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Hi everyone, Just like to share my latest planted tank..... It's in the Dutch style. The scape is very young so has a fair bit of growing to do. Substrate is a mix of flourite and mr aqua with root tabs. Has 48watts of t5 lighting. And I'm running co2. Anyway here it is.

im no expert ive never kept crs but Im fairly certain you will also need an aquarium, shrimps and water ;-)

Well I jumped down to good ol' Woolworths this morning and grabbed some Citric Acid and Bi Carb Soda and threw a DIY CO2 together for the tank, just a test run, see how it goes, so far so good, have it running at 1 bps for a 45l tank. Heres a dodgy iPhone 5s pic.

Co2 makes a big difference to plant growth and colour. I really notice a difference when it runs out..... Everything just seems to stop! I love the idea of generating your own. No trips to the home brew shop for refills

I like it .....except the red plants seem too evenly spaced (one at each end, and one in the centre). Red plants tend to draw the eye when grown amongst green plants, so it may be better to have them growing together in one area, preferably left or right of centre (rule of thirds).

Really nice scape.

Sweet start, will look great when all grown in, good stuff, nice mixture of colour, done well.

Yep, have to agree with Muscular Necrosis & jayc's advice is always spot on.

This is a condition called Muscular Necrosis. See the sticky thread "Diseases and Diagnosis". It's not necessarily caused by bacterial infection. As per my post in the sticky, it's can be a condition caused by stress in it's environment. Check your water parameters, and post it here for us to see if there is anything out of the ordinary. Is this a new tank? I ask because I see this condition regularly in tanks that have not been cycled completely. Heat can also be a factor. If the temps in your tank is too hot, it can cause this symptom. But since the weather is cooler now, it's unlikely to be the heat. But I'm not in Adelaide, so I have no idea what temps you are getting there. You don't necessarily need to restart the whole tank. But you will need to check your water parameters asap. Something is stressing it out. Definitely don't add them back into the larger population, until it recovers completely. Thanks for the plug Ineke

Cling wrap is good But next time throw Damp towels over the tank ontop of the cling wrap Then Afew more layers of dry towels or sheets

There's no stupid questions here dude. If you'll notice in the plumbing the tanks have individual taps on each tank, so if I have to medicate or treat any tank for anything(I have already had to treat two tank for hydra & planaria) I can switch any tank out of the system & if I do that then there is still filtration in the tank. Also, sponge filters are a great source of food for shrimplets &, as you've mentioned, as much extra filtration as you can put in there can only be a good thing, sponge filters are very good for biological filtration. :encouragement: