Help?

[fireman731]

Hey guys,

So I have a 28 gal bow front with a HOB bio wheel and a dual T5 light. I have a java fern, a few swords and some water wisteria. I have a piece of real driftwood and then a fake tree. I think my tank looks boring.. And the top is empty. Looking for ideas to spice it up a little and rearrange plants while adding some height and maybe some surface dwelling fish. I currently have 6 Cory's, 3 neons, 5 black skirts, 3 nerite snails and a bristlenose albino pleco.


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[Mattfinn]

Look at maybe a dwarf gouramis. They should add abit of colour.
What lighting do you have? Is that the stock lighting, if you upgraded your lighting then maybe a few different plants that are bright greens and touches of red would look nice.

 

[fireman731]

It's a dual T5. It has a 6.7K daylight and a colomax both 14 watt so it's 28 watts and 28 gal so it's 1 "WPG" and I run it 12 hours a day. I had blue goiramis but they both does after a year or two and they were pretty but they were always so aggressive and hide

 

[Mattfinn]

I think maybe if you add another of the same light then you could add a few more maybe some crypts like parva, balansae, wendtii and walkeri. Penny wort, anarchis and hornwort are also plants you can consider to brighten up the tank if you are interested in plants. Look at honey, or flame gouramis they are small and don't get very aggressive.

Also add more neon tetras, you want a school of 5-6, there are black neons too which are very cool, and glowlight tetras are very similar.

 

[Fresh2o]

With that lighting you could try a fast growing stem plant such as bacopa caroliniana. Run it along the back or in one of the corners. Just trim off the tops and replant the trimmings and you should have a lime green vertical backdrop.
I'd let algae/diatoms grow on the fake DW to let it look more natural. It's too white and clean looking at this point IMO.

 

[Mattfinn]

With that lighting you could try a fast growing stem plant such as bacopa caroliniana. Run it along the back or in one of the corners. Just trim off the tops and replant the trimmings and you should have a lime green vertical background.
I'd let algae/diatoms grow on the fake DW to let it look more natural. It's too white and clean looking at this point IMO.

+1 on that even maybe some moss could make the dw look a little bit more natural. It for some reason reminds me of the white tree of gondor in lord of the rings.

 

[fireman731]

I was thinking about replacing it anyways and getting another piece of real drift wood that was very tall that looked kinda like roots coming down from that top left corner