Tank design

[Vossy121]

Hello everyone,

In the last 2-3 I have taken over my family aquarium as our goldfish all died from old age! The tank is 20 gallons (75 L) and is looking very basic. At the moment in the tank I have;
X2 Dwarf Gourami
X2 German Blue Rams
X4 tetras (2 cardinal and 2 orange ones I'm not sure what they're called)

I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions about tank design to make that tank look better!!

And any suggestions for more fish to add would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks in advance!!

 

[Byron]

I recognize the tank from your other thread on algae.

Floating plants would do a lot here. You would see brighter fish colours, and they would be more relaxed, aside from the algae-related issues.

There is nothing wrong with fake lower plants, or you could venture into live plants. A big topic in itself.

A chunk of wood would help. I find that either one largish chunk, or three or four smaller chunks, works. Avoid symmetry, always, in wood, rock, decor or plants. Nothing makes an aquarium look smaller than any of these items in the centre or spaced evenly. This immediately draws the eye to the rectangular shape and it seems smaller. Placing all decor items at differing spacings will create the visual impact of more space, and be more natural. Nature is not very symmetrical.

Byron.

 

[marnold00]

floating plants floating plants floating plants! Love what mine did for my tank. I have amazon frogbit and salvinia natans and it looks superb with the funky shading and the long roots. It also has a positive effect on the tank as a whole for a place for fish to live

I also found taping some matte black card to the back of the tank (outside of tank obviously) worked wonders too. It's bought out all the colours of the fish and the plants amazingly

But generally speaking.. what byron said

 

[Vossy121]

Haha thanks Byron you stalker And marnold! Can you suggest any type of floating plants?? I would also like to change the substrate as the gray and colour is very boring to me!

Thanks in advance

 

[Ch4rlie]

Agreed that a nice large piece of bogwood and a plethora of plants would lift things nicely.
If you wish to have live plants then suggestion is to start with low tech types of plants, which is ideal in your case as they will grow in low lights and only need minimal maintenance.

There are low tech plants such as java ferns, anubias, valisernias, elodea and various types of cryptocorynes to name but a few which will do a lot for your tank in many ways, not just aesthetically pleasing and more natural looking.

So if you wish to have live plants then perhaps using taller plants could be used in helping to hide the internal filters and pipes, perhaps with a nice bunch of jtall ava ferns or any other tall background type plants would be a start. Then some nice low growing crypts in the foreground would give some depth as well.

Of course not trying to persuade you to take on live plants if you feel this is not for you, plastic or silk plants in tanks can be stunning, there are one or two tanks that I've seen on this forum with mostly plastic / silk plants that is truly lovely. A good eye for this sort of thing is most helpful, which I sorely lack btw so cant help much there, heh

Floating plants, well there are a few choices, but my personal choice would be water lettuce. These have nice long trailing roots. But silvanias are a nice type of plant i like as well personally.

I would avoid floating plant such as duckweed, which is actually quite nice in its own right but I find these quite an invasive plant, and could potentially take over the water surface within a short period of time (hard to get rid of as well as you need to remove every last strand of duckweed!!!)

Frogbit which marnold mentions is similar but larger and has longer roots than duckweed and also propagates slower so that would be preferable to duckweed for sure imho.

Also having a nice black background as marnold suggested is a good simple idea that helps to make the plants and fish stand out more, as already mentioned black card / paper does things nicely but I find a painted background using either acrylic or chalkboard paint is that much sharper and bolder, down to personal taste more than anything tbh.

 

[Byron]

Haha thanks Byron you stalker And marnold! Can you suggest any type of floating plants?? I would also like to change the substrate as the gray and colour is very boring to me!

Thanks in advance

You're welcome, in advance.

I mentioned floating plants a moment ago in the algae thread, so won't repeat all that. Substrate...yes, personally I would change this, and to sand.

Aquarists have their own preferences for substrate colours, but these do matter to fish to some degree. A dark substrate is always better as it is simply put, "natural;" fish will be more relaxed over a darker substrate. It doesn't need to be black, just not white. Colours (other than the neutrals black, grey, buff, brown) tend to be less effective because they pull the eye toward them and fish can appear less colourful.

Sand is generally preferable to gravel (I had fine natural gravel for 15+ years before I tried sand and now all my tanks are play sand) because again it is more natural in most habitats, plants (if live) grow well in it, and many fish like to sift through it. Catfish like corys should only be maintained over sand as this is an inherent trait they have to sift it through their gills.

Ordinary play sand is perfectly good in aquaria. It is refined to remove any sharpness, and most of it is fairly dark, usually some sort of mix of the afore-mentioned colours.

Byron.

 

[BettaBettas]

I suggest a variety of live plants, that get tall, and some bottom growing plants like DBT

 

[Vossy121]

With the sand, can i still use a gravel cleaner to clean/ drain the tank??

And if I do get gravel again is there any cheaper place to get it other than a pet shop? I have heard you can use gravel from plant nurseries (rock yard)? Is this true or is it just a certain type of gravel?

 

[Vossy121]

I was also thinking about adding new fish? I'd love to add a betta but most people say no to Gourami and Betta together..... any other suggestions?

 

[Ch4rlie]

With the sand, can i still use a gravel cleaner to clean/ drain the tank??

And if I do get gravel again is there any cheaper place to get it other than a pet shop? I have heard you can use gravel from plant nurseries (rock yard)? Is this true or is it just a certain type of gravel?

Am not too sure what you mean by using a gravel cleaner to drain the tank?

If you can move your fish to a temporary tank container that would work best when it comes to removing the gravel you and then replacing with sand. But yes you can use the gravel cleaner to drain the tank of water.

You CAN use sand or gravel from other sources than LFS, just need to make sure it's natural sand with no added chemicals at all. Sand that's safe for children should be good to use though.

I was also thinking about adding new fish? I'd love to add a betta but most people say no to Gourami and Betta together..... any other suggestions?

Adding ANY fish with a Betta is always a risk. You have to remember that bettas are aaggressive and territorial specie of fish. Though there have been exceptions but not a risk worth taking imho. Bettas are perfectly happy to be in their own tank of 5 to 10 gals being the general consensus, and with perhaps snails and maybe large adult shrimps.

Really, it just depends on the temperament of the betta.

 

[Vossy121]

I mean can I clean sand with a gravel vacuum?

Is there any other place I can get gravel from at a cheaper price?

I probably won't get a betta but are there any other suggestions for other fish to my tank?

(List of fish I already have is at the top of this thread)

 

[Essjay]

By gravel cleaner do you mean a tube that siphons water out of the tank?
If that is what you mean, yes you can use one but the technique is different. Debris doesn't get down into sand, it sits on the top. Instead of pushing the end of the tube down into sand you hover it 1 cm (half an inch) above the sand and make little swirling motions to lift the debris off the sand to where it will be sucked up. The first few times you will suck up sand; I still do after about 5 years with sand. I empty the old water into a bucket so at the end I just rinse the sand and put it back in the tank. Plain tap water is fine for this as the amount of chlorine that will end up in the tank is negligible. If you use a hose to clean the tank you would need to top the sand up every now and then.

 

[Byron]

Essjay answered the substrate cleaning question very well, so I will move on to suggest you get sand rather than gravel. Play Sand which you can buy at home improvement type stores (don't know those in Australia, but there must be equivalents to Home Depot and Lowe's, if not these themselves). Play sand is not rough because of its refining, and it makes the tank look more spacious because of the smaller grain, and it suits many fish.

Which brings me to your question about more fish. Betta is not a community fish as has been suggested, but aside from that, combining two or more species of anabantid (gourami and betta are anabantids) re3quires a largish tank and then depends upon the species. Males of these fish are territorial, to some degree depending upon the species.

You would be best to increase the tetras. Tetras, along with hatchetfish and pencilfish, are characins, and these are shoaling fish that live in very large groups. [Barbs, rasbora and danios are also shoaling fish.] They have an inherent need for a group and having too few causes stress which weakens the fish and makes them more susceptible to health problems and disease. The more there are of a species, the better they will be in the aquarium. Most species (there are exceptions) need at least six. Perhaps you could post some photos so we can ID the species.

Byron.

 

[Vossy121]

Thanks again,

Does everyone just have white sand in their tanks, or are there different colours that people like or look good?

I think I will stray away from betta, but what about some catfish kinda fish not 100% what they're call but I think people will know what I'm talking about

 

[Byron]

Thanks again,

Does everyone just have white sand in their tanks, or are there different colours that people like or look good?

I think I will stray away from betta, but what about some catfish kinda fish not 100% what they're call but I think people will know what I'm talking about

Some people do use white sand, but this is not good for the fish. No natural habitat has a white substrate, so it should be dark. Since you are thinking of changing, and mentioned you don't like what you now have, I can use your present gravel as an example. The light reflects off this, and that is why the fish are less colourful. Put in a darker substrate and you will see a difference. Dark substrates are also easier for the aquarist to look at. Adding some chunks of wood as I mentioned back aways will also further darker the substrate.

Catfish, you are probably thinking of Corydoras. They need sand, and darkish. Shoaling fish, so five or six minimum.

Byron.