Making The Tank Look Nice

[t.ropical_m.istx3]

right now, shadows 2ish gallon (US) tank just has some of those pretty, round stones in the bottom, a fake plant (because the live ones wont root) and his favorite pillar. pacific's tank is a bit smaller with the round stones in the bottom and a fake plant.

i'm a little tight on money - the 'rents wont help out much with the fish - but i'd love to make them flashier looking...or just not so plain i guess. any ideas on what i could do to make it look better?

 

[matty101]

im in the same position parents wise I would personally use more short stubby plants with big leaves in the front/mid and some long thin leafy plants in the back. Try to go to a beach or find/buy some stones that are nice looking, clean and not sharp and use them for your tank bottom. Always makes a nice little showoff

 

[blueblue48]

actually i have the moeny but i dont have the inspiration, mines in a 2.5 and its so small i cant think if much to do for it. i might put a background?

 

[matty101]

yes but make sure is it brightly coloured/designed. I find that when you have a darker barckground, the betta isn't notcied as much and is sort of, drawn out, on the tank

 

[t.ropical_m.istx3]

hmm okay. i like the plants/stone idea. i have to incorperate shadow's pillar in his tank though. i think he'd jump out of his tank and drown me if i didnt .

edit: for the background, if you look at shadow's picture in my siggy pic (i recently noticed how cool it looked) the purple and green stripes are the color of my walls and where the bettas are, it's my "beach" part of the room. like on my bookshelf, there's a ton of seashells, beach posters behind it ect. i kinda like that instead of a background, especially in that picture.

 

[summerdragon]

Be careful using random rocks from the beach in your tank there is a risk you will pick the wrong type of rock it will leech metals into the water… Glass is always safe, in the past I have used fancy glass bottles in my betta tank… I put the bottle on it’s side and both my Cory and Betta would swim in and out of it all the time… And best of all it was free ……. good luck with the decorating…

 

[t.ropical_m.istx3]

Be careful using random rocks from the beach in your tank there is a risk you will pick the wrong type of rock it will leech metals into the water… Glass is always safe, in the past I have used fancy glass bottles in my betta tank… I put the bottle on it’s side and both my Cory and Betta would swim in and out of it all the time… And best of all it was free ……. good luck with the decorating…

thanks. i wasn't sure, but my friend warned me about the same thing with rocks. hmm..i may try the glass idea. i was thinking about getting more old ruin things and making shadow's tank look like an old roman ruin.

edit: i know i have the big shiny rocks in the bottom of the tanks so i can't put in live plants. i'd really hate to get rid of it - i think it's gorgeous in there, but you can see the clear things on the plastic plant's "roots" and it's harder to decorate like that .

and then i found this image i kinda liked as a background even though it's not an underwater picture. (for shadow, not pacific, pacific's tank is pretty much impossible to get a background on, its hexagonal.

 

[Birdie]

How about Java Fern or another of the plants that roots directly on to a rock? ( i don't know how expensive that would be though - not very, I don't think)

 

[Glod]

Java fern doesn't need a substrate, if the rocks is rough at all it will attach and grow on the rock. Java moss needs no substrate either, just dump it in. Hornwort is also a floating plant but you can anchor the end so it looks like a vertical plant, hehe... Just a few options.

 

[t.ropical_m.istx3]

yeah, my rocks are very smooth, they're the clearish, shiny pebbles you see in the netted bags. i was thinking about java or willow moss - i love willow moss - but no where around here sells it. i actually think i may make shadows tank look like ancient ruins with a bunch more of the ruins like his dear, sweet pillar, and pacifics, i may make into a fairytale looking thing, since he's so purdy.

 

[t.ropical_m.istx3]

hey guys i got the tanks sorted out. shadow has black with a few specks of neon colors as his substrate and pacific has a ton of the pretty round stones. live plants are being shipped here for them and as for the themes, shadow's is going to be ruins and pacific's is going to be the fairytale setting