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24 hours late and it has cleared up pretty well! External filters are my new best frient. Cannot wait to get vals to the right of the driftwood. Looking for something else to add between the driftwood in the middle, or to the left of the HM in the front left corner. Maybe I will try s.repens again. Two things I want to happen: 1) I want the blyxa to pick up now that the sunset hygro isnt shadowing it. 2) The HM carpets a little bit more extensively. I guess I need to learn to stop playing around and give it a solid amount of time to grow into itself. I also need to upgrade my light. Might solve a heap of my issues. I didn't realise I had lost 4 big healthy blyxa's on top of about 10 stems of S.repens I was gifted.

I think you shluld set up more shrimp tanks.

Stage 1 of re-scape complete! Tank has been given a little bit of love, upgraded to the eheim 2217, rearranged everything. I am pretty happy with the outcome. Tank looks so much bigger without the internal filter! Eheim canister is so much quieter than the fluval internal. Will never go back. Photo taken a few minutes after everything was done and am hoping the cloudiness goes away for the coming days. I think the scape is much improved, and a testament to all the help I have got from you all here, and the ideas from looking at your scapes!! Stage 2 (soon) will be adding native vals, c.balansae or something similar to the right hand side of the tank. Stage 3 (after a holiday in March) will see 10 neons and 3 ottos added. Stage 4 - maybe christmas - a new light. If I can control algae issues in a low tech, I reckon I will get a better light to help improve growth!

I don't think Disciple was concerned about Cardinals vs Neons. The concern would be 1) Cardinals are bigger and thus a bit bolder than Neons versus your shrimp. Cardinals have been known to hunt shrimp. Picking off one appendage (leg, antenna) at a time. Not saying your cardinals are instinctively shrimp hunters, but they could develop a taste for shrimps. If I had expensive shrimp like Taiwan bees in the same tank as Cardinals, I would move the fish out. 2) Cardinals and Shrimp prefer different (optimal) temperatures. Cardinals like around 27-28deg C. While shrimps like a chilly 22-23deg C. One or the other will not be thriving. They might survive, but they won't be in the optimum environment. In fact, Neons would fit better here with shrimps. Neons, being from further up the river, prefer the cooler water temps. Neons are smaller, and less likely to attack shrimp. Shrimplets are still fair game.

Hi all, So I have big plans to rescape this tank and make it look a bit more interesting, a bit more enjoyable, and a bit more 'professional' haha. I would like to share my plans with you for some further advice and comments. Currently, the tank is 3ft, has mosses, ferns, , anubias, HM, sunset hygro, blyxa, Aqua One PlantGlo 60cm 26 watt light, no co2, liquid ferts. white clouds and red cherry shrimp. One of my issues is I have three large bits of driftwood, but they are all quite similar in size and bulk. None have overly interesting branches or fingers.The layout is a bit all over the place, and while enjoyable for me, I believe after 8 or so months It can do with a proper clean and re-scape. Existing scape: My proposed layout is below: Forgot to draw a java fern or two attached to the wood, and the existing anubias! I will add either C.Balansae or some native vals. The planned re-scape is to have more of a 'raised island' of vegetation which includes the existing driftwoods which are more interactive and visable. Furthermore, I will glue java ferns to driftwood or rocks rather than have them on tiles. The java moss will be tied to mesh acting as a pseudo carpet - instead of growing in a wild ball of mass. The blyxa and HM will remain as is. I propose to get rid of the sunset hygro - It also has holes in the leaves and never looks 100% happy. Bits and bobs of GSA (I think) pops up on it too. Finally, I will be upgrading to a Eheim canister 2215 and adding 3 Oto's and 10 cardinal tetras.

That female coloured up nicely. Love the aquascape in the last image too.