword was far more than I needed. I ended up trashing half of what I bought. The rest I planted in the left front corner, to create a horizontal contrast with the Riccia-covered driftwood on the tank's right side and the red Ludwigia and Rotala dominating the rear left.

I also added more Flora Base and some fine pebbles to create a small valley through the just-off-center of the tank.

Finally, I uprooted all but three of the Crypto specimens and clustered them in front of the driftwood, below the eye, from which the Java Moss will hopefully start to grow.

A week from now, I'll make the decision to let the tank establish a little more or start introducing livestock. First up: shrimp.

I think I've got the swing of this. After six weeks, the tank appears to be established, although I'm still having problems with water hardness and low pH. This morning, Nathan at Nippon Goldfish gave me some pointers for correcting the chemistry. If it works, I'll stop fussing over such things and start adding little fishies.

Here's what I learned talking with Nathan:

His beautiful Amano tank? He doesn't bother testing CO2 ppm. Instead, he uses the far less exact but much easier method of tweaking CO2 bubble count. He thinks I'm probably injecting too much CO2, and suggests I try about one bubble every four seconds, which would be half to two-thirds of what I try to maintain. Slightly less CO2 should prevent the tank water from acidifying so radically.

Nathan says carbonate hardness is, after lighting, the one thing to get under control. Once that is stable at 2-3, then my pH troubles should go away.

I bought a Hagen Fe test kit, which -- finally -- allows me to collect accurate chelated iron readings. I was happy to see that my tank water registers in the desirable zone, a zone the Red Sea Fe reagents apparently weren't able to register.

Yesterday, I ordered two additional test kits (CO2 and pH), by LaMotte, maker of high-end aquarium test products.

It's nice to see, through photography, that you've actually made some progress. The Amano tank has been time consuming and challenging, on so many fronts. I'm just happy to see that my efforts are starting to pay off.

Today, I took my new 2.5lb CO2 canister down to San Leandro to an Airgas plant to have it filled. The guys there, who normally deal with companies and bulk production, were very nice to take my little tank into the factory and fill it up right away. When they brought it back to me, it was steaming and covered with frost. Coolness.

When I got home, I removed and cleaned the reactor, tossed the DIY yeast generator, and hooked the solenoid regulator to the pressurized canister. Now, I have a steady stream of CO2 injection, far more reliable and predictable than the DIY route. Within a day, I should see my ppm (hovering precariously at 4) shoot up considerably. Five through 15ppm is ideal. I'm shooting for 10. Yay!

The new Amano-style tank is now 15 days old. It's been an interesting couple of weeks. Of the original 6 plants, one (Riccia) thrives, one (Glosso) struggles, and four (Crinum calamistratum, Dwarf subulata, Acorus, Java Moss) either died or were removed.

Today, I removed the Subulata, Acorus, and Java Moss, which simply weren't doing well. What's funny is that as I was removing the Dwarf Subulata, I noticed that it was developing strong low leaves even while the original tall leaves disintegrated beyond recovery. It makes me wonder if that was part of the cycling behavior of this particular plant. I won't know for now. For now, the goal is to put in hardier stem plants to assist with the stabilization of the tank. After several weeks, I'l either remove these hardy plants, or trim them back for the addition of more field-like grasses.

In the meantime, I planted about half a dozen specimens of Ludwigia repens, about half a dozen Rotala indica, and six specimens of Cryptocoryne wendtii, both red and green varieties.

The result is that the rear left corner is now filled with reddish stem plants with their own dedicated bulb, while below them, near the substrate, live the low-light tolerant Wendtii.

A user on FishProfiles had suggested Hornwort to combat thread algae, which I used for about a week. But today, I just trashed it since it blocked so much light for the permanent inhabitants.

The Riccia is happy beyond belief. Once I get my new 2.5 lb. CO2 tank filled and hooked up to the new regulator, I can inject a whole lot more CO2 into the tank, which should make everyone giddy with growth and health.