New scape

[spfdfish]

Old



New



Is the new decor more ideal for Cory and tetras? It's all fake stuff. I keep reading that Cory prefer planted tank and once I can get things stable I may attempt some plants. Any advice on keeping my fish thriving environmentally speaking

 

[tomtom14]

Any decor fake or alive is fine for corydoras and tetras as long as it's not toxic and their are some hiding places that both the fishes can get to, there isn't much difference between planted and fake. Except oxygen is created from the plants. So you might want to put a air stone in otherwise you tank is fine for tetras and corydoras.

 

[spfdfish]

I have one of those hydor pumps is that sufficient or do I still need the air stone

 

[tomtom14]

If it makes the surface ripple or move it should be ok. If not add the air pump. Plus the air pump looks good as well.

 

[labpig]

I like the look of the new one best

 

[spfdfish]

I think I do to you can see in the photo all 5 tetras hang out together and the 4 Cory cats all group up. The cories use to hide behind the stones and never come out

 

[labpig]

I had the same problem with my original
Set up-


When I changed to this new set up, the fish were easier to see but still had hiding places


I'm not sure if the new setup looks a bit bare?
What do u think?

 

[spfdfish]

Well it's not as bare as mine so if say it's not bare at all but I'm a newbie so maybe my tank is just extremely barren.

 

[labpig]

What about changing your background colour?

 

[spfdfish]

I put a piece of dark black window tinting stuff on there it may or may not come off easily I do agree there is too much black I think maybe switching to white or pool filter sand might help some. Or some plants

 

[spfdfish]

I assume you weren't referring to you switching yours the sky blue does look nice.

 

[labpig]

I had black to start off with, yes i think the blue looks better. But my betta is blue & doesn't stand out now

If u can't get the black paint off, maybe you could change the substrate to a different color

 

[labpig]

Or what about a splash of green foliage?

This is a pic of my very first tank- a biorb. There wasn't much in it but the green fake grass brightened it up

 

[RightTurnClyde]

OP, If it was me, I would move your centerpiece a little to the right. First rule of scaping is never place your main "thing" right in the middle. Then maybe some plants (real or fake) off to the left?

 

[fishyfriends3]

Yes the rule of thirds works really well for aquascaping. Place main focus a third in from the left and a third in from the right. This really works better in longer tanks but it still applies here.

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[spfdfish]

I may mess around with decor at some point but I got home from work and my tank smelled really bad and the filter wasn't working for some reason. I do a minimum of 50% wc every 2 days. Just did a 70% one ill monitor the filter. What causes them to stop or clog I guess. It use to happen when I had an air stone under it but I've removed that. Could the hydor be pushing too much air towards the filter? Or was there just too much gunk in the filter? This is the first time I've dealt with fowl odor in the tank.

 

[labpig]

I've never had that problem
If it's a new tank I'd bring the filter/ pump back

 

[RightTurnClyde]

What kind of filter is the one that stopped? If it's one that sucks water up through a lift tube, you definitely want to keep any air stones or bubblers far away from that. Although, I wouldn't think just a few bubbles would cause it to stop completely. Sounds defective.

 

[spfdfish]

It's an aquaclear 30 and there are no bubblers . Just a power head . I think it just got gunked up I cleaned everything out and it's working fine. I had a bunch of cheap filters that kept stopping which is why I bought this one. My tank hood doesn't allow room for another filter or I'd add another HOB. I'm more concerned with the smell

 

[RightTurnClyde]

Strange. I'm running an aqua clear 30 too. Never had any issues, even when a root from a plant was stuck in the impeller assembly.

I sympathize with the smell though. I've battled a smell ever since starting my tank. I thought it was the high ammonia, but my ammonia is finally dropping and the smell is still there. Kind of a mix between an earthy smell and a swimming pool smell.