55 Lightly planted. Lot's of found rock. Giant Danios.

[CGGorman]

Here's my old 55. I've had this setup for about fifteen years, though some of the equipment has come and gone. Even the tank was replaced once, due to a leak I didn't feel like fixing.

Primarily stocked with Giant Danios, but there is 13" Pleco hiding under the large rock cave in the center. There's also a couple s&p Cory's. Most of the plants are Aponogetons. A couple Vals and (IIRC) one Amazon sword. Before I got into planting, I thought that background was pretty nice. Now I want to get rid of it, but that's a big job!

The powerhead is on a timer to run only during the height of the day, to keep the busy-body Danios happy. I've got the two fixtures on staggered timers for a dusk/dawn effect. There is also a set blue moon lights on a timer set to run only about two hours after "dusk". I'm only sitting at about 1.6 wpg with everything lit...

These pics were taken with only the "dawn" lamp lit.

 

[7Enigma]

Ha, that background is so good I was going to comment on how amazing your plants were at such a low light level. Didn't know they were 2d.

 

[CGGorman]

Thanks! I'm hoping to get my 70 to the carpeted level, but the 55, will always be a low light tank. Before I started in on the planting, the background helped a lot, now I think it detracts from the living plants. After twenty years of plastic background sheets, I've figured out that if you wipe a little vegetable oil on the back glass before you apply the plastic, that is looks MUCH nicer. I tuck the top and bottom of the sheet into the frames and tape the edges with 2" packing tape. This tank has been set up and disturbed for about five years. and the bachground looks just like it did when I applied it.

When we move in a couple months, I'm going to pull it off of there and go straight black, I think.

 

[Jchillin]

When we move in a couple months, I'm going to pull it off of there and go straight black, I think.

I agree with the black background. I have an indigo/black background myself. I also agree that the current one is interfering with your true aquascape...if only the plants (which look a lot like dwarf sag) could really grow along the wood like that.