Critique My Tank - Pic Included

[top_cat]

I am new to Tropical fish keeping and here is my first attempt at creating a tank



I'm trying to get a peaceful and relaxing natural feel, I've added a couple of plants and am now cycling the tank ready for fish.

Please tell me what you think, I will take all suggestions...

 

[k.o.d]

I like the layout, and I like the tank, though the natural valley where the bogwood is will allow mulm to accumulate, the advantage of that is you know where to concentrate your cleaning efforts
I must admit to never having been impressed by Biolife filters, the idea behind them is excellent but from experience I have found they clog up quickly and are labour intensive, they would not be my filter of choice.
What fish are you going to stock??

Steve

 

[MasterP]

your tank looks very good and the only thing you might do is add some tall plants to the backround and maybe something like java fern to the left side of the tank.

 

[top_cat]

Thanks for the reply's. I feel there is something(s) missing in the tank, maybe its because I don't have anything really creating a sense of height but I'm not sure. Some tall plants in the background could be the answer

The Biolife filter came with the TropiQuarium tank, I might change it in the future if I find it a lot of hassle.

With regard to fish, I'm planning on going for a community take with very small fish. I would like a Male Betta but it seems too difficult to find fish which they are happy to live peacefully with.

 

[qwikimpss]

hhmm...what would be cool is to divide that dwarf hairgrass up (at least I believe it's dwarf hairgrass) and get it to cover almost the entire substrate as the crypt and bogwood would make interesting focal points, just keep the hairgrass trimmed down somewhat low.

 

[jessicajersey]

i think a back drop would help the natural look and brighten up the tank

 

[fishwatcher]

would add a few more plants - maybe some tall ones in the back, a few different leaf textures around the middle/front.
I really like it, though. Esp the wood!

 

[Tuishimi]

Nice! I like it. Maybe if you find a taller plant for the background something with red in it would be nice.

 

[demonmagus]

Get that dwarf hairgrass as a carpet, tbh thats about it, the rest is awesome

 

[nmonks]

It has the heart of a really nice tank. I think the mix of sand and gravel is nice (but then I often do that myself) one when you get patches of gravel showing through, it looks really natural.

Anyway, a couple of thoughts: I'd make the "dunes" a bit less even, right now they look like a sine wave. Too artificial. I'd either have just one peak at one end, and a trough at the other, or create two peaks but one much smaller than the other. Given your tank is rather short, I think just having a single peak will work better.

Try and find a way to combine the bogwood with the sand, so that it doesn't look like a lump of drift wood but rather a tree root exposed by the shifting sands. Perhaps place the wood on the glass at the bottom, and then mound the gravel and substrate around it. In fact, this is a good ploy generally because it avoids the problem of food or waste getting stuck under the wood where catfish and snails can't find it.

I'd also try a mixture of short and tall hairgrass. The dwarf stuff is nice, but the tall stuff (which I've discovered you can buy VERY cheaply as a marginal/shallow water plants for ponds at garden centres) gets to about 30 cm tall. A mixture of the two dotted about the tank would turn it into something that would look very much like a salt marsh but with the tide come in. Then add a few fish like livebearers or halfbeaks or glassfish or dwarf cichlids and you would complete the illusion. It would look marine-y, but actually only freshwater! Add a few freshwater shrimps and snails, and whammo, your very own saltmarsh.

You might find the crypt will stick out like a sore thumb though. One thing I've discovered (after spending too much money buying plants) is that recreating biotope aquaria works best with one or two species of plants rather than lots. And the species need to have the same general shape, tall and willowy, or short and bushy, or whatever. What works in an Amano "nature aquarium" doesn't work in an authentic natural aquarium. Amano-style is about suggesting a landscape rather than recreating a habitat.

Anyway, looks great.

Cheers,

Neale

Get that dwarf hairgrass as a carpet, tbh thats about it, the rest is awesome