So after looking at the heater for a bit and not really being able to find anything smaller thats adjustable temp wise... I just stood it up in the back behind the Ludwiga. I'm going to have to keep a close eye on the water level now because the little line on the heater is only submerged 1/4 of an inch or so. It looks a good bit better having the heater somewhat hidden. I also ended up pushing the filter far left behind the Eriocaulon also.
Everything continues to grow well under the 8w florescent lighting. Erio is getting thick again and the Ludwiga will all be touching the waterline soon. I added a stick that I found around the house... I've had it for quite a while and really just stuck it in there for giggles. It'll probably come out sooner or later.
I learned a huge time saver this week, I think I read it somewhere here re:doing water changes with a standard airline tube. But with the fact that I primarily feed the puffer live snails I figured it wouldn't work out well... I had been manually using planting tweezers to remove the spent shells. After the insides are gone they are surprisingly light and sometimes even float to the top. Well using the standard airline I could pretty much just suck them out of the tank while slowly changing the water. It gave me a ton more time to really get down in there and clean out detritus.
Not much else going on. The puffer is a little piggy and begs for snails every time I approach the tank. And yes justintoxicated 2.5 gallons is just on the fringe of being big enough but I do my best to keep him busy/happy. He seems to be enjoying the tank so far.
Any comments on the tank/layout?
