u/_Alukard_

I've started my tank around 10 days ago, but the wood wasn't soaked enough and just bursted up, messing whole hardscape. I've put it in the bucket with water for 10 days, scrapped everything and started over. I thought that wood sinks enough now, but when i filled the tank full of water it started floating in the middle this time, lol.  But it didn't go up as violently as the last time so i've put inbetween branches two rocks and left it as is.

Stocking options i consider (not all of them together of course) Shrimps + small group of fish for the middle/upper area + small group of catfish).

1. red cherry shrimp + 2 or 3 amano

2. dwarf pencilfish or ember tetra

3. otocinclus or habrosus cory

I also considered "Rosy loach" (Physoschistura mango) but from what i see it's very hard to get it where i live

I'll probably drop an update in 15-20 days on how the plants are doing.

Tank: 30cm by 30cm by 35cm. (30 l or around 8 gal)
Light: Aquael 6W led light
Filter: Aquael pat mini (ideally i want to switch to something like sunsun HBL-801)
Substrate: (1cm layer of soil from my backyard covering 2/3 of the tank (1/3 in the fron has only gravel) + black gravel (0.8 to 1.2 mm). 3 cm in the front, 6 in the back.

Plant list:

-limnophila sessiliflora

-hygrophila polysperma

-hygrophila corymbosa dwarf

-microsorium sp. india

-anubias nana yellow heart

-anubias nana bonsai

-sagittaria subulata

-salvinia natans

I really like the catfish look and i have a few small sized candidates i intend to keep alongisde red cherry shrimp. Those are: otocinclus affinis, corydoras pygmaeus and corydoras habrosus.

I like how tiny pygmy corys are but what annoys me is their eyes. They look different on every picture of them i see online, so i don't know what to expect, and i really like the "bright ring in the eye" that otos or habrosus cory have.

Behaviors matters to me less than their looks. I don't mind if they swim in the middle of the tank or spend more time at the bottom. Besides to be fair all three of those are pretty fun fish to watch.

To people who keep pygmy corys - are those rings in the eyes visible when you look at them in person, or is it something that pops up only on pics with something like long exposure time?

I dug up my old 30l (8 gallon) - (30cm by 30cm by 35cm or 11.8 by 11.8 by 13.8 inches) - tank in the attic and decided to set it up again. My initial scape kinda go blown up (wood wasn't soaked enough and just bursted up, i weighted it down with the stone and kept it like this for 10 days, now i decided to just scrap the old hardscape (also ordered few extra plants) and giving it another shot.

First pic - new hardscape idea. Second - old one. What do you think?