How would you re-scape?

I'm not very happy with how my tank is looking...i just kind of planted stuff everywhere because I was only worried about keeping the plants alive because previously I never could. Now that I've been (somewhat) successful with that, any advice for reorganizing everything?

I can't get driftwood at this time and I'm not looking to add anything to the tank per say. I can move plants/rocks around and I do have some more or the big red rocks laying around.

I have a bunch of water sprite coming later this week that I plan to mostly leave floating. I have a bunch of young java ferns on top of my rock structure that I'm hoping to move to my sister's tank eventually and I also would like to donate some plants to her betta, but still leave my tank well planted.

Can i see some wood in the back left corner? Id bring that forward slightly and attach your ferns to that, then arrange all your stem plants along the back. You can cut them and replant the top section to thicken them out a bit and create some height gradient

I concur...

I would move all of the taller plants to the back, and plant them sort of right together to create a background. If you have a small piece of driftwood, I would move it into the center, as you can’t really see it.

Another bigger piece of driftwood will help fill in that tank a lot more,

mbsqw1d said:

Can i see some wood in the back left corner? Id bring that forward slightly and attach your ferns to that, then arrange all your stem plants along the back. You can cut them and replant the top section to thicken them out a bit and create some height gradient

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PheonixKingZ said:

I concur...

I would move all of the taller plants to the back, and plant them sort of right together to create a background. If you have a small piece of driftwood, I would move it into the center, as you can’t really see it.

Another bigger piece of driftwood will help fill in that tank a lot more,

Click to expand...

There's no wood in the tank currently, just a few red/brown rocks i used to make a little "cave" for my otos.

In the future I'm definitely going to get some wood in there, as well as change the background to black, but I'm not doing any "major" scapes until I move in a few months. It's just kind of an eyesore right now so I was hoping for advice to rearrange the plants!

Thank you both! I have 75% of the water out now and I'll start rearranging things

squidneh said:

There's no wood in the tank currently, just a few red/brown rocks i used to make a little "cave" for my otos.

In the future I'm definitely going to get some wood in there, as well as change the background to black, but I'm not doing any "major" scapes until I move in a few months. It's just kind of an eyesore right now so I was hoping for advice to rearrange the plants!

Thank you both! I have 75% of the water out now and I'll start rearranging things

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Then I would try to fill in that corner a little more, with the rocks.

I did a similar thing with my 10g betta tank - it adds nice depth. (I will upload a picture later)

I think I somehow made it even more chaotic oh well, I'll get my arms in there again next week!

I have a male betta in a sectioned off part of the tank (temporary) so I tried to position the filter so that it got better circulation in the divided portion (outtake is pointed at divider). It looks ugly there but that's my only option until I move and Peach gets his own tank.

Also when I move I'll most likely convert my 3g tank into a growout tank for my java ferns. I like them but not when they are little lol.

squidneh said:

I think I somehow made it even more chaotic oh well, I'll get my arms in there again next week!

I have a male betta in a sectioned off part of the tank (temporary) so I tried to position the filter so that it got better circulation in the divided portion (outtake is pointed at divider). It looks ugly there but that's my only option until I move and Peach gets his own tank.

Also when I move I'll most likely convert my 3g tank into a growout tank for my java ferns. I like them but not when they are little lol.

Click to expand...

Definitely an improvement

Definitely looks better.

mbsqw1d said:

Definitely an improvement

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PheonixKingZ said:

Definitely looks better.

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Thank you both! The fish are happy and that's what matters most

Hi!

I know I'm late, but is it Vallisneria in the front? If it so they will soon covered your foreground and obstruvt your oto's hiding cave. I personally love overgrown Vallisneria, but if you don't want it to cover your foreground maybe you should put them in the back? It's just my thoughts tho, good luck with your tank!

BoomerXIV said:

Hi!

I know I'm late, but is it Vallisneria in the front? If it so they will soon covered your foreground and obstruvt your oto's hiding cave. I personally love overgrown Vallisneria, but if you don't want it to cover your foreground maybe you should put them in the back? It's just my thoughts tho, good luck with your tank!

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Sorry, just seeing this now!

Yes, it is Vallisneria. I moved it to the center of the tank to see if it would do better directly under my light bar, since it has been doing poorly. It is sending out runners and seems to have a good root system, but the leaves continue to melt off. 3 or 4 months ago (prior to the addition of most of my plants) I removed all of my sand and washed it, so I think there may not be enough "fertilizer"/fish gunk in the substrate...so I've ordered some root tabs to see if they help!

I would deffinitely get the java ferns attached to those rock, you can tie it on with cotton or even use superglue (needs to be pure cyanoacrylate). If you leave the roots in the sand it will eventually rot away.

I agree with @mbsqw1d about cutting your stems up to create thicker growth. On some stem plants when you cut them you will get 2 stems regrowing from where you cut them. This thickness will really help create some cover for the fish.

Wills

I ordered a HOB filter because my internal one is taking up a lot of room and making it hard to create symmetry in my tank, which I think might be what's bothering me about it. I've also got some algae problems that I think might be related to areas of poor circulation due to my internal filter so hopefully that will be solves as well. I also have a new light coming this weekend - none of my plants are dying, but I think they could be doing better - and also look better as the one I have now casts a very yellow light I'm not too fond of. I have a ton of water sprite in there now too, so a better light will be helpful to reach my substrate plants through the water sprite.

My Ludwigia Repens is absolutely taking off now so I will definitely be cutting and replanting from those stems. I may get rid of the cabomba, depends on how it looks under my new light...by get rid of, I mean give to my sister's fish, lol. I technically have 2 background plants (cabomba and vallisneria) and I really only want one in this tank. Vallisneria is my preference, but the cabomba does better in my tank than the vallisneria, so we will see!

And @Wills thanks for that advice, I will attach my ferns to rocks this weekend!

Here's the latest version of the tank! Got my water sprite in there and got rid of the internal filter. Im pretty happy with it. Eventually I will probably have to move the ludwigia to the back, unless my vals suddenly start growing taller. I got root tabs so we'll just have to wait and see. I don't want to stress the fish and move things around too much too soon either.

Also I'll have to pick out the blue pebbles/gravel...i just don't have the patience lol

That's a massive improvement! It looks really good.