You know those silly people who have absolutely no eye for balance? ha. Silly...

[cinnastix911]

I am one of them.

Hello, my name is Cady and I have no ability to decorate or arrange. *soft whimpering in the background*


I was gone for a few months and not a whole lot was done with my fish tanks. (Not that they were well put together to being with)

55g Before



10g Before



And so I decided it was high time they were cleaned and redone. So I went out and bought some shale and driftwood for the 55g and decided to just re haul the 10g with minor aesthetic changes.

After 55g: Still cloudy from cleaning and my water. I used wood that hadn't been soaked for very long so I hope to get a light tannins coloring.


After 10g:




Now my problem is I have no sense of layout and balance. I know there are the concave up/down etc formulas but I have no idea what fits. For the 55g I have some anubius barteri and lancelota (i think i got those right ) coming in. But if you happen to know that they look bad and have some suggestions that would be ace. Thanks!

Btw, the 55g only has 4 for sure fish and that would be 4 kuhli loaches. I would like to get a group of pictus cats but other than that I don't know what to put in.

[Sum22]

I think it looks good. Once you have some plants in the 55g is should look great.

[cinnastix911]

Even short stubby plants? My lighting is HORRIBLE! Slightly less than .5 wpg so I can't do anything very large unless it is fake.

[plecoperson]

I agree that you need some height, but your tanks look pretty nice to me. Git some driftwood that's relatively tall, and strap some Java fern/moss on it. It will look spectacular. You could try some floating plants, too, to add a little to the top.

[jsoong]

I think the 55 is looking good. A way to "cheat" with really low light is not to plant in the substrate. You can train the Anubius to grow on the drift wood or the rock (tie the rhizome to the object with string). Having the plant off the substrate gives it more prominence, and compensate for the low light setup by being closer to the light so they will still grow.

Another thought, if you have a whole bunch of baby Java ferns or A. bateri nana, you can decorate your driftwood with them. I think it would look cool with a whole bunch of green plants growing out of the crevices of the driftwood. And with the low light setup, they should remain relatively small and not cover up or overdominate the driftwood.

[cinnastix911]

My java fern just dismissed 3 small bits that I have in another tank, I could definitely add them on. This may sound weird but for some reason java moss has died in this aquarium (the 55) and the only plant that has made it is an anubias variety. I will try some of those adjustments though and see what happens.

Any suggestions on fish? It is completely empty at the moment with the kuhlis being in a different tank.