J.Serrano
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
So here is my first attempt at aquascaping... Pictures below.
Well, I have a 30 gallon tank that I got used from craigslist. Leak-tested it, cleaned it and put it on the stand in my living room. After thinking about it, I decided I didn't want my fishtank to have themed decorations or ornaments. I like natural-looking aquariums. However this is my firt fishtank and I didnt want to get crazy right from the start cause I didnt want to be overwhelmed from the beginning and then I wanted to leave room for improvement. Didnt want it to be perfect the first time. So, in order to not complicate things with CO2 setups for live plants and to not worry about trimming ang cleaning a live planted tank, I went with fake plants. So I went online and tried to find the nicest looking fake plants I could get. looked around for a little while until i found some that I liked. Decided to use colorful ones in order to make it look more interesting and less boring. Besides I figure there are many colors in nature as well... Its not all green, right?
So substrate... I like both sand and gravel so I said I wanted to do both, but wasnt sure how it would turn out. I had envisioned the substrate going gradually from gravel to sand, but after my first try, thing didnt really work out as well as i thought. i ended up with a mix of sand and gravel everywhere... It looked interesting, but not like i wanted it to. So I tried again and this time it looks better. The right side of the tank is gravel and the left side is sand, with a transition area in the middle. My gravel is tan-ish with diferent shades and earth-like colors, and my sand is black. Why black sand? Cause I wanted the gravel and the plants to stand out.
So I wanted to get something else to put in there and not only have plants. So I got some white rocks and put them on the black sand for a really nice striking contrast. then I wanted something for the gravel side, so I got a small piece of driftwood. On the gravel side I got a second level where I put some plants on the top and on the bottom. Bottom has shade and enough space to swim, hide or whatever they want to do...
I think I have enough hiding places and pathways, as well as enough open space for all the fish to feel comfortable and also keep the tank looking as natural as possible. Taking all that in consideration while attempting aquascaping for the first time was a very interesting experience. Went through a lot of iterations until I got to the current setup.
The tank is now a month old and its almost completely cycled, at least to the point where I can add fish for a while without dying, even though my ammonia levels are not at 0ppm yet. All my fish look pretty happy and they all get along well with each other.
The fish I have there are:
11 guppies
6 platties
4 (baby) angelfish
3 zebra danios
2 goldfish
2 julii corydoras
1 pleco
A lot of movement and color everywhere! Here are some pictures of the tank... Let me know what you think, and if you have any ideas or suggestions for me.
Well, I have a 30 gallon tank that I got used from craigslist. Leak-tested it, cleaned it and put it on the stand in my living room. After thinking about it, I decided I didn't want my fishtank to have themed decorations or ornaments. I like natural-looking aquariums. However this is my firt fishtank and I didnt want to get crazy right from the start cause I didnt want to be overwhelmed from the beginning and then I wanted to leave room for improvement. Didnt want it to be perfect the first time. So, in order to not complicate things with CO2 setups for live plants and to not worry about trimming ang cleaning a live planted tank, I went with fake plants. So I went online and tried to find the nicest looking fake plants I could get. looked around for a little while until i found some that I liked. Decided to use colorful ones in order to make it look more interesting and less boring. Besides I figure there are many colors in nature as well... Its not all green, right?
So substrate... I like both sand and gravel so I said I wanted to do both, but wasnt sure how it would turn out. I had envisioned the substrate going gradually from gravel to sand, but after my first try, thing didnt really work out as well as i thought. i ended up with a mix of sand and gravel everywhere... It looked interesting, but not like i wanted it to. So I tried again and this time it looks better. The right side of the tank is gravel and the left side is sand, with a transition area in the middle. My gravel is tan-ish with diferent shades and earth-like colors, and my sand is black. Why black sand? Cause I wanted the gravel and the plants to stand out.
So I wanted to get something else to put in there and not only have plants. So I got some white rocks and put them on the black sand for a really nice striking contrast. then I wanted something for the gravel side, so I got a small piece of driftwood. On the gravel side I got a second level where I put some plants on the top and on the bottom. Bottom has shade and enough space to swim, hide or whatever they want to do...
I think I have enough hiding places and pathways, as well as enough open space for all the fish to feel comfortable and also keep the tank looking as natural as possible. Taking all that in consideration while attempting aquascaping for the first time was a very interesting experience. Went through a lot of iterations until I got to the current setup.
The tank is now a month old and its almost completely cycled, at least to the point where I can add fish for a while without dying, even though my ammonia levels are not at 0ppm yet. All my fish look pretty happy and they all get along well with each other.
The fish I have there are:
11 guppies
6 platties
4 (baby) angelfish
3 zebra danios
2 goldfish
2 julii corydoras
1 pleco
A lot of movement and color everywhere! Here are some pictures of the tank... Let me know what you think, and if you have any ideas or suggestions for me.
