Calling all plant folks...help plant my tank

Byron

It may appear different in real life, but one thing that jumped out at me is the symmetry of the hard objects (slate, wood). To create a natural looking aquascape, always offset hard items so they are not in the centre or equidistant from each other. For instance, the wood can be moved off-centre, maybe turned toward the front-left or front-right (depends upon its shape vertically and horizontally). And the slate can be moved accordingly, depending where the wood ends up.

Plants at the ends of wood or rock are very natural as well, since this is how they frequently occur in nature, and it "softens" the ends of wood and rock formations. I always find putting the plants in is very easy, once I have the hard objects which are usually the most difficult to place.

Byron.

Peanut72

The rock isnt all that stable to be moving. I didnt glue any of it together, just stacked it up and went with it. They arent real stable at all. They will eventually end up getting knocked over while cleaning as some point probably. The wood can be moved some. I didnt really think about it being laid out in a line like that. I thought about standing the wood up, but it just isnt big enough or shaped where it would look right.

Peanut72

Ok, heres the updated layout, and lots of questions.

1. Is this starting to be too much for the tank? What do you think this will look like once it has grown a little bit? Say 6 months or so down the road

2. Right now there is only about 2 inches or so of substrate, should I add more?

3. What about the filter? It creates quite a bit of current in the tank, whats the best way to calm that down some?

4. Will I have to remove the bubble curtain? If I am correct in thinking, it will remove CO2 from the tank, therefore I should remove it, right?

5. Thinking about doing away with the Java Fern and just letting the Java Moss cover the wood. Thoughts..

6. Will the Java Moss grow on the slate with nothing really to attach to?

7. Do I still have sufficient light?

Also probably going to be cutting way back on the fish that I will put in. Probably only add a few more. With all the plants, I think it might look better to only have a few fish as opposed to being heavily stocked. May add one more school of 6 or 8 of something and let that be it.

Thanks
Todd

Attached Images

Aquarium plant layout_3.jpg (90.7 KB, 35 views)

Calmwaters

The lighting should be fine. I personally do not like Java Fern so I would do away with it. What if you put the two slate formations on one side then the driftwood on the other makeing it less symetrical. Leaving a planted swimming area for the middle. With a tank that big I would get a good size group of corys for bottom cleaners they are fun little fish to watch very active always cleaning. I would say maybe a group of 10 or so. As far as a nice schoaling fish harliquin rasbora are very pretty, as are Neon Tetra, and Ember Tetra are also a favorite of mine. Golden barbs and rosy barbs are also very pretty and active I have a group of the goldens in my 55 and they get along with everyone fine. You have so many fish to chose from its hard to make a suggestion because it really is a personal prefrence thing. Good luck with what ever you decide.
BTW as far as the filter you can use a plastic coke bottle cut in half to make a buffer for it or just keep the water level in the tank as high as you can and that will help. You may want to try to get a canister filter as it is better for the plants and the air bubbler will need to be removed because it will cause you to lose the co2 that the plants need.

LisaC144

A word of advice, if the rock isn't that stabel, you may want to remove it or move it around anyway to make it more stable. You don't want to have an 'accident' and have the rock tumble over with fish in the tank. You would wake up one day to some sad news. Always make sure rock and wood is stable and not knocked over easily.

As for the filter, I see you have a HOB (hang-on-back). I have baffled my little HOB in my 5g with great success for my betta. On the outflow (where the water returns to the tank), I took a clean plastic water bottle and vut the top and bottom off. I cut the remaining bottle to fit the length of the outflow and taped the top to the lid of the HOB and wrapped the bottom portion under the outflow. It naturally stays in place due to the curve of the bottle. This caused the water to flow equally to each side, drastically cutting the force of the water into the tank. Hope this makes sense. I can try to find instructions on it if you need it.

Peanut72

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Calmwaters

Sounds like a good plan then. Looking forward to seeing some pictures of it all set up and beautiful like I know it will be. Good luck!

LisaC144

Cory's would be a great addition to the bottom. They're fun little guys who interact with each otherquite a bit. These are shaoling fish, so a minimum of 6 should be kept.

Peanut72

I just placed my order with Sweet Aquatics and it should all be here next week. Now I need to read up on how to properly acclimate the plants. Pics to come once its all planted. Thanks for all the help everyone.

Todd

Calmwaters

Yippie I am really looking forward to seeing your pictures I think it will turn out really nice.