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suggestion about backgrounds and question about glass marble

2K views 4 replies 4 participants last post by  jinithith2 
#1 ·
I have a suggestion for backgrounds that I use in my 10ga. Try using fake plants (fern type are great) from a craft store and place them behind the tank. Gives natural look but no slimy junk. I have a sleeping dragon and a castle in the tank so I didn't want to go too nuts inside. What do you all think? Also, I never mentioned that I have glass marbles in the bottom, not gravel. I wish I had changed it, however the tank cycled so nicely and the tetras and neons are doing great. Cleaning is super important with glass marbles. I thought the fish wouldn't like the shiny effect but they seem fine with it. Looks neat when the lights on. Any thoughts?

Diane
 
#2 ·
Re: suggestion about backgrounds and question about glass ma

Finflow41 said:
I have a suggestion for backgrounds that I use in my 10ga. Try using fake plants (fern type are great) from a craft store and place them behind the tank. Gives natural look but no slimy junk. I have a sleeping dragon and a castle in the tank so I didn't want to go too nuts inside. What do you all think? Also, I never mentioned that I have glass marbles in the bottom, not gravel. I wish I had changed it, however the tank cycled so nicely and the tetras and neons are doing great. Cleaning is super important with glass marbles. I thought the fish wouldn't like the shiny effect but they seem fine with it. Looks neat when the lights on. Any thoughts?

Diane
Hi Diane,

How on earth do you manage to keep the space between the marbles clean? I'm assuming they're quite heavy. Do you use a gravel vac?

I've heard of people using marbles when breeding, but I've never actually seen them in a tank. Do you have any pics?

Katherine :)
 
#3 ·
marbles

Yes, I use a gravel vac. It all depends on my ammonia reading. If I feel I just need a water change, I do that. Usually every time I end up doing gravel vac'ing, but it depends on the fish. I currently have 3 bleeding heart tetras and 2 neons (acutally I believe they're cardinals and petsmart named them wrong.) I'll have to see how they do before I set up some kind of schedule for cleaning. Right now I'm just going to top off the tank as long as the testing is ok. I just got them last week and I'm alittle hesitant to do a larger water change. Next week I'll probably do a 25% change. I've had a black moor in this tank previously and I swear all I ever did was gravel vac and top off the tank. I cleaned the filter maybe once every 9 months or so and she did great. Maybe I was just lucky lol.

Di
 
#4 ·
The tank is cycled right? :? Just a question I'm not sure if you stated that...You said if there is any ammonia reading than you do a water change? That is great that you do that but that means your tank isnt cycled yet. Just keep doing what your doing, I would do a test every day and if there is any ammonia do an immediate water change. Regarding the marbles, I guess its fine, I mean, gravel would of been much better, but if you can keep up on the cleaning then it should be good. The only problem I amseeing with marbles is that I dont see how beneficial bacteria colonies can form in the marbles. They are spaced and everything, and when do a gravel vac it gets the poop but I'm a little IFFY on that. If you could I would definetly switch to gravel.

About the background, are you stating that you are trying to put stuff ( like fake plants ) behind the tank? I think that if you go to the LFS you could buy some background, they have fake plant backgrounds. But I think just plain black or even a blue give's it a more natural look. Hope this helps!

Nick
 
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