aquascaping help

[Jen]

Hi all. I am just wondering if you guys can give me some aquascaping help/advice.

I have a 35 gal tank... 3' long, 1' deep and 18" high. I have roughly 1.75 wpg of light.

Here is a 'picture' of my tank, and the plants below

1. Hygro Polysperma
2. Amazon Sword
3. Echinodorus angustifolius
4. Cryptocoryne Undulata
5. Anubias Lanceolata
The teal one is a plastic val that I can't wait to get rid of.
The brown is some drift wood that goes up on an angle
They grey is slate (left is a cave, right is a section that is elevated by about an inch)

Here are my thoughts/questions.

1. The grey on the left side is this cool cave thing i built with sloping sides and a few levels that my otos sit on. I want to get something growing up the sides and something growing on the topmost rock so that I dont have this bare section. What plants will do that?

2. I want to get rid of my fake background (those plastic scenery things) but when I take it off my fish all hide... Maybe it was too bright? The tank is against a light coloured wall, so I would like some plants that will grow tall and sideways, not too far out. What would work there?

3. Over on the right, in that elevated section I wouldn't mind a nice bushy plant that the egg layers might use to hide their babies, or that the fish could 'play' in... they seem to love swiming through the Echinodorus angustifolius, but it's short and there isnt much room - I'm trying to make it into a carpet.

Any thoughts or ideas?
Anything at all is greatly appreciated!

 

[gale]

I want to know where your filter and heater is. I have a 20 long that is 30" and I feel like there's no room for any decent aquascaping because I have the filter intake (not to mention the water flow coming out) on one end and the heater on the other-which I thought wasn't supposed to touch anything.

 

[Dave_31]

ok, i think that one the top right in the rasied section you should look into plants like Sagittaria subulata and other Sagittaria sp.
They grow into a "carpet" like structure but losely so that fish can "play" in there. (my corys love it)

On the left in the slate section try adding some moss or somthing to take the edge of the slate.

I would also move your Hygro Polysperma to where your plastic vallis along with the ones on the raised level to free up that area.

I would also recomend looking into lillys (personal favorite) i would put a blub or 2 infront of your bog wood.

I would also rotate your bog wood so that the 3 progs are points down into the bottom left couner.

Any real pictures of your set-up?

 

[Nisha]

For background plants, or even the corner, I would recommend Limnophila aquatica or Limnophila sessiflora. They tend do grow tall and bushy by sending out shoots. They can fill up a space fairly quickly so redirect the shoots to the area you want to fill. The Sessiflora is particularly beautiful.

Sessiflora
Aquatica

As for your background, you can get a plain blue or gradient blue background for your tank. It keeps the fish happy and acts as a quiet background for your own aquascaping.

Hope this helps.

~Nisha

 

[Jen]

I do have pics... at home. I just took them all off my website yesterday (go figure). I will post them when I get home from work.

My heater is between the cave and the sword, and my filter intake (hob filter) is between the plastic val and the raised bit.

What do you mean by lilly's? Like water lillies? do you have a scientific name?

 

[kenneth_kpe]

hi for your background i suggest something dark maybe? a black sheet or cloth maybe, so that the background is dard and it'd emphasize the colors of the plants scrap the plastic plant background or if you have a big budget those foam type backgrounds you can get from the LFS will do great

for the bushy plants on the right hmmm for fry... moss ??? stargrass that is compact ? its up to you

 

[Jen]

Here's my tank... the most recent pic I have. 2 of the plants arent in there, and there are a few more plastic ones, but everything else is the same.

 

[gale]

That cave is too cool. I want to make one-did you silicone slate together? I wonder where I could get some slate. I have some on my floor but I don't know what all-chemical wise-has been on it (I wouldn't normally pull up my floor to make a fish decoration but we're going to replace it anyway).

 

[Jen]

The slate is just sitting on the other pieces. no silicone. I dug the up and down pieces into the sand, and the rest just sorta fit into place. I had a smaller one before i moved the tank, and i thought i liked that one... but this is aweome. my 3 otos sit on a shelf thats hidden by the top one, my catfish has his own section, and my one adult barb takes the big section as his castle. lol

 

[Dave_31]

The lilly i was one about come from the Nymphaea family and are quite undemanding (i have the same lighting as you and mine are growing great!!)

 

[Dubby]

The tank looks lovely.... You could try growing java moss to cover the rocks. It would also look lovely as a curtain to the entrance.

 

[Yenko]

You should remove the airstones; they look ugly and remove CO2 from the water.

 

[Jen]

Ugly in your opinion. I love the airstones, and my fish spend hours on hours swimming throught the bubbles. However, I have turned them off since I took that picture - I only had like 3 plants then.

 

[Yenko]

Ok, well they're off and that's the important point. I like the rock arrangement in that picture with the exception of the pebble piles; the only stones you would see in a sandy river or lake bottom would be huge ones sticking out of the sand, which is the impression the rock in the rear right corner gives me.

As far as the plant arrangement goes, it is nice. It would look nice if the cave was replaced by a grove of Hygrophilia and the vallis along the back grew in more. If you're going to keep the cave, you should attatch some Java Fern to both the top rocks and the sloping ones on the sides, and add a fist sized rock in front with a Java Fern growing on it to make it look more like a pile of Java Fern and rock than a man-made cave.

 

[gale]

OMG keep the cave!! I love the cave. I don't think the air bubbles or stones were ugly either. btw I'm also going to copy your raise area idea. lol.