New 3 ft tank setup-- how to tidy up the "ground"

**phish food** · 6th Dec 2010, 00:55

Hi all!
Finally got my very 1st tank, added wood, lava rocks and plants.
Unfortunately the wood refused to sink, and it messed up the design quite a bit.
Managed to fix it by tying some rocks to weigh it down, but the gravel sand is now messy, and the flourite substrate below was disturbed and clouded the water.

What's the best way to tidy up the area? Can it be done without removing the water?IMG_0082.jpg

**Avant-Garde** · 6th Dec 2010, 21:38

really nice scaping! well done! the balls and meshes looks abit too tidy haha. the cloudy water should clear off after a while

**ciaossu** · 7th Dec 2010, 10:45

Hi, i think the best way is to take out the siphon out the water, take out the bogwood and pour in some sand to cover up the area. or you might want to wait for the bogwood to sink(without any weight is used) before you commenced on this?

**phish food** · 7th Dec 2010, 22:17

Thank you! Yes, i didn't really know how else to put the marimo balls and the meshes, so just put them together. The water is much clearer now.

**phish food** · 7th Dec 2010, 22:39

Originally Posted by ciaossu

Hi, i think the best way is to take out the siphon out the water, take out the bogwood and pour in some sand to cover up the area. or you might want to wait for the bogwood to sink(without any weight is used) before you commenced on this?

Yes, I didn't know the bogwood would float... inexperienced.
Thanks for your suggestion, but it is too much work to take out the water. It took my husband and I about an hour to fill the tank. Had to carry buckets of water as we don't have a hose long enough. We're setting this up as a low maintenance non CO2 tank, hence the heavy planting from the start. Hope it works out!
Anyway, we tidied the ground by adding sand with our hands and smoothing it out, and i think it worked!

**phish food** · 15th Dec 2010, 22:49

Updated picture of tank at almost 2 weeks.

**adam251** · 16th Dec 2010, 17:27

Is your lighting on timer?? Putting it on timer I believe would help at least to regulate the light on/off cycle since yours is a new tank and to prevent algae bloom later if too much light or dead plant material.