It's hard to believe that yesterday the tank turned 1 month old. Over the span of about three hours, I removed all of the starter stem plants, leaving behind only moss on the driftwood, and planted my new crop of grasses and accent plants from Aqua Forest Aquarium.

YESTERDAY: I was beginning to get used to the density of color and stem plants, but this layout was never meant to be permanent: only to establish the tank.

TODAY: This is the new layout. It's a step in the direction of my original sketches for the design.

I had fun working with Steven and George at AFA to determine the right mix of foreground and background grasses. As you can see from the "today" photo above, the new layout is not about height, but about opposing triangles, one pointing down on the left, one pointing up on the right. Info about the new plants I bought:

• Blyxa japonica, or Japanese rush. This is commonly used in the foreground or midground. I decided to use it as a midground, rear corner accent because it allows for great visibility to the back of the tank and works well behind my single large rock, creating a sense of height up the gentle slope in that corner.
• Eleocharis acicularis, or hairgrass, in both dwarf and tall forms. The rear left corner of the tank belongs to a bed of tall hairgrass. I snipped more than a dozen budding runners off the tips of the mature grass and planted them at the bases of the plants from which they came. I'm hoping that in about a month, that corner will be thick with grass from the substrate to the water's surface.
• Polygonum, or knotweed. This lovely and unusual red/pink leaf plant, considered invasive by ecological standards, is going to act as a mid-height accent plant that ties together the left side, the base of the driftwood, and the tall hairgrass behind it. I cut the stems as short as I could and planted them fairly close together to facilitate a dense bushy growth down the road. We'll see how well that plan works.
• Eriocaulaceae "australia". This very expensive and attractive plant is the heart of the foreground grasses. As much as I paid for it, I hope I don't kill it!

Reddish brown leaves of Red Flame Sword in front of the driftwood, red/pink Polygonum on the far left, tall grasses in the background, short grasses in the foreground.

Red flame sword, a small show plant for the foreground.

Right side of the tank features Japanese rush, dwarf hairgrass and the bright green cluster of Eriocaulaceae "australia" nestled between and around Amano-style rocks.

Other routines I'm changing now that the tank is a month old:

• I've started buffering the water with GH/KH Up, approximately 1ml per 5g of water during a water change. My KH regularly registers at 2...I'd like to shoot for 4, with 3 being an acceptable improvement.
• Now that the algae outbreak has abated, I'm dosing with ADA Green Brighty at regular strength, approximately 1ml per 20 litres of water per day. Since I no longer have an abundance of fast-growing plants in the tank, I'll have to monitor and adjust this carefully to thwart opportunistic algae.

What's next? When I get back from Christmas with the family, I'll introduce a few shrimp and some Siamese Algae Eaters. In a few weeks, I think I'll be ready for the centerpiece fish: a large school of very small brightly colored fish. Stay tuned!