Newbie's Aquascape

[gy960]

Hey guys!
This is my first time aquascaping. Please criticise my tank and help me make it better

Tank dimensions: 60cm x 30cm x 36cm
Filtration: Aquaclear power filter 50
Light: Ocean free T5HO, 1x 24w 12000k
Fertz: Flourish Excel, Flourish comprehensive, Flourish Potassium, Iron

No Co2 injection

Plants: Narrow leaf Java Fern, Lace java fern, Anubias Nana, Anubias nana petite, Flame moss, Hygrophila Polysperma, Water sprite, Compact sword plant.

[bluebubbles]

Nice and simple, want to consider one more huge rock behind the right side corner to create the "mountain" look such that it looks like the scape is flowing down like a stream. Alternatively a couple more small rocks to build up the height instead of a single big rock and have some mini plants in-between those rocks. My 2cts worth. Anyway, that is a very clear water tank.

[magpie]

Very nice. Maybe you can shift your pump inlet to the side instead of placing it in the middle back.

[gy960]

Im currently using a hob filter. When moving the inlet to one side, wont its efficiency be reduced?

[edw7636]

Get bigger rocks so you can plant some small plants to cover part of it too.

As mention by other bros, shift the inlet pipe to the side.

Once you have shift the inlet pipe to the side, get high background plants to cover it.

By the way, normally rockscape without dw or bogwood dont have to plants planting beside them cause rocks especially big rocks are refer to as mountain and high stem plants and refer more to look like forest. So mountain and forest cant be same height ,cant they?

Need more expert aquascaper to help you out on this

[Limbeh]

My concern is more of the fauna. Are you planning to keep shrimps? The barbs and the cichlid will definitely snack on them.

[kenny]

Is the substrate U-shaped or is it a side-effect of the camera?

If you are going for a valley, I feel that the gradient on both sides are not steep enough. And adding some plants and rocks on the left can balance the right side.
If the focus is only on the right side, having a slope (high on the right, lower on the left) might give a more fluent look.
hope this helps

[gy960]

@ Limbeh: Not any shrimps now..
@ Kenny: I think im gonna go to the lfs again to check out some more rocks. Thanks, that was very helpful

[marimo]

can i know whats the top substrate? looks like grey rock chips and it looks like japanese zen garden

[Ecalyte]

Wow! So very refreshing..

In a time where almost everyone will turn to soil of some kind as a substrate, you've used small pebble rocks as the gravel. The effect is quite stunning. Your green plants contrasts so well with the black rock/gravel.. I could look at it for hours

Now what would make it better would be about 100-200 schooling fish! Go for Cardinals yay!

[bluebubbles]

@ Limbeh: Not any shrimps now..
@ Kenny: I think im gonna go to the lfs again to check out some more rocks. Thanks, that was very helpful

You can check AQ market place, I am selling some rocks and river sand if you find lfs expensive.

[gy960]

@marimo: Erm, normal dark grey flat pebbles, diameter 1cm

Lol, thanks.
Haha, the lfs talked me into buying the pebbles. I used to hate it and regret as the pebbles are large enough to collect detritus and doesnt contrast to the stones above it. I have tot of soil but wont the nutrients be all used up and hav to change the whole thing again?

The scape looks big on photo but very small in actual size hahas

[|squee|]

You can always fertilize via the water.

More plants!

[marimo]

which LFS selling that pebble? do you mind taking a closer shot?
I bought some flat grey chips pebbles from daiso for aquarium use. quite nice also.

Haha, the lfs talked me into buying the pebbles. I used to hate it and regret as the pebbles are large enough to collect detritus and doesnt contrast to the stones above it. I have tot of soil but wont the nutrients be all used up and hav to change the whole thing again?

I think the problem with us choosing the top substrate is the fauna.
If its shrimp tank, quite restricted. the dark soil substrate brings out the shrimp color, provides micro organism host for shrimps too. And if the soil expiries, it easier to take out. for the soil pellet , it still consider light for adults to flip it around to do clean ups, same for ottos/catfish

Like yours, scattering pebbles on top of soil will not benefit shrimp as much, and for long term when the soil expiry, causing pH stress will be inevitable. But if the fish are hardy, should be alright.

I may also suggest to put white sand like from the bigger rocks down to foreground to create a flowing river or randomly put white river gravel near the rocks to really lift up the scape.

[Cheesetian]

You should place the HOB on either the left or right as the tank is narrower and the water flow is evenly distributed. Personally i would've saved up a bit more and gone for an Eheim 2215 considering the AQ50 costs about $60. Nice set-up though!

[gy960]

Thanks all ^_^

[seahnc]

Very nice setup and I don't think you are a newbies anymore.