Hi there. I think with the foam it's just blocking up where the filter draws in the water at the bottom and also the top. When I had a spec I positioned it on the inside of the filter housing to block the holes up. With regards to plants I had mine high tech so I'm not sure what plants would be best for a low tech set up. Mosses are always a safe bet though attached to driftwood. Shrimp seem to love it too. Hope this helps.
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Here are shots of mine. I can't believe how filthy the camera makes it look!
I've had pretty good luck with this but I might do something else with a second SpecV I'm setting up now. Something finer might be needed.
I've got 10 tiger shrimp and 14 yellow RCS, two small nanas, a few small wendentii, and two horned nerites and one big regular nerite snail. Everything is doing great and the yellow shrimp are breading. The tigers are new but I expect they'll come along real well too.
I used shop vac prefilter foam on the outside. I wanted a course sponge because a fine screen would become blocked easily and would require too much cleaning. The shop vac prefilter always lets water through. It's also black so it matches the plastic divider. However it's maybe just a little too course because I did find a baby shrimp hanging out in the filter section chilling on the foam insert. That said, I'm trying to think of something better and I still may use the shop vac material. Right now I've got 7 or 8 babies in there and they don't seem to be disappearing into the filter.
The plants are doing real well and have no sign of stress. I've kept the stock light because I think it looks fine and puts out enough light for low light plants. All the plants in the tank are healthy but slow growing and that's perfectly fine with me.
I just cut it to size to overlap the area around the slots by a half inch or so. Then I ran a bead of hotglue around the perimeter and stuck it in place as straight as I could.
I've had pretty good luck with this but I might do something else with a second SpecV I'm setting up now. Something finer might be needed.
I've got 10 tiger shrimp and 14 yellow RCS, two small nanas, a few small wendentii, and two horned nerites and one big regular nerite snail. Everything is doing great and the yellow shrimp are breading. The tigers are new but I expect they'll come along real well too.
I used shop vac prefilter foam on the outside. I wanted a course sponge because a fine screen would become blocked easily and would require too much cleaning. The shop vac prefilter always lets water through. It's also black so it matches the plastic divider. However it's maybe just a little too course because I did find a baby shrimp hanging out in the filter section chilling on the foam insert. That said, I'm trying to think of something better and I still may use the shop vac material. Right now I've got 7 or 8 babies in there and they don't seem to be disappearing into the filter.
The plants are doing real well and have no sign of stress. I've kept the stock light because I think it looks fine and puts out enough light for low light plants. All the plants in the tank are healthy but slow growing and that's perfectly fine with me.
I just cut it to size to overlap the area around the slots by a half inch or so. Then I ran a bead of hotglue around the perimeter and stuck it in place as straight as I could.
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