How Can I Aquascape This Tank?!

[Christine1014]

I'm really tired of the look of my tank and want to try something new but I have no idea where to begin. The problem is the tank itself... it's pentagon shaped. (I always called it a hex until I actually counted its sides, lol!) It's longest width, corner-to-corner, is 29 inches. It's about 23 inches tall. (It's 44 gallons). I bought it 'cause it fit perfectly in an empty corner of my den, but that's about all that's perfect about it!!

the folks over on the planted forum doubted I could plant it, since it's so tall and has virtually no light (the fixture that came w/ the tank is only 17 watts). I've got some tall, fake plants in there now, and I'm afraid if I remove them and just go with rocks and stuff, it's going to look really empty up top... HELP!!!

 

[ox5477]

Well, somethign interesting might be to pile rocks into the back corner. I assume with it being a pentagon that you have a flat side facing out into the room with one of the corners even with the corner of your den, so stack rocks up in that back corner and you can then plant all over the face of the rock bringing maybe some plants that need more light closer to the top and the hardier ones to the bottom. You can solve your lighting problem by buying some pc's or halides too if you really wanna go for a heavy planted tank.

The only problem i see with this is that with the rocks piled up, your gonna need a wide base to make the stack stable, so you may lose 1/3 to 1/2 of the frre swimming space to the rocks, plus, algae and waste could get behind the rocks and play havoc with your water stats (although i did have a rock stack at one pt in my 55g and alot of stuff got back there and my tats stayed pretty stable, even with my messy jack dempsey).

Anyways, search on google for aquariums or look for sites with tank pictures. Maybe one of them can inspire you and maybe you can even imporve on someone elses ideas.

o ya.. check out Ratemyfishtank.com, it has a lot of interesting tank designs on it. good luck!

 

[J4MES]

go for a sand bottom with vallisneria in the midd le and pebbles on the outsides.

J4MES

 

[vinylman]

You could always try some large-ish plants in the centre with a piece of mopani wood, then just plant a few strands of Vallis (two or three leaves in each lot) dotted around - that looks very effective.

 

[Christine1014]

They sound like great ideas, I"m just not sure I can get enough light down to the plants.... the tank's 2 feet deep and the light fixture that came with the tank is only 17 watts. With the shape of the tank, I can't just run out and buy a new hood & light fixture to support higher wattage, I don't think.

Anybody out there have anypics of their unusual-shaped tall tanks??

 

[J4MES]

Vallisneria can grow to 3 foot in some cases lol

J4MES

 

[vinylman]

They sound like great ideas, I"m just not sure I can get enough light down to the plants.... the tank's 2 feet deep and the light fixture that came with the tank is only 17 watts. With the shape of the tank, I can't just run out and buy a new hood & light fixture to support higher wattage, I don't think.

Anybody out there have anypics of their unusual-shaped tall tanks??

You could try one of the Arcadia overtank Luminaires (the ones on supporting legs); they may seem a little pricey, but they're worth every penny.