my tank needs your aquascaping help!

[clutterydrawer]

The other night it seemed like a good idea to do a big cleanup and re-aquascape of my tank. I’ve been finding it hard to clean the substrate properly as I have a lot of plants and the debris just gathers amongst them and sits on the surface of the sand. Being sand not gravel, it doesn’t even filter down and get used as fertiliser by the plants, it just sits there looking messy. So, I thought, I’d take out all the plants and replace them in a way that looked good but made cleaning easier.

So I started this at 8.30 then remembered I had to go to bed at 9 to get up for work at 4am! Arg! I just stuck the plants back in any way I could and now it looks really chaotic and I have no idea how to arrange them. I realise it’s a bit of an open ended question but does anyone have any ideas on what I should place where? I just don’t know where to start. I want enough open space around the plants to make cleaning easy, but also maximum shelter for the fish, with some free mid-level swimming space for the tetras…

Here is a pic of the tank now. I probably have too many plants, I don’t mind getting rid of some,. There’s two big amazon swords, a little one, crypt wendtii (1 green and one reddish brown), crypt willisii,, hygro polysperma, hygro corymbosa, three java ferns on rocks and an anubias barteri

 

[BigC]

Hi
The way I set out to aquascape my tank as far as plant positioning, was to sit down with a piece of paper and draw a little rectangle then mark on the rectangle where you would like to position your plants (allowing for decor). Do some research as to the height of the plants and position them either in the background - midground or foreground of your drawing. I personally think that your tank seems a bit sparse on plants so I would purchase a few more. ( please bare in mind this is only a suggestion based on my personal choice as dense planting schemes might not be to everyone's taste).
Hope this is of some help......

 

[konrad05]

I would put a lot of foreground and then a big piece of driftwood in the middle

EDIT: I would also get a different filter

 

[BigC]

Just an update on my above post, navagate to the website below. Click on aquascapes at the top..

http/www.dennerle.de/ENGLISCH/e_frameset.htm

and click on all the biotopes down the lefthand side of your browser.
As you can see they all come complete with little diagrams I mentioned earlier.
Hope this is of some help...

 

[Jen]

Those are some gorgeous tanks you have there. I know they will help me out with placement.

 

[clutterydrawer]

ta!

I don't want any more plants as they make it really hard to clean and there's little enough swimming space for my fish as it is. densely platned tanks do look lovely though.

what's wrong with my filter?

Edit: oooohhh I just looked at the tanks on the dennerle site...how nice are they?! *drools everywhere*

 

[sylvia]

Do you only have that fluval? I don't think it is the right one for your size tank... Anyway, I suggest you move it further back so it isn't so much in plane view. I can't see anything wrong with it myself though.

 

[clutterydrawer]

My tank is 54 litres, the fitler is for 45 - 90 litres...?

I could move it back I guess but positioned in the centre of that wall it circulates the water better and is in a better position for sucking in debris. I used to have a plant in front of it to disguise it a bit.

 

[moe_1]

that filter is gonna deplete any Co2 the plants need by causing too much surface tension.

Put in some Drift wood, it will look great. And some large stones.

 

[Bloo]

Just an update on my above post, navagate to the website below. Click on aquascapes at the top..

http/www.dennerle.de/ENGLISCH/e_frameset.htm

and click on all the biotopes down the lefthand side of your browser.
As you can see they all come complete with little diagrams I mentioned earlier.
Hope this is of some help...

Wow - cool website, links and ideas ! thanks B)