Boring Biorb

[Rhea]

As a quick intro I have several tanks, all moderately planted. Last year I persuaded my husband to get a tank for his study, and we ended up with a BiOrb 30. Whilst it's a nice little tank, I've just been generally frustrated by the fact I can't plant it. It has a few stems in there at the moment that I just keep putting back into the substrate when they drift out every few days, a bit of duckweed and a group of neons. Ideally I'd like to change the fish to be either a siamese fighter or 1 - 2 puffers.

Has anyone got any ideas of how I can get this tank looking more interesting? I don't really want to go the plastic route, but thinking I may have to. I've been considering either buying some thinish driftwood to try and prop up vertically to give some interest, or plant some things in pots that I can move out of the substrate when cleaning. Do either of these sound like good ideas?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i think the vertical thin branchy wood sounds nice, if you can find a piece to fit some redmoor wood might be good, check out aquaessentials.co.uk who stock it

also if you can't get real plants but don't want plastic, get good quality silk plants. They just look that bit more natural than the plastic ones

 

[jakeroberts]

do u reckon u would be able to post a picture of what it looks like now so we can help u a bit more

 

[Kevstir]

if your struggling to keep plants in the substrate java fern attached to bogwood would work

 

[timmystood]

Whenever I set one of these up for customers I normally go down the sub-tropical route. Usually a group of minnow (8 or so) and then maybe 1 or 2 golden apple snails.

 

[Rhea]

At the moment it looks like a boring empty BiOrb - I will post a picture this weekend if it will help.

Thanks for the redmoor wood suggestion, I use that site but never looked at their wood.

 

[wigdean]

Are you using the original biorb ceramic media? If you are, I'd change to gravel gradually. Which will obviously make planting a bit easier.

When I had my orb I used those fake ferns you see in most petshops. Soke them for a couple of hours and they are perfectly fine in a biorb and look pretty good too if you get a bunch of them. They are easy to weigh down with the ceramic media aswell if you don't want to change to gravel.

 

[fishboy619]

try to get a long piece of bogwood or someother wood, and place it at the base if the biorb leaning against the tube in the middle, and attach moss to this, a nice decoration and another plant.

 

[Biulu]

What about a piece of small vulcanic rock (preferaby with a hole in it) on which you plant some moss to create some height differences? In the back a larger stem plant (you might want to change the substrate as suggested), and in the front something small? Or take apiece of wood and put anubias on it.

 

[Rhea]

Thanks for the ideas, one thing I didn't think of was actually getting anything through the small lid

I am still using the ceramic gravel - I thought it was recommended to keep it?

 

[orange shark]

I agree with timmystood, put a group of minnows in and a few snails!