Aquascaping

[DJ Day 1]

i've learned a new word - "aquascaping", which is apparently the term given to designing the scene of an aquarium... it's currently my word of the week. "i'm cycling my tank before aquascaping it", makes me sound clever

i'm lacking a certain amount of inspiration but thinking something along the lines of plants and wood with a fair amount of swimming area... anyone got any ideas for general themes/styles/whatever and ornaments and plants etc?

i've seen underwater spotlights in a few tanks - has anyone got any experience with them?

 

[jonnyf84]

my 3 scapes are below, hope it gives you a idea of what its all about.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

No no no, you aquascape before you start cycling, but then tinker with it every weekend until your thought process goes a complete circle

• Dimensions of tank?
• Do you know precisely the fish species and quantity you will add to this tank?

In hindsight, I bought too many plants and too much bogwood for my Rio240, as the tank started to look crowded recently and so I removed a significant amount before bring home my six Humpheads on Friday. Fortunately, I have a Korrall60 which now has...

• Small bogwood, with two Anubias barteri nanas and a big chunk of a "mother plant" java Fern attached
• Two bunches of excess Cambomba, which was literally starting to take over the main tank (almost took ~10% volume)

My Indian Red Tail Squirrel Loaches have loved the "maze" for the last few days and now the seven Pearl Danio fry introduced today love it too. Thankfully, they are all small fish!

I had another juggle round with the Rio last night, creating a "central reservation" of plants down the middle of the tank, leaving ~10cm gap to the glass edge all around, enabling my two Opsarius and six Humpheads a decent sized "circuit" covering ~75% of the tank length befoe the "bogwood mountain" for the Lionhead Cichlid and Panda Garra hideouts (just out of the current created by the Eheim 2078 spraybar). Everyone seems happy with the new arrangement today, even seen the Yellowtails doing "shimmer dances" in trios by/through the "central reservation."

 

[jonnyf84]

No no no, you aquascape before you start cycling, but then tinker with it every weekend until your thought process goes a complete circle

Are you taking the mickey here? If not then that is not necessary, scaping does not need to be done during cycling, it can be done anytime. If you want to go down the planted route and really make a professional scape then you will need to invest properly, it's a huge subject that is becoming more popular by the day, visit the UKAPs forum for some great examples of planted scapes.

 

[demasonisrule]

It really doesn't matter when you do the scaping, and the best way to do it is to get an idea in your head, set it up in your tank, and then tweak it til you like it. I've been tweaking my tanks for months and am still not happy, so it really does just take time.

 

[DJ Day 1]

likin that brackish tank... a lot! i think i'll go down that road, maybe with a couple more grassy plants tho.

i've read somewhere that i should have placed a layer of soil (not exactly soil.. but a mineral stuff) down before i put the gravel in if i wanna be using live plants (which i do). i've had real plants in the past without the mineral stuff, and i kept needing to trim one of the plants down on a regular basis.. so is the mineral stuff really necessary? obviously it'll help the growth of the plants, but are there tips to get around not using it? i'd rather not use fake plants.

not sure of the dimensions of the tanks, but they're not massive and i'm aware that generally more scenary = less fish? one's 25litres (about 1.5feet in all directions) and the others a 50litre.. same height and depth, but twice as long. i'll get measurements done in the mornin.

fish species for the tank? definately want tiger barbs, possibly a red tailed shark.. apart from that, i dont know... when it's more set up though, i'm more than happy to start a debate about what i should get

aquarium specs.

50 litre eheim aquarium. bowed front. 24 x 13 x 12in (w h d). internal filter (dont know the model number), 50w heater - 3602?

25 litre aqua vital "starter tank" AVA25. 14.5 x 12.5 x 10in (whd). internal filter - N2867?, 55w heater - N17821

at the min, the 50 litre doesn't have an air pump, but the 25litre has a tetratec APS50 hooked up to it.

both the tanks have a backing on with a plant print.. just to make it look a little more full. i'll get pics taken soonish and get some links 4 u all

 

[ian]

Have a look in the planted journal section of the forum, there are some nice scaled tanks in there

 

[jonnyf84]

likin that brackish tank... a lot! i think i'll go down that road, maybe with a couple more grassy plants tho.

Java fern is one of few plants that i've tried that do ok in brackish water, i've had limited success with java moss and anubias but as far as grassy plants go you might struggle.

i've read somewhere that i should have placed a layer of soil (not exactly soil.. but a mineral stuff) down before i put the gravel in if i wanna be using live plants (which i do). i've had real plants in the past without the mineral stuff, and i kept needing to trim one of the plants down on a regular basis.. so is the mineral stuff really necessary? obviously it'll help the growth of the plants, but are there tips to get around not using it? i'd rather not use fake plants.

Ideally you would have a fertilised substrate as it does promote growth and enables healthier root systems but you could fertilise your own substrate by inserting root tabs or inserting tabs at the base of particularly root hungry plants.

fish species for the tank? definately want tiger barbs, possibly a red tailed shark.. apart from that, i dont know... when it's more set up though, i'm more than happy to start a debate about what i should get

I don't mean to be a buzzkill but a RTBS would outgrow your 50L tank within months, they can get to over 6 inches and requires a 3 foot tank at least.

 

[star4]

Ditto on the red tail it will outgrow your tank and it will kill your tiger barbs, mine wiped out a group of 10 tiger barbs and I have heard of other people loosing tiger barbs to a RTBS