ArtesiaWells
Aquarium Advice Addict
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2012
- Messages
- 1,392
Okay, everyone -- as most of you know, I have been struggling with a "theme" for this new Marineland 60 gallon we recently set up, which houses four fancy goldies, and I figured this was as good a time as any to start a "journal" thread in this photography section of the forum to document the progression of designing the 'scape; I don't really want to label this an "aquascape" per se because it's really not, as we're not doing live plants and will more than likely end up with some collection of cheesy, chintzy pieces no matter the theme, but "theme redesign" I think is the best way to refer to it...
At any rate, you guys and gals know the drill from my other thread -- my last 60 gallon, before it cracked and flooded our home, had a "pirate" kind of thing going on, which, embarassingly enough, is my favorite kind of "theme" for a fish tank if done right and un-child-like; as a centerpiece, we had a "Top Fin Schooner Bow" with white fabric sails (that collected brown diatoms like Pam Anderson attracts insurance quotes from plastic surgeons) from Petsmart, and then we added a "pirate treasure cave" piece of decor which was kinda cool as well as a skull and a tropical "reef" thing in the corner. When we lost that tank, my wife said she didn't want to do the pirate thing again, so I thought we were going to go the "natural" route, but with artificial decoration pieces...as such, we picked up Petsmart's "tree stump root" piece, natural colored "polished pebble/river rock" gravel (as opposed to the blue gravel we had with the pirate setup) and green plastic plants.
Fast-forward to this new Marineland 60 gallon we eventually picked up almost a year after the first 60 gallon cracked (the four goldfish stayed alive and well in a 10 gallon I set up for them and which I did DAILY 50% water changes on, never missing a day -- the fish are still alive today): We scrapped the idea of going natural because my wife didn't like the idea of putting in the logs, driftwood, stumps, etc. and was just against the whole natural scaping for reasons that are beyond me (I think it makes a tank look...well...natural and realistic, so I'm with most of y'all on that one) and instead turned toward what she wanted to do: Some kind of "Asian/Zen" theme. As such, we bought certain pieces like a small "Asian gazebo," a three-arch bridge and, most recently, a "Bonsai tree"; what I was personally aiming for was a layout something like this, but without the "dragon bubbler" statue you see on the left (we have the same bridge you see in the right corner):
After recently adding THIS Bonsai tree:
the theme just doesn't seem like it's coming together, at all, and I was ready to scrap it, but the missus just doesn't want to give up on this theme. I placed this Bonsai tree to the left of that three-arch bridge, but it's just not working, instead looking really, really awkward (I'll try to get some recent shots of the tank up with the Bonsai tree in place)...and so now I need some assistance with trying to make this all look right (of course, we need a lot more plants to fill in and "build up" this very tall 60 gallon)...
Let me start by sharing some pics of what the tank pretty much looks like right now:
At any rate, you guys and gals know the drill from my other thread -- my last 60 gallon, before it cracked and flooded our home, had a "pirate" kind of thing going on, which, embarassingly enough, is my favorite kind of "theme" for a fish tank if done right and un-child-like; as a centerpiece, we had a "Top Fin Schooner Bow" with white fabric sails (that collected brown diatoms like Pam Anderson attracts insurance quotes from plastic surgeons) from Petsmart, and then we added a "pirate treasure cave" piece of decor which was kinda cool as well as a skull and a tropical "reef" thing in the corner. When we lost that tank, my wife said she didn't want to do the pirate thing again, so I thought we were going to go the "natural" route, but with artificial decoration pieces...as such, we picked up Petsmart's "tree stump root" piece, natural colored "polished pebble/river rock" gravel (as opposed to the blue gravel we had with the pirate setup) and green plastic plants.
Fast-forward to this new Marineland 60 gallon we eventually picked up almost a year after the first 60 gallon cracked (the four goldfish stayed alive and well in a 10 gallon I set up for them and which I did DAILY 50% water changes on, never missing a day -- the fish are still alive today): We scrapped the idea of going natural because my wife didn't like the idea of putting in the logs, driftwood, stumps, etc. and was just against the whole natural scaping for reasons that are beyond me (I think it makes a tank look...well...natural and realistic, so I'm with most of y'all on that one) and instead turned toward what she wanted to do: Some kind of "Asian/Zen" theme. As such, we bought certain pieces like a small "Asian gazebo," a three-arch bridge and, most recently, a "Bonsai tree"; what I was personally aiming for was a layout something like this, but without the "dragon bubbler" statue you see on the left (we have the same bridge you see in the right corner):
After recently adding THIS Bonsai tree:
the theme just doesn't seem like it's coming together, at all, and I was ready to scrap it, but the missus just doesn't want to give up on this theme. I placed this Bonsai tree to the left of that three-arch bridge, but it's just not working, instead looking really, really awkward (I'll try to get some recent shots of the tank up with the Bonsai tree in place)...and so now I need some assistance with trying to make this all look right (of course, we need a lot more plants to fill in and "build up" this very tall 60 gallon)...
Let me start by sharing some pics of what the tank pretty much looks like right now: