Closeup of the healthy new moss growth on the driftwood's upper section. The moss now clings to the wood on its own--I've removed netting and threads that held it down.

Hallelujia, or however you spell that. Two days ago, my ammonia levels collapsed dramatically to zero. It's a wonderful sign of progress for a new tank when the ammonia is at last under control. Notes on the tank's progress:

• I'm staving off an algae incursion mostly by changing 20% of my water every two days, cutting away leaves infested with soft hair algae, vacuuming out green algae, and trimming stem plants to stimulate new growth. I don't think the water is stable enough to introduce Otocinclus or SAEs. I'd also like to wait at least two weeks before adding algae shrimp. In the meantime, I've got a handful of snails who are doing their best to clear algae.
• My KH is unacceptably low (ranging from 1 to 2), so I'm going to start buffering the water this weekend.
• I've started dosing more heavily with ADA's Green Brighty to encourage aggressive plant growth as a competitive defense against algae. Have to monitor this closely so I don't also give the algae what it wants to flourish.