Did a 50% water change in preparation for adding the first inhabitant of the tank - Mr. Bubbles! I thought Mr. B's long red fins would look good with all the greenery, although I had thought he was white-scaled rather than blue-scaled when I saw him at a LFS. :-)
Chilling in his temp tank.
Inspecting me
He's a bit of a spaz, so I made him wait in the net in the water after moving him from the temp tank until he calmed down. I also covered the top glass with black objects to make it a little easier for him to tell where the opening was. Once he was clam(er), I slowly moved the net out from around him until he was floating by himself at the tank's opening.
For the next 30 minutes I sat in front of the tank to make sure he could figure out the top situation. He's not exactly the smartest betta I've ever had, but he was much more calm this time and it helped a ton. He wanted to explore the tank almost immediately, so I'll give him props for curiosity. An hour later he's almost always beelining for the opening when he wants air. Night will prove another test, but I'll be keeping a close eye on him.
Peeking out
Exploring every corner
Water's still a bit cloudy. Perhaps mild bacteria bloom? Or I need to rinse my filter out after the initial dust cloud of starting the tank.
Sitting in front of a tank makes you notice a thin white line wiggling around in the water. Since the system hasn't had any fish food added to it yet, it must have hitched a ride on the plants. Shouldn't become a problem. I will feed Mr. B New Life Spectrum one pellet at a time, and any uneaten will be turkey basted out.