rescaping ideas for 2ft community tank

[georgelam]

Hi, sharing my community tank.

I would like to make my tank look bigger and more spacious. Anyone has ideas on how i can do that? what foreground plants would be suitable for my tank? I thought about a glosso carpet but since this is a low tech tank, it might be difficult to create a glosso carpet. As the nana are growing, they don't look as good as foreground plants. I thought elodea and hornwort was easy plants but they have been melting. which created kind of a mess with the leaves everywhere. are there any rooted plants to recommend and scaping ideas? I thought maybe i can shift the nana on drift wood to the corner. at the same time creating some cover for the shrimps. I'm hoping that they will breed soon. By the way referring to the second picture, is that molting? Also, is it possible to add a ram cichlid pair here if there is enough plants and cover?

Plants
Hornwort
elodea
nana
rotalia
java fern
and a bit of java moss

Inhabitants
7 juvenile guppies
7 neon tetra
3 endler
20 cherry shrimps

Thanks.

[Urban Aquaria]

The best way to make a tank look bigger is not to have plants with large leaves, only have plants with small leaves (the smaller the better). Glosso could work as a carpet plant for your tank.

Based on that approach, the anubias would have to go... because even if you have lots of small leaf plants, just one plant being present with larger leaves will instantly disrupt the perceived sense of scale in a tank.

Same goes for livestock, the smaller the fishes and shrimps the larger your tank will look... but put larger fish in there and the whole tank will look scaled down again. So i guess it just depends on how much you want to retain the sense of scale.

Btw, the white shell in your 2nd photo is indeed a shrimp molt.

[georgelam]

Hi urban aquaria, thanks for the quick reply. Yes i think i know what you mean. because of the anubias leaves and java ferns my guppies and neon tetra seem so small and less noticeable. which lead me to think of increasing the number of neon or add a relatively bigger fish like ram. However i hate to remove the anubias because they are doing so well. Any ideas to incorporate them into the rescape? What i plan to do is push them to the corner to create a denser forest effect. do you think that will work?

I think i will give glosso a try. always want to try it after seeing so many nice scales with lush glosso carpets.

Scaping aside, what would increase the chances of shrimp breeding and shimplets surviving in such a community tank? Do shrimp caves really work?

[Urban Aquaria]

I guess you can shift the anubias further back, it'll be further away so might seem abit smaller, less obvious.

As for shrimp breeding it'll depend on whether the shrimps find the tank environment conducive for breeding, though for cherry shrimps they'll usually breed quite easily in most tank conditions.

A dense layer of carpet plants can increase the survival rate of the shrimplets in a community tank (since most fishes wouldn't be able to hunt them there), i've noticed newborn shrimps will usually hide and forage under the carpet plants until they grow large enough not to be eaten by small fishes.

[georgelam]

Haha make sense. I hope I can achieve a nice carpet for the shrimps. My guppies are extremely playful. Exploring every corner and biting everything.

Is it true that java moss grow better under current and low light condition?

And also for the right side of my tank where the filter outlet is. Even though I aimed it against the tank wall it is still quite strong. I'm using Ehiem 2213. Currently there is anachanis (I think) there which isn't doing very well. Probably still adapting to the water condition. What plants can withstand the current from the filter? I know my hornwort and indica both can't. Their leaves are too fragile. Is it a good idea to try and grow moss or fissdens there?


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[Urban Aquaria]

Java moss can grow in most conditions, with good circulation it'll get easier access to nutrients (and less issues with certain types of algae). It'll do okay in low light, though it'll grow faster with more light.

Try to position the outflow (together with the inflow) on the left or right side of the tank, so that the flow moves lengthwise across the tank, this will create a better circulation flow pattern with less dead spots than compared to your current pipe positions. With the flow moving lengthwise across the tank, the current will also be abit more dissipated when it reaches the other side too.

You can put lower growing plants opposite the filter outflow, like the moss or fissidens that you mentioned, since they are tied down and wouldn't keep getting buffeted around like most tall stem plants. If the flow is still too strong, then just get a set of single or double taps and install it on the outflow hose, then you can fine tune the flow rate accordingly.

[georgelam]

Thanks for the useful information and quick replies urban aquaria. So I trimmed my rotala and replanted the trimmings. I'm going to repeat this until it forms some kind of hedge or denser bush. Nana are at the back corner. When they grow bigger it would be more visible I hope. Also planted glosso in the foreground which took a really really long time planting plantlet by plantlet. Now is there more space in the foreground. Hopefully the glosso carpets nicely. Since this is a non co2 tank I think the growth will be quite slow. I've been looking at other tanks posted by fellow AQ members to gain some inspiration.

Any comments or ideas to contribute is welcome. Thanks for viewing. ImageUploadedByTapatalk1403193554.333989.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1403193566.499684.jpg


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[georgelam]

Just a short update. Glosso is slowly creeping. Extremely slow. But it is expected of a low tech tank. A real test of patients. Other plants are doing relatively ok.

A question of the experts. My tanks lights are 2x24w T5 tubes. Somehow they are orange lights. Bought them second hand. Firstly does the color of the light affect the growth rate of my plants? Secondly is my current lighting sufficient? Thirdly I notice that the lighting is rather warm. Will it increase the water temp? Will changing to led lights or white tubes of T5 be better? Anyone can recommend a lighting option? Also, having orange soil and light color make my tank looks overly orange?

Do blue leds help to bring out the color of neon tetras?

Thanks for taking the time to read ImageUploadedByTapatalk1406214506.525050.jpg


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[Urban Aquaria]

Your current light should be just right for a low-tech setup, what color temperature (k) are those lights you are using?

The visible color of the light mainly affects how you view the tank. Although most plants can grow in all types of light, its the combined spectrums within the lights that determine how much of it are actually usable by the plants for photosynthesis... so those lights with spectrums designed for planted tanks (more reds and blues, less green) would tend to grow plants better.

T5 lights do heat up alot during usage (will burn your fingers if you accidentally touch the hot tubes), and some of that heat does transfer to the tank water too (depending on the distance of the lights to the water surface and the overall ventilation around the unit).

Generally LED lights would have less heat output so you can consider those if you are looking at ways to minimize heat buildup in the tank. For your low-tech setup, you could look at the Up Aqua Z-Series Pro LED lights, i use them for both low and high tech setups and they have worked well for me so far. It runs on a 8,000k color temperature and will look more whitish to bluish (especially if you just switch over from an orangy light, it may look very bluish and will take some time for your eyes to adapt to start seeing it as more whitish).

Not sure about the effect of blue lights on neon tetras, but usually when i see fishes with iridescent colors displayed at LFS tanks, they are put under relatively dim pinkish lights which really make their colors pop (same goes for strong colored shrimps too)... those lights are meant to bring out the colors in fishes though, not so much for plants.

[georgelam]

Thanks for the quick reply! How do I check the color temperature of the lights I am using?

I'll keep a look out for the up aqua lights and maybe make the switch for a blue(cooler) feel? Compared to the relatively warm feel I get from the orangy lights. I feel the the heat from the lights also increase evaporation quite abit.

Just wondering, does T5 or LEDs consume more power?

No wonder the neon tetra always look like they are glowing at the shops. Their blue stripes really stand out a lot compared to my neons. But I still think they are very attractive. Thinking of getting some galaxy rasbora next...


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[Urban Aquaria]

Usually there would be some specifications printed on the T5 light tube, have to check it and see. Otherwise just check the light model online and see if they list up the specifications.

Generally LEDs consume alot less power compared to T5 lights. LEDs tend to cost abit more initially but save electricity (and hence save cost) over time. LEDs also last alot longer (and don't drop in intensity so quickly) than compared to T5 tubes so you save money by not having to keep buying and changing new tubes too.

If you are keen on the Z-Series LED lights, you can visit LFS like East Ocean or Sun Pets to view the actual light units being used on their aquascaped display tanks, then you can see how the plants and fishes look with those lights.