The old setup was gutted at the end of June and the reset 'scape (such as it is) has been mouldering away virtually unmolested ever since. I've used composted leaf litter/bark under the sand to host any Crypts that do manage to succeed, and I spread a layer on top as well. There's now a very 'healthy' population of micro-critters on wood and sand, so yesterday the layer of compost on top was removed and replaced with fresh leaves.
Up top there have been a few waves of algae. I tend not to get agitated about algae nowadays - different varieties seem to come and go without any intervention by me! I did however attack some particularly rampant hair algae, which was harassing the moss, with peroxide. Everything went yukky grey. But when I hoovered the moss yesterday, all the yukkiness came off to reveal some actual green stuff underneath!
There are some fish in there already but with the main focus/foci set to arrive relatively soon, I've been paying a bit more attention to the water quality lately. Phosphate is still far too high but otherwise : Conductivity is 152uS (needs to come down) ; pH is 6.12 (ditto) ; temp is 27.3 (abnormally high due to the recent hot weather).
There's still some residual stuff leaching from the leaf-litter/bark but it's coming right gradually.
I'm trying to make floating hides : you can see an early effort at the top left. I've put a little lamp underneath it for the benefit of a few plants that would otherwise be shaded out. There's already very many lurking holes further down the water-column for fish to choose from.
I need a proper name for this tank!