My Fish Tank

[Bambi211]

Hey,

This is my tank that ive had for a couple of months now, iv been looking at some peoples tanks on this site and im just like wow, and i look back to mine and i feel embarrased, i want it to look natural yet really great

Any ideas or tips?

I would be so greatful!!

Please no insults just ways to improve

 

[Bambi211]

Couple more pics...Some of my fish...

 

[1234-fishy-freind]

The gravel should be changed if you want it to look natural. Just some plain brown cream ect aquarium gravel.

Although the plastic ornimants are supposed to look natural, I would ditch them as they look plasticy.

Finally, I would add lots more plants.

 

[Colin_T]

You could add some more live plants. Try Ambulia, Elodia, Ludwigia, Hygrophilla polysperma & Vallis. Get 4-6 (or more) of each plant and keep each type of plant in a group. Make sure you have the light on for 10-12hours per day and if possible add some liquid iron fertiliser. Sera Florena is pretty good for that.
The green & yellow striped plant in the front right corner is called Japanese Rush and is a marsh plant and will eventually rot and die.

Perhaps change the background to a blue or green one so it is brighter.

Get some more cardinal/neon tetras so there is a group of 10-15 of them. They will hang out together and look better than just one or two.

The rock/ornament on the right hand side can be brought forward and the Vallis can be planted along the back behind it.

 

[Bambi211]

Ahhhhhh thanks a lot, its really appreicated,

I was thinking it kinda looks tacky, the only reason i ended up gettin black sort of gravel is because i thought it might bring out the colours in my fish?

I think im gonna take your advice, im gonna buy some plain gravel, and then sort of build it up like on a slope so its more realistic for the fish?

Also i quite like the them things that lets out bubbles, it like sits in the gravel? do you know if there hard to put into the tank?

Yeah im thinking of buying loads of real plants, i use to have loads but they all died so quickly, do you think plant food would be essential?

 

[Bambi211]

Thanks alot for all that advice, Its really helpful,

Is the fertiliser so the plants can live longer?

And also what do you think of them 3d backgrounds you can get?? There quite expensive tho, and instead like normal backgrounds its not outside the tank its inside the tank, do you know anything about them? if they'd look good?

Thanks again everyone.

 

[Colin_T]

The 3D backgrounds do look good but are too expensive for my liking. So I prefer to use a plain old boring background that goes on the back of the tank.

Plant fertiliser will help the plants to grow and thrive. Also the plants I have listed are true aquatic plants and do well under low light and without and special care. They do better if they get some fertiliser and lots of light but will also do well without it.
If you have been buying marsh plants then that would be one reason why the plants haven't been doing well.

The bubble things are simply long airstones and are run off an air pump. The pump sits outside the aquarium and pumps air through some airline and into the airstone. The airstone simply sits on the gravel in the tank. The air stones are available in a hard sandstone type and also a flexible rubber hose. The bigger the airstone the bigger the air pump required to run it.

 

[emzyp]

id personally keep the ornaments, definately want some nice plants and a good background and change the gravel to something more natural looking or even sand

 

[paul_219]

Very nice tank looking gr8.

 

[Renate]

What's the size of the tank?

I am the midst of changing the foremat of my 29 gallon tank. One tank I saw, can't remember the person, at this forum had large plants to the right in the back with smaller ones in the front on the right. It Made the tank look bigger. I think trying to make it look like nataural streams takes a lot of money and effort. Some ponds have the rocks like you have, pea pebbles. Some people put so many plants in that after a few months the growth does not leave much room for the fish to swim.

 

[Ace Of Spades]

Haha the gravel looks like the top of the fab ice lollies or the rainbow sprinkle chocolate cakes u get from tesco

Change the gravel and ull be well on ur way!

 

[Ficious]

id say keep the ornaments but maybe add some large lake rocks and many more plants...do that and lose the gravel...things should be looking good. tall plants in back small up front...maybe a piece of driftwood?

 

[Bambi211]

Thank you all for all your advice, tips and comments

There all very helpful and interesting,

I,m gonna start jotting alll your ideas down and then over a time period im gonna change it all

Ill have to keep u all updated with new pictures of my tank in the future

P.s....To the comparison to the fab ice cream sprinkles, i love them fab lollies so thats props why i got them, haha!! i do quite think it looks tacky now though :l

Once again thanks a lot everyone,

Keep postring

xxxx

 

[Ace Of Spades]

P.s....To the comparison to the fab ice cream sprinkles, i love them fab lollies so thats props why i got them, haha!! i do quite think it looks tacky now though :l

Most peoples first tanks are tacky and yeah those ice lollies are lovely

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i've found that plain black sand/gravel and a plain black background really brings out the colours of your plants and fish, a big shoal of cardinal tetras weaving in and out of some lush green plants and everything else being black, it just looks dead dramatic and it's not that hard to do!!

If (like me) your a bit rubbish with keeping plants alive then just do some experimenting, buy a load of different ones and see what takes off, you'll generally find one or two plants which work well so then just get quite a lot of them, you can do some really dramatic looking planting just using 1 or 2 species of plants.

often with decor like rocks and bogwood it's often a case of just hunting and hunting, just keep looking round all your LFS's each week and rummaging through the stuff they have and sooner or later you will find something that just jumps out at you as perfect.

we've been looking for some nice wood for months, finally found a nice piece a couple of weeks back...... now probably another 6 months looking for another piece to complement it! ha ha

a lot of the time i think it's simplicity which looks best, tanks with loads of different species of fish and loads of different colours and types of decor look tacky, stick to something like 3 species but get big groups of them and the same with the plants and other decor, use all the same types of rocks or wood and stuff. Just joins it all together nicely.