is anyone here good at aquascaping?

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CourtneyAndCarl

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I suck at it... royally. I have only live planted a tank once and now that half the plants are dead, I am just waiting for the rest of them to go :p

Does anyone have any pictures of their neat fish tanks? I need ideas :shy:
 

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Millerlite

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I'm bad at it too! Lol I'll take some photos today and u can kind of get ideas but I got easy beginner plants and put then in, so far they are doing alright but idk.
 

wellington

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Sorry, me too. I get inspired by surfing the internet. It helps, but I still suck at it:(
 

acrantophis

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First off; your gravel choice is...interesting? Other than that it looks good! Try some fertilizer. I use a liquid fertilizer for floating pond plants. It's pretty much just iron as most aquariums have tons of nitrogen in them already. Also I like java moss. It sticks to driftwood really well. I have to trim it back every other week! Make sure your lights are for plants and that the shield between the lamp and the water is clean and clear.
 

StudentoftheReptile

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Here's a couple shots of an Asian biotope I had a few years ago.
Phase1_CU.jpg

Phase1_front.jpg


The "crown jewels" of the tank: my roseline sharks
roselines2.jpg


In my experience, selecting the right aquatic plants for your aquarium and caring for them properly can be just as complex as the fish and other animal inhabitants. Different plants need different pH levels, lighting requirements...like many fish, some types are hardier than others, some are easily eaten while others are tougher for the "nibblers." Just takes a little research and tweaking.
 

Millerlite

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Aquascaping is very cool. It's funny I surf the net to looking at picture after picture. Very awesome tanks out there. But I'm sure they are also very hard to maintain
 

AustinASU

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What fish are you putting in it? I can help by plant selection and some good ideas, or check out monsterfishkeepers.com. Thats how i got all of my ideas.
 

CourtneyAndCarl

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acrantophis said:
First off; your gravel choice is...interesting? Other than that it looks good! Try some fertilizer. I use a liquid fertilizer for floating pond plants. It's pretty much just iron as most aquariums have tons of nitrogen in them already. Also I like java moss. It sticks to driftwood really well. I have to trim it back every other week! Make sure your lights are for plants and that the shield between the lamp and the water is clean and clear.

I would like to change the gravel soon. I wanted to go do all natural river rock, but then my niece came with me to the store and "reaaally liked the blue gravel".
 

Kristina

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I suggest NOT doing river rock. It traps a lot of detritus and nastiness and can lead to some serious water quality issues later on. If you are doing live plants, you can't very well rip the plants up all the time and clean in and under the rock. It just isn't feasible. I use nothing but sand anymore. Sooooo much easier to plant and keep clean.
 

CourtneyAndCarl

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Kristina said:
I suggest NOT doing river rock. It traps a lot of detritus and nastiness and can lead to some serious water quality issues later on. If you are doing live plants, you can't very well rip the plants up all the time and clean in and under the rock. It just isn't feasible. I use nothing but sand anymore. Sooooo much easier to plant and keep clean.

How do you keep the surface of the sand clean? I always had trouble with that in my one sand bottom tank, but then again I also didn't have any shrimp in that one either
 

Kristina

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futureleopardtortoise said:
Kristina said:
I suggest NOT doing river rock. It traps a lot of detritus and nastiness and can lead to some serious water quality issues later on. If you are doing live plants, you can't very well rip the plants up all the time and clean in and under the rock. It just isn't feasible. I use nothing but sand anymore. Sooooo much easier to plant and keep clean.

How do you keep the surface of the sand clean? I always had trouble with that in my one sand bottom tank, but then again I also didn't have any shrimp in that one either

If you have good filtration and good water flow with no dead spots, there should be no build up of detritus on the surface of the sand. If you have issues with dead spots where there is detritus build up, it only takes a little practice to learn to siphon it off of the surface with a hose without sucking up the sand along with it ;)
 
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