Johnny's Plant Build

why thank you!

The built up is not too pretty but not really avoidable in the filter tubes. When I take the Eheim apart either for adding/removing carbon cause of meds or my 1x year cleaning maintenance I just turn everything off, take it out of the tank into buckets; move it to my tub and disassemble it all in there that way my wood floors stay dry And then I just use a uhm 4ft brush to run through the hoses run hot water past it and they're looking like brand new. I would not use the wired brush because you will make small grooves inside the tube that way and that's REALLY asking for some nice built ups to grow on it then.

This gonna be a two part update....first post is regarding my Vals...2nd is just some newly taken pictures...man these plants are growing!!!! I just bought a 2nd Micron cartridge so I always have a clean one...the dirty one is soaking right now ( thanks Kymmie!!!)

PART 1:
Since the day I planted my Vals, I haven't been crazy about them....maybe I need to trim them, but I have no idea how or where to cut them off....I'm gonna put some pictures up of them....the tops of them seem to be 'rotting' away and I dunno, I'm just now happy with them....here's some close ups of the problems I'm talking about....





Any and all advice on these suckers is welcomed!! I'm about 2 days away from yankin' them and buying something else...







PART 2:
Here are just some general pictures of tank since last week....some cool things I've noticed are:
the Swords growing new stems with some smaller leaves already growing too!!
My rotala indicia is approaching about 8" high...it's filling in nicely in the corner....
The pennywort is growing out of control!!














I'm loving my new plants!!! If only i could figure out these Vals!!!!! help with my vals!!!!


and for all your other pet lovers...here's our cat Abraham making sure the water is the proper temp during today's pwc...haha he cracks he up!

Just keeps getting better and better. And cute kitty.

Valls do that when shipped. just snip of the broken leaves on the bottom right at the gravel line and leave it alone and it'll grow new leaves over the next weeks.

That cat of yours is THE KICKER I'd crack up totally watching that trying to do a pwc

Johnny, my Vallis did the same thing. I had them planted so heavily it made a real mess. I pulled mine all out, chose about 5-6 of the best looking ones along with a few new offshoots and replanted. I got rid of the rest. The Vallis that I replanted are partly doing the same thing. But only a couple of the stalks are so I'm going to let them go and see what happens.

Your cat. My cat is the exact same color, exactly, and he gets up on my sink in the master bath and drink from the spigot if you turn it on for him. Seeing your pic of your cat on the sink is too familiar. lol

Yeah, I'm gonna take Natalie's advice and cut them at the base and see what happens over the next few weeks...

haha my cat is missing a few brain cells!!! I remember the post of your identical cat inspecting your canister filter and figured I'd share his long lost brother haha

Awwww, Abraham is adorable!! Your tank looks great too, but what grabbed me was your kitty. Awesome.

I'll be sure to let Abraham know he's an internet sensation lol haha

soooo I am trying to switch up my fish's diet...

I currently, and always have fed them 'Tetra Color' Tropical Flakes....I feed my corries there food during lights out so the other fish leave it alone.

I've seen other threads about food so I 've bought two other kinds of food, but I'm not sure when to feed them....

1.) I picked up bottle of granular...anyone have experience with these? should I feed them same time as flakes? or alternate days?
2.) I bought a thing of frozen blood worms....they are ind?ivual little cubes...they say to feed them atleast twice a day....but I thought bloodworms were more a 'treat' than a staple diet??

advice??

Thanks everyone!!!