Slight Improvement

I've been struggling with keeping my tanks as natural as possible. It has been a while since I deliberately used cheesy decorations or colored gravel in any of my tanks. This one though was meant to be temporary so I didn't really care what color gravel it would have. It has been a year since I set it up and I just fell in love with it so I decided to change the blue gravel for good. It is a 2 gallon hexagon tank that I use as a "cultivator" tank, meaning I use it to grow out and cultivate plants that I want to propagate rapidly. It is near a west-facing window and it gets some direct sunlight during autumn and winter which allows for a faster growth rate.

Before:

Blue gravel + black stones = one ugly combination

After:

Black sand makes a better medium in my opinion.

Malaysian Trumpet snails investigating the new baby java fern

This tank is oddly shaped so aquascaping is definitely a challenge. The flora includes: Taxiphyllum barbieri, Microsorum pteropus, Rotala rotundifolia v.'marsh', Hygrophila polysperma v. 'sunset',Ludwigia repens, Egeria densa, Echinodorus tenellus, & Hygrophila difformis. Fauna includes: Poecilia reticulata v. 'wiltype' (feeders), & Melanoides tuberculatus.

What triggered the change:

These are my friend's tanks, she recommended that I try black sand which is said to improve plant growth due to its high iron content. She doesn't fertilize her tanks which is sort of amazing considering that her plants look extremely healthy.

I noticed a big picture quality difference even though all these pictures were taken with the same camera. Anyway, I hope you liked it.