Whimsicle Aquarium Ideas

[Yarra]

Hi all!

I am about to set up a new aquarium...Just a 10 or 20 gal, I already have a 30 long, and will be getting a 60 gal in the next 6 months, but my current project is up for discussion.

I would like to get as many ideas I can, pictures would be WONDERFUL, I am a very visiual person.

I am looking to make a guppy or betta sorority tank.

But I don't want to do it natural like. My other two tanks can head up that genre. I would like to do something fantastical! Whimsicle even fairytale-ish. Crystals, bright colors, high contrast, you name it I am open. I am not looking for cheap neon ornaments. I am talking plant combinations, along with rock and fish, something to look just really neat, but like it was naturally whimsicle? I don't know! LOL throw me ideas! I will let ya'll know who is on the right track!

As I find things that i like, I will post here so that you can know what I am looking for, as I find it.

Thanks so much for the help! I know there are TONS of you out there with pictures and Ideas that I wouldn't have even thought of!

YAY! I love starting new tanks!


Kristin

 

[Torrean]

Take a look at the pictures in my signature and let me know what you think. there is a link in my sig to a thread with a lot more pictures in it too.

 

[Tcian]

My wife wanted an underlite tank with glass gravel and glass rocks. It works, and does look different but we still use the top light during the day, and the bottom light at night. The glass gravel was hard to find, I think some place in Utah had it in various colours that are tumbled and safe for fish. The large glass rocks I found at a LFS.

I put my planted tank on the shelf below the "glass" tank to make the contrast between natural and very different tanks. Most of the people who visit immediately comment on the "glass" tank. Go figure.

 

[Torrean]

That's a neat idea. You could put in glass cats, ghost shrimp, glass tetras and a glass knife fish. Although the knife would probably eat all the other fish. You could see straight through everything in the tank.

disclaimer:
I don't know if those fish are compatible so please don't do this without researching them.




EDIT: another idea I've wanted to try was an all quartz tank. Buy a whole bunch of different shades of quartz in a lot of different sizes (being very carefull about sharp edges) then stack the quarts or if it's smaller pieces silicone it together to make caves and hide holes. Buy a lot of small tumbled quartz for the substrate too. Expensive but I think it would be very interesting.

 

[wendywc]

Miraclebeam, those crazy people who sells lasers to put into aquariums are coming out with a lighted aquarium background. http/www.miraclebeam.com/aquarium_electro.html

I don't know when they are coming out with them, but I really like the cruiseship/lighthouse background. That background with black gravel and a moon or some kinds of celestial-type decorations would look good.

 

[SnowyzMom]

The flashing lightning storm, the other pic beside the lighthouse one, would be great if you had a mini electric eel eh? Otherwise??? I think the lighthouse is neat but I'd be worried about scaring my fish or making them see spots all day, lol.

You could colour theme a tank Miraclebeam...go all desert/sandstone colours, like the colours in the Grand Canyon, and pick fish that stand out against those colours, or fish that blend with them. You could do a kind of goth tank....all dark blacks and silvers...have some angel fish in there---wow.

If you see a large ornament you love, my niece spent $99 on an ornate multi-level castle and her fish love it, all the hidey holes etc. then you can design the entire tank around that. Or do the same as if you're decorating a room in your house...go look at fabrics---they're colour coordinated. You see one you like, buy a tiny piece of it, enough to show all the colours in it and design the tank in those colours.

You can go all modular and modern with a bunch of clear plexi-glass tubes, all silicone glued together, like a fish condo, on one wall......even make the whole tank look like a futurisitic city!

If you found a really cool boat you could make a whole sunken ferry thing, cars in there too(all fish safe of course)...I'd rather draw the line at mini plastic skeletons...unless you were stocking the tank with piranha!

Anyways you're gonna have fun with this one! You could turn it into an underwater carnival...or go all icy whites and blues and opalescents and make it look like it's in the Arctic, under a glacier, in an ice cave, beneath an iceberg. Hmmmm.

Anyways, I'm curious to hear what others have for ideas.

 

[wendywc]

The Grand Canyon one sounds good to me. I saw the other day at Petsmart that they have fake rock that looks just like the classic arch in Utah. Hmmm, maybe a desert theme with small petrified wood pieces (which I already have).

You could always blow up whatever picture you want for a background. A friend of mine always wanted to do a tropical theme... whites sands mounded in the middle, dark blue rocks around the sand, fake palm trees, a little sailboat, and a sunny background.

 

[Yarra]

These are GREAT ideas guys!!

I heard someone once strung a few crystals, like the ones you hang in your window, from the light hood and let them dangle into the water.

That would be cool too, with a frilly layer of green creeping substrate covering plants, and neons? Maybe just guppies? Lots of crystls?

I Like the underwater ice idea!

I also really like the all black idea, I thought about doing that

I saw a tank a bit ago where they used redish lava rock for the substrate and bigger rocks for the main decorations, then they used redish plants, I couldn't see the fish, but the tank looked really cool. I will see if I can find it.

Does anyone have any pictures of what they are thinking of?

I think it is a good idea to find a main ornamant too and design around that.

SOO MANY IDEAS! AAHAHAH!

 

[fishfishfish]

go to the closest fiamond mind and buy some of those cool crystals

 

[Torrean]

Umm. you probably saw it but incase you somehow overlooked it there are pictures of my first idea in my signature. Your last post implies that noone has posted pictures yet so I thought I'd check.

 

[Flumpus]

During the winter (yes, Texas winter is over) my LFS had a tank with an ice look. It was absolutely stunning. Everything was white, including crystals, solid white fish, gravel, everything. There was also some silver if I remember correctly. Not sure what was silver though, just know it was there.

 

[soritan]

Hn, I saw someone once make a tank with the theme, "Chinese takeout."