layout ideas?

[courtanee]

I need some help fish tank people!
I have 2 tanks
15 gallon & 60 gallon
I want to make the 15 into a shrimp/ Dario Dario tank.
Here's what I have right now
(Not finished sanding the bottom of the tank quite yet but it'll be sand at the end.




Then I have the 60 gallon.
Its going to be a rainbowfish centered tank.
I have amazon swords in it right now.




Praecox fish in there right now with a zebra loach.
More loaches are a for sure.

I need tips tips tips!
Fish tips, plants tips, wood tips! Help me out. I'm not very good at layouts and choices :/ still a novice at the aquascaping!

 

[Ewokbuns]

Too the best of my knowledge, I believe shrimp love swim around and hide in different areas, so having plenty of room for them to hide and swim up would be good.

 

[Glover]

Definitely recommend a background! A black background makes a tank's color pop (it's what I use on my tank). In you 60G you could add some large piece of driftwood. The tank looks too bare with those few plants in it!

 

[courtanee]

Manzanita or the other kind of wood?
That's why I haven't bought any yet :/ not sure which one to go with

 

[Glover]

I have Monapi in my tank, but I'd love to get my hands on some Manzanita or Branchwood. If it were to be me in your spot, I'd add a ton of Manzanita.

 

[courtanee]

I have Monapi in my tank, but I'd love to get my hands on some Manzanita or Branchwood. If it were to be me in your spot, I'd add a ton of Manzanita.

I have always loved manzanita in with rainbow fish. Manzanita it is!

 

[Alan79]

You have a lot of options with the bigger tank.

- You could make a mound at each end descending to a path somewhere near the centre (off centre is best). Have the past twisting through driftwood plants and stones and go with a substrate that looks different to the rest of the tank for the path.

- You could build up a few areas with substrate, add rocks and driftwood to create an island look. Leave a lot of foreground area surrounding the island/s. You can create an island by selecting a load of stones to hold substrate in the centre, maybe add some driftwood and then add plants that will make the island/s look like an explosion of plants.

- I also saw a tank designed to look like someones front yard with slate path leading through an arch and more slate used as a wall beside the path. They had a nice selection of plants behind the wall but they found a glow in the dark moon which they had stuck to the tank with a black background. The moon glowed when the lights went out and showed off plant and fish silhouettes for a while. It wasn't a designed to look natural but it was very nice.

- Dutch styled tanks feature a variety of plants arranged to create a large blend of colours and leaf shapes. They look very nice in my opinion but seem like they would be difficult to do well.

 

[Old Scales]

Courtanee,
Go to www.tropica.com , you will see an option called layouts. It is awesome. It is a good place to look at ideas for hardscape and plant mixtures. It even classifies them easy, medium, and advanced. You don't have to match their "perfect world" tanks exactly but use as a baseline for your own design. Good luck. OS.

 

[courtanee]

Thanks Alan for the ideas! I like that last one a lot!

And thanks for the link! I think visuals will help!