Dirted Planted Nano Experiment - 7 Months - Finally Adding the New Fish!

I was given another free aquarium!
This one is only about 5 gallon, or 20 litres, which I thought would be a good size to try a dirted, no filter tank for the first time.
I didn’t have a plan for anything, and an overall goal was to use only collected materials and to not spend any money in making this.
I found some sand and wood at a local beach, and soil that we just had lying around.
Everything was rinsed thoroughly with boiling water to clean out any pests or insects we don't want.
Water from the same lake was also added to add in a variety of micro fauna that will help make this a full ecosystem.
All plants used were clippings or extras sourced from other local aquariums.
Fun fact, I housed a banded killifish in here for a day before returning it home to the same lake.
6 wild color neocaridina shrimps were added to help start everything, but were taken out shortly after.
This is the biggest update so far!
While this wasn't really planned, thats the theme for the entire experiment really so it was quite fitting.
Shrimps were added again, but after losing 1, I have yet to find any others. So it's kinda Schrodinger's shrimps right now.
While at the local fish store trading plants for neon tetras for a different aquarium I've set up but not shown yet, the owner told me she finally got sparkling gourami in stock too.
After a quick trip home to acclimate the tetras and move the honey gourami, I brought back 3 new sparkling gourami. These are the fish that will be the permanent residents of this nano setup.

[@LushSaltyAquariums]

Cheers from my fish room channel in Chicago! I LOVE this small aquarium and how natural the scape looks. the story regarding the Honey Gouramis was fascinating and I love how you were able to just migrate some eggs over and ... voila! I've kept Sparkling gouramis with Pygmy Cory's before with no problems. bear in mind they will look very similar from a couple feet away and may even hang out with the gouramis to some extent.