@Landon,
Glad you find the forum and can follow the updates here.
It is also because of vivarium and dendroboard that struck me on the inspiration in the first place.
@danepatrick,
Nope, long pincer and tongs do the job for me. Of course this is limited to light maintenance routine. Heavy one will require some puddling into the pool
Sure I will try to keep the number of species low (no more collectoritis!), though sometimes a careful selection can still look great. The problem is some plants just give up the ghost in this setup, and I will try out many things initially just to see which can survive (you may find this surpirising that some easy to grow plants actually die!).
I've witnessed some ferns and vallisneria spiralis melts away, while every single echi and crypt made it and appears to be throwing new leaves.
Anyway, here is a teaser pic of current condition with the lights off (to give an idea how sunlight is being used).
So far I have put in 150 rummy nose tetra (they form a good school to spectate esp during feeding time) and 6 juvenile bala shark. I'm expecting 2-3 dozens of Puntius denisonii in a week or two, that is if my supplier made it on time.