Tank Looking "eh"

[Kris]

Hi Everyone,
I'm at a loss, I want to fix up my tank to look presentable, but made the mistake of starting off with crushed sea glass for "gravel". I really don't like it and have purchased some natural looking rock gravel to swap out. Luckily I have found countless topics on the best way to switch out gravel so I'm just waiting on some time in order to complete the terrible task!

Anyway, here is what my tank looks like currently:

I know, I know, "Fish Country"??? It's tacky yes, but it's a piece of fish history. My adopted red cap oranda, Pudge, was the proud owner of the sign originally and it's kind of an heirloom now.

Anyway, the tank is a 10 gal (us) with a Penguin Bio-Wheel 100 filter, 50 watt stealth heater, and Whisper air pump. It currently houses 3 pearl danios, 3 rosy barbs, and 2 serpea tetras. (I realize the potential of outgrowing the tank - no worries - back up is available! hehe).

What would you all do to re-arrange this mess??

Also - I thought about going with live plants, however I wasn't positive on whether I could do this after the tank was established.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Hmm...i would say it depends on completely the type of look tank you are going for, have you checked out the members tank gallery section yet for idea's?
There are a lot of "looks" you can for for, i myself have pure white fine silica sand substrate with dark peices of mopani and driftwood lying on top and clumps of pants growing around or on the wood. Right now you have quite an artificial look rather than natural one going, are you wanting to keep with this look or go for something more natural looking?

There should be no issues in swapping your fake plants for live ones, i say go for it if you want real plants !
Just make sure though you get proper aquarium plants as many lfs stock plants that need to be semi-submerged or are even not aquatic at all. In general avoid going for plants with varigated/two color leaves or ones with leaves that can support themselves upright out of water as these tend not to be true aquarium plants and will justy end up decaying fully submerged in water over time.

 

[Kris]

Hi Tokis,
Thanks for the input. I am hoping to turn it over to a more natural look - driftwoods, stone, etc. I'm pulling the coral things out (haphazard throw ins). Once the new gravel goes in, I'm going to start planting some live plants and hope for the best! I would need special lighting in order to maintain the plants correct?
Take care,
Kris

 

[unspoken930]

Check the watts on the bulb/s your using for the tank. i would TRY and go for atleast 2 watts per gallon (aka wpg) for some hardy low-light plants like java fern and java moss. To calculate the watts per gallon you have, you divide the gallons into watts, so say you have a 10 watt bulb on a 5 gallon tank, youd have 2 watts per gallon. With live plants, you can either just plop them in and see how it goes (there is absolutely nothing wrong with this) or you can add fertilizer and get a very good substrate for them. If you dont want to spend your money on substrate, root tabs are an option. They are basically little hunks of fertilizer you place in the gravel, under the roots of plants. You can also add liquid fertilizer like Seachem Flourish, and i believe Kent makes something similar as well. And, if you get very high tech with high wattage bulbs (like 3-4 wpg) you can add C02 and this will help the plants out considerably. You can still grow java fern and java moss with 4+ watts per gallon, as i said earlier they are very hardy, but the higher your wpg is, the more options when it comes to plants you have.

On a side note, are the coral things real or fake, as they can raise your PH i think...

I hoped atleast some of this helped!

 

[Kris]

On a side note, are the coral things real or fake, as they can raise your PH i think...

Hehe, look at my tank! They're fake of course!

Thanks for the info on the lights, right now it's only running a 15 watt light, my tank is a 10 gallon, so I would probably bump up to a 20, but I can't recall seeing those when I was out and about. I saw 30's. Then again I wasn't really looking for it. I'm nervous about the planted tank idea, I have visions of Little Shop of Horrors running through my head. I've seen some really crazy grown out planted tanks that looked a little "messy" hopefully things will go well and I won't be devoured by a spastic java fern...I think I may or may not have ADD. I'll have my mini gardening sheers poised and ready, just in case.

 

[unspoken930]

yeah you gotta keep up on regular plant maintenence and everything and dont get scarred away from live plants... they help ALOT.... and if you need any help im here to answer any questions, as with almost anyone on the planted tank forum. Im a bit of a newbie too but in my first tank when i didnt cycle or anything just plopped in 3 neon tetras in a 3 gallon, i planted it with Anachris and Java Fern and maybe something else..... but they took off and i had a large java fern as a background plant and just loose anachris floating about no ferts, no special gravel stuff, and around 1.5 wpg.

Some good beginner plants that hard hard to kill in my opinion are
-Aquatic Banana plants: they have these little banana looking tuber things with a few leaves attached, just set them on your gravel (dont burry the bananas, but if thers any roots attached to the bananas, burry those) and they shoot up these little stem like things that will grow to the surface and produce a lilypad. Once the lilypad gets to about.... i duno 3 inches in diameter cut it off of the plant with a stem of about 8 or so inches and just let it float and it will produce bananas and restart the cycle. Only thing is, this plant kills the other plants of its kind if planted to closely to them becuase they are heavy root feeders, so id get some root tabs and only plant one per 5-10 gallons.

Java Fern: Attach this to driftwood or rocks using fishing line or thread and it will soon attach itself to the surface and look great. it grows really slow but when a leaf starts dying dont chop it off.... many little plantlets will form on the decaying leaf. Also, they produce plantlets at the tip of healthy leaves. all of these can be replanted once they get to a reasonable size.

Java Moss: Attach to driftwood or rock and it will soon carpet the area then spread around the bottom of your tank and carpet it kinda. very simple and easy.

Anachris: plop it in and let it grow, or set it in the substrate and let it grow upwards.... very easy no ferts needed low light too.... i have it growing in my frog tank with less then 1wpg no ferts no nothing and i had to throw away some the otehr day it was doing so well.... this plant thrives on neglect.

Hope this helped!

 

[dthoffsett]

Even if you don't go with real plants you can find some pretty realistic silk plants. Here's a pic of my 29gal w/real driftwood and rocks (he he) and fake plants. I think it turned out pretty natural looking.

 

[Anthony!]

I would say to get rid of both of the stone pillars on wither side of the tank, and add a piece of driftwood. On the note of fake plants, every single one in my 55 is fake, take a look.

Well, at least I think it does not look too bad Then again, that is about $50 worth of plastic plants! Man, they can run expensive....

 

[madmom]

Maybe put a terrace in the back to break up the flat look of the tank bottom?

 

[Kris]

Phase I complete...
The new gravel is in! Once the "dust" settles, and the stocking with the old gravel comes out - I will start looking for some of the plants suggested and begin planting. Let's hope I did everything right and there are no casualties!!

Thanks for all your help guys!

 

[unspoken930]

Oh yay! your going with plants! i think they look much better in the long run, and provide your fish with a more natural enviroment, that is if you have fish that wont detroy them all. If you have any other questions, pm me, ill be happy to help.

 

[Qays]

I would say to get rid of both of the stone pillars on wither side of the tank, and add a piece of driftwood. On the note of fake plants, every single one in my 55 is fake, take a look.

Well, at least I think it does not look too bad Then again, that is about $50 worth of plastic plants! Man, they can run expensive....

Dunno, fake plants ruin a tank imo.

 

[Kris]

Gravel has been changed. 3 swords planted, 3 mystery bulbs planted - just waiting for them to spring up (and decide what they are!!). Improvement? Suggestions?

 

[polypterus]

I actually think tanks with plants are easier to maintain because they suck up Nitrate and reduce your water changes. After a lot of years of messing around I basically get the best lights I can I can afford and load the tank up with tons of plants. I haven't really messed with CO2 that much. I figure if plants don't require extra CO2 in the wild they shouldn't need it in my tank. It probably helps them grow faster though but if things are working right you will end up cutting your plants back anyway. Also aquariums are typically stocked a lot higher than a river or lake so you will already be getting some extra CO2 from your fish.

My favorite plant is Anubias from Africa. They are a lot hardier than most aquarium plants and you can get different species that grow to different heights. I like to put the low ones in the front and the taller ones in the back.

One more thing about lighting. A lot of bulbs stop putting out their full spectrum long before they will actually burn out. I notice this makes quite a difference. I tend to replace my bulbs according to the manufacturers instructions.

As for the rest of the tank there are special gravels that you can get for plants tanks. I forget the name you can probably find them on the internet. For decoration I personally think black back tanks look better especially with plants. For small glass tanks I sometime go down to my local plastic store and buy the thinnest piece of black Plexiglas I can find. I have cut so I can bend it around the back and sides of the tank and I put it inside the tank. Then I get a ton of drift wood and cover much of the back of the tank almost like a wall. Anyway that’s all I can think of at the moment. Good luck

 

[cs091]

Gravel has been changed. 3 swords planted, 3 mystery bulbs planted - just waiting for them to spring up (and decide what they are!!). Improvement? Suggestions?

Much better! I think the "Fish Country" sign is important. It's like my christmas tree which alway has on the decorations that the children made about 15 years ago! It makes the tank unique. It's your tank too and the fish don't give a d***.

The plants however do make a positive contribution to their welfare.