1.5G: D-Simplicity the planted nano (Journal)

[iGabe]

The BGA is pretty bad, but not to the point where it'll kill anything in my tank I guess. It's mostly on the sides, while the hair algae is on my rock and micro sword. Yes, I am scrubbing off as much as I can. But I think everyone knows how difficult it is to scrub off BGA. I'm trying to adjust my levels with water changes, will soon throw in some fast growers later. My oto doesn't seem to be helping me much with BGA and hair algae, but he sure did help with the diatom.

[iGabe]

Update!

The algae finally died off since my light fixture broke
So I put my tank (since it's so tiny & light) in the bathroom, where it gets 0.01% of sunlight so the plants could survive until I get a new fixture. It's been 4 days, and I still haven't gotten a fixture. But somehow, my glosso still continues to grow. And I had thought that my micro sword was dying, but it was actually just BGA that was dying.

So now that my tank is algae free, my tank will be going through a lot of changes.
1) Take out the oto, he just looks too big and is ruining my tiny amazon forest-look.
And he poops too much, kinda like having a goldfish.
2) Since this will be an amazon biotope, I want to "complete" my fish list by adding
exotic and rare fish. I already have 2 sixray cories (2cm each), and I want to add
4 micro vilma's tetra, in case nobody knows what they look like:

the micro version grows up to 1cm which is just perfect for my tank.
I also want to a Borelli Apistogramma, from a fish farm here that has a
"pygmy hybrid" of them. They grow to like 4cm, and this is what they look like:

3) I want to add some HM and Rotala Wallichii to the left corner in the back.

[Craigthor]

can't see pics of the Micro Vilma Tetra

[iGabe]

I can't find any pics of the micro version online, but they look exactly like the normal version except smaller and with bigger eyes. Really cool looking tetras.

Here is another pic of the normal vilma tetra:



When I used to live in Charlotte, NC I had never seen these fish before. They have a similar appearance with the glowlight tetras, but the gold line is bolder and much more noticeable in person. And their eyes have a very nice red-blue hue to them. They're awesome fish and said to be very hardy.

[iGabe]

I just bought a pH buffer that drops the pH by 1-2. The product doesn't mention if I have to take out the carbon from the filter, do I have to?

[ZooTycoonMaster]

Even the smallest Apistos will be too big for this tank

[iGabe]

Yeah, I guess you're right
I only realized that til yesterday.