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 Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2012 12:54 pm
cєℓєsтιαℓ ғιʀєғℓιєs:
This is my tank right now. I'm trying to make it really cool, but I'm struggling, haha. I lovelovelooove the look of planted tanks, so that's what I'm going for here. Maybe sort of an overrun greek ruin thing, and I'd love to have plants curling around the decorations I have in there.
I think what I need is:
A) Better lighting
B) Taller decorations.
C) MOSS!
Right now, I have a 25w bulb in there, but it's just not... doing it for me. It seems so, ugh, yellow? It's not the water itself, so I'm going to look into different lights when I go to work tonight. Maybe LED lights, but those tend to be expensive IIRC.
I also need like, a really tall natural decoration. Something I can affix moss to. Now, I've heard that driftwood leeches into the tank and can make it cloudy, but clearly a lot of people use it without problem. I don't have *personal* experience with it (being that we don't sell it), but does anyone else? Does it really leech, or does that go away pretty quickly? I'm sure it can be helped by soaking it BEFORE putting it into your tank.
Aaaand, I'm going to be looking at moss. I see a lot of tanks with moss in it, and I love the natural look it has. 3nodding
Does anyone have suggestions besides that? I'm very open to them. ;_; I'm tired of being perpetually dissatisfied with my tank, haha.
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Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2012 6:28 pm
cєℓєsтιαℓ ғιʀєғℓιєs:
Let there be light! I got a CFL-- instantly looks amazing!
I also got some driftwood. It's big, but I'll try it out. I think I'm going to do a preliminary soak/rinse, put it in to see how it goes (if it's too big, I can return it), and then take it out to soak for a good long while if I like it. And then I'll attach some plants to it, namely that anubias that's sitting on the decoration in the middle.
Edit: This is exactly what I wanted. 3nodding
Now I have to see how the driftwood goes, about to put it in.
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Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2012 9:20 pm
It's looking great! I loooove CFLs for small tanks. Cheap and work really great!
Driftwood won't make the water cloudy, but will tint it. How much depends on the type, of you presoaked it, and how often you do water changes. Tannins are actually really beneficial. They help reduce stress and soften the water for fish that don't like it too hard smile
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Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2012 10:22 pm
Akari_32 It's looking great! I loooove CFLs for small tanks. Cheap and work really great! Driftwood won't make the water cloudy, but will tint it. How much depends on the type, of you presoaked it, and how often you do water changes. Tannins are actually really beneficial. They help reduce stress and soften the water for fish that don't like it too hard smile
The driftwood is in a bucket as we speak! :D It's kind of, er, large... I'll definitely have to do away with the large greek column, and likely the smaller one too (it's always falling over anyways dangit). It doesn't bother me, TBH. I prefer aquascaping to themes much, much more anyways.
I got some new plants. Water sprite, and one I'll post about later. They're very haphazardly added to my tank right now, more to get them IN the tank than what I want the final result to look like.
I do have a problem, though. Some of my plants are NOT staying rooted. sad Water Wysteria, I've been fighting with. A lot of it died, and then I kept finding it floating about. I finally delegated it to the back corner of the tank to grow out some more because I was tired of fighting with it. It seems to be staying put right now, but it still feels very fragile and easily comes loose.
And then there's the new plants I bought. I'll admit, this is kind of dumb of me, but I'm not 100% sure what it is (and yet I bought it, ha). Bacopa I'm thinking? They weren't labeled very well, and the employees were kind of busy, but I'm pretty sure it's Bacopa.
So, anyways, I took the weight off the bottom of it, and there's like no root there. The water sprite did just fine because I could bury it, but it's no go with this. I finally got fed-up and put the weight back on. In hindsight, it probably isn't good long-term (both for the plant and for the tank) because I don't know what it's made out of, but it's late and my googling suggests my fish aren't going to die. lol Is it okay to tie this down to a rock in the meantime?
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Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2012 11:26 pm
Is that a amazon sword in there? Those guys are capable of getting 2 feet long and wide, I had one a long while back which took up half of my 75 gallon tank, til I decided silver dollars were a great idea and they made quick work of it.
Slow growers, good looking, but there are a few better options out there for a tank so close to the foreground, I'd remove it to clear up some space, maybe look into anubias nana anchored to a rock or piece of wood, or if you are going for a higher tech setup some dwarf saggitaria or dwarf hairgrass makes a great carpet.
I never soak my driftwood, even if it won't sink, just rinse it off with some hot water and a brush and toss it in there. It'll brown the water for a good while, but it's beneficial to some types of fish, and not harmful to any. If it's a floater, just throw some rocks on the corners to anchor it down, presto.
If it were my tank, (aside from removing the greek columns cause I think plastic is tacky sweatdrop ) I'd move the onion plant to the back left corner, remove whatever that stringy stuff in the back is (it just looks cluttered and messy, if it is what I think it is, then it's technically not even a fully aquatic plant) and move both of the swords to the back right, if not just removing them and getting some anubias instead. But it's not my tank, so this is all up to you.
Good luck
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Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2012 1:42 am
Noble Onidrase Is that a amazon sword in there? Those guys are capable of getting 2 feet long and wide, I had one a long while back which took up half of my 75 gallon tank, til I decided silver dollars were a great idea and they made quick work of it. Slow growers, good looking, but there are a few better options out there for a tank so close to the foreground, I'd remove it to clear up some space, maybe look into anubias nana anchored to a rock or piece of wood, or if you are going for a higher tech setup some dwarf saggitaria or dwarf hairgrass makes a great carpet. I never soak my driftwood, even if it won't sink, just rinse it off with some hot water and a brush and toss it in there. It'll brown the water for a good while, but it's beneficial to some types of fish, and not harmful to any. If it's a floater, just throw some rocks on the corners to anchor it down, presto. If it were my tank, (aside from removing the greek columns cause I think plastic is tacky sweatdrop ) I'd move the onion plant to the back left corner, remove whatever that stringy stuff in the back is (it just looks cluttered and messy, if it is what I think it is, then it's technically not even a fully aquatic plant) and move both of the swords to the back right, if not just removing them and getting some anubias instead. But it's not my tank, so this is all up to you. Good luck
Yeah, the amazon swords are definitely slow growers, haha. I've had them in my tank for about a year now. They're my favorite out of anything. They were pretty small when I put them in (especially the one up front). I like how they've grown. 3nodding
I'm leaving in roughly 5 days to visit my parents for a week, so I'm going to reserve the complete makeover for when I get back. And if I have all this time, I might as well soak it. My boyfriend's going to be helping me out with that/tank maintenance while I'm gone.
Also, that plant is probably what you think it is. lol I've seen them being kept underwater since I got my job, and didn't think twice to question it until I brought it home. So, yeah, eventually I'm going to have to take it out. Which kind of sucks, because all of our fish stores suck at stocking a variety of plants.
And a side note since I'm posting: My betta is loving the fern I got. Niceee.
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Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2012 8:48 am
The pictured plant does look like a type of Bacopa, yes smile
I love my Swords! I've got Amazon's and Argentines smile
To help your plants stay rooted, I find, especially with stem plants, that if you sort of position the bottom stem in a bit of a bent fashion, you can then maximize the amount of gravel that helps hold it down lol Other wise, if you have a PetSmart or a really cool LFS, they may just give you some weights for free. I also find just letting ir float and develop longer roots works too, but doesn't look as pretty for a few weeks LOL
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