We have plants! I repeat…we have plants!

I admit I bought too many. I had more than enough to fill two aquascapes…which I did. More about that later.  And I had some leftovers which I put into my two ten gallon tanks.

The Mopani wood has been a pain. It’s been soaking all week, one week today in fact. I soaked it in boiling water today and noticed tannins were still leeching out. After changing the water, I decided to use cold water and noticed the water hasn’t changed color. Doing research online, I read most people only soak the wood for a few days or boil it for a few hours before putting it in their tank. It really depends on the size of the wood.  Some even said it still discolors their tank for a few days but doesn’t hurt the fish and that a carbon filter will help clean things up.

Speaking of size, I thought the Mopani pieces would be too big, so I took a piece of driftwood with a plant on it out of my ten gallon and decided to use it instead. The bowl pictured only has five plants total in it, including a tiny bit of Christmas moss on the left and the plant growing on the wood. After taking the photo, I added some floating moss which I hope will keep fish from jumping out. I also plan to add a tiny filter to this bowl, but we’ll see how that goes. 

Like I said, there’s a second aquascape also filled with plants. More about that next week.