Could You Help Aquascape My Tank?

ive had my 39gal set up for nearlly 2 months now and ive changed the look about 4 times, now i know there are alot of people on here that are much better at aquascaping than me , here is a little pic of what my tank looks like now, it has a nice piece of driftwood, 2 medium sized rocks and some hornwort and vallis, my lighting is not very good only 45w, but i will be buying reflectors tomorrow.
could you help me aquascape my tank?
i have £25 to spend on plants and decor, help would be much appreciated more suggestions the better.




edit: the hornwort was planted but pulled them out ready to start, thnx
oye and in the breeder box are around 20 cory fry, 3rd week

Well, definatly add more plants its looks pretty bare at the moment, try and avoid just adding a wall of plants at the back all the same height, try and get some depth to the tank by adding midground plants also........mmm,,,thats all the tips i can think of right now but i will bump your thread to the top of the pile again and maybe others will chip in...........best of luck with it

To be honest there's not a lot you can do with barely over 1 wpg, that is if youre looking for a well-planted and aquascaped aquarium. As mentioned, you can try adding more of the low light plants, because it is looking very bare. Once you do that, develop a foreground, midground, and background with focus points in each.

Even with reflectors, you will not have enough light to sustain a heavily planted tank. Instead of spending a ton of money on plants, learn from a lot of our mistakes and invest in some good lights. You'll be glad you did it. It's better than watching your brand new tank full of greens and reds turn brown and dead.

Plan this out. What substrate do you have in mind? Are you going DIY CO2 or Pressurized?

Firstly, if you could get a clearer pic it would help a lot as it is kind of hard to see exactly what the decor you have looks like currently.

It does look like you have a very thin layer of gravel. Personally I would try and get that a bit thicker if you would like to have some plants in there.

There are some lower light plants that should grow very well in there:
java fern
anubias species
many cryptocoryne
Hemianthus callitrichoides (a carpeting plant which is supposed to grow under low light. currently trying this)
ceratophyllum species
Some echinodorus should be ok in lower light (ozelot,bleheri)
Sagittaria species

The list could go on...

So, there will be a number of plants you can use... it just depends on whether you cna get them or not.

For some, your best bet may be online.

You will probably find the cryptocoryne and the sagittaria species will be the cheaper options.

You may need an extra bit of wood or two as well, just to create more hiding places.

Heres another tip. Buy plants online from a store such as Greenline. http/www.aquaticplants.eu.com/. They have cheap plant collections (Set menu) and if you let them know that you have a low light tank then they usually oblige by customising the delivery.

I find that your hardscape (rocks, wood, etc) is too symmetrical and too separated. I find that the best hardscapes are concentrated a bit off center and clustered together rather than spaced apart with then a gradual decrease in hardscape from one end to the other. For Example, one end has most of the wood and rocks and it gradually tapers to one side. This will make your tank look absolutely huge! Or, hardscapes that radiate from the center outwards, but I've seen this look less.

You could attach Java fern to the wood to create a nice tank focal point.

Congratulations on your corydora fry.

Can i just make a very brief but imo important comment.

I nearly posted first on this topic then didn`t because i felt like i was being unhelpful again.

Basically, i posted a thread identical to this a while back. Wanted advice on aquascaping! But at the end of the day its your choice and your own artistic view! Best advice i got given by someone in pm is go on every website you can and look for inspiration. See what YOU want and then go and recreate it as best you can!
The tank is practically bear so no one can give you movement tips, that would be different but for a whole new aquascape, go have a look on the members pics and the web and seek inspiration!


Good luck and Have fun with it!

Chris

ok thnx everyone for the ideas, i will look into buying more plants and wood. today i bought another bag of gravel and some java fern, ive tied the java fern to the wood with an elastic band.
i was hoping to get some more wood soon and plant java fern all over it, but just need a few more quid

ill keep you updated, thnx

Due to my background in house-building, the first concern I have is the tank’s “foundation”. I’m a bit worried about what that tank is sitting on. It looks like it spans across two separate chest-of-drawers. A tank’s base must be DEAD STRAIGHT, and in my experience, the tops of two separate pieces of furniture are seldom in exact line with each other. Please tell me that you checked this, before putting anything in your tank! If you didn’t, and if the tank base is not continuously supported along its entire area, there will be stress on the glass joints. I no likey stress, with close to 400 lbs. of water behind it! I hope you don't have to empty it, to put a good base under it (heavy plywood, shimmed if necessary).

On the aquascaping, I agree that it looks too symmetrical. Your wood is dead centre, flanked with a rock on each end, like bookends. That looks too stiff and artificial, to me. Mix it up a bit. Also, the rocks are too close to the glass. There should be about twice the width of your largest fish between a rock and the glass, to prevent health problems with fish rubbing their protective slime off.

Use this article to estimate the amount of light you need: http/www.redrum.org/aquarium/fish/Faq/pl...ng.html#starter

Have fun! I love setting up a new tank….it’s one of the best parts of fishkeeping. We can be creative, and pretend that we are arteests! B)

Wet Coaster said:

Due to my background in house-building, the first concern I have is the tank’s “foundation”. I’m a bit worried about what that tank is sitting on. It looks like it spans across two separate chest-of-drawers. A tank’s base must be DEAD STRAIGHT, and in my experience, the tops of two separate pieces of furniture are seldom in exact line with each other. Please tell me that you checked this, before putting anything in your tank! If you didn’t, and if the tank base is not continuously supported along its entire area, there will be stress on the glass joints. I no likey stress, with close to 400 lbs. of water behind it! I hope you don't have to empty it, to put a good base under it (heavy plywood, shimmed if necessary).

Click to expand...

Thats an excellent point WetCoaster Thats very good observation !!!