My 3ft Community Tank

[orientmatt]

Well its been a long while since I even visited this site let alone posted on it, so I thought you'd all like to see my 3ft tank that I keep in my bedroom. Its changed a lot since I first started posting on these forums. Most of these changes have been in order to help my plants survive and thrive and make it easier to look after, as I tend to neglect it somewhat from time to time.

At the moment it is home to: Kissing Gourami x1 (did have two others but time took its toll), Red Tailed Black Shark x1, Albino Pleco x1, Zebra Danios x10 and Silvertip Tetras x5.

A majority of the planting is giant Vallis as I find this fairly indestructable, easy to keep and covers the tank well, although there is a smaller type of Vallis in both corners (I think its Vallis), some moss balls, a small and neglected Amazon Sword and a Nymphaea

 

[Sean W.]

very busy, to busy for my taste, but it looks good

 

[orientmatt]

Yea I could go on forever thinning out the vallis as it runs like stink but I figure having the back and sides of the tank covered with planting make the tank look bigger than it really is.

 

[BryceHockey]

I really like your tank, Matt. At first it looked odd to me because it's not the traditional planted tank that seems so common. When you really think about it though, that's probably very similar to a natural habitat for the fish. I like it!

 

[Wills]

I think it looks stunning! The mix of the valis and the tiger lotus is awesome if It were me though I would add in some rooty twisty roots at a side. And also a more natural substrate but for a low maintenance tank that is fantastic!

And youve just won me an argument with the misses about tanks stuffed with valis looking good

Wills

 

[orientmatt]

Yea I reckon the wood is probably the worst part, I reckon it needs to be bigger and bolder as small bits like that dont really have much impact.

As Brycehockey says I reckon we are so used to seeing absolutely stunning tanks filled with every kind of colour and texture of stem plants, that are real works of art, it makes tanks planted with a minimal amount of different plant species seem a bit 'dull' or uninteresting at first glance. But for me going down that route is so high maintenance its not worth me even trying to achieve it.

I don't bother with C02, fertilisers, water testing or any of that stuff. A substrate of multi-purpose peat with a layer of gravel along with plenty of lighting seems to work a treat for me, all I need to do is chop the tops off the vallis as it grows; which is probably a once weekly/fortnightly job.