Tank Layout

I changed the layout a bit of my 30 litre tank at work. Thought I'd share it with you all and get some opinions.
I tried my best to get clear pictures with the camera I have. Unfortunately it's not the best. But I'll get a better one eventually.

This is what it used to look like...


So then I took the wood and stood it upright to sort of hide the heater... then moved some rocks around... and my plants have done quite well since the first pic too...

This is what it looks like now...


I'm trying my best to make a small tank look good. I'm still busy with it though... still needs quite a bit of work.
All opinions and suggestions are very welcome.

 

Looks great !

 

Hi @Fishtastic ,could you tell us a little more about your tank and what you do for the plants?
The plants look really good.

 

Thanks guys. The one downfall is that you can't see the lighter parts of the wood the way it stands now. But you should see it in real life. The photos unfortunately don't do it justice.

I have a plan for the corner filter (until I can replace it with a different filter). Hopefully I will be able to share that with you tomorrow.

 

@ Dewald
Well sure...

It's nothing fancy really... I just decided a few small fish for this tank would be great. Some guppies, a Ram, couple of otos (very hard workers and don't eat my plants), also some corydoras (2 albino and 1 panda), also some rosy fins.

The rocks I picked up outside, scrubbed them off and placed them in the tank where I thought they would work well. I have some moss tied to the one rock on the right of the tank as you can see. It's growing very nicely.

I don't have any fancy lighting, just a standard 6w fluorescent globe as well as an LED strip which is supposed to go under a car's headlight. :bigsmile: An idea from WhitePhantom (user on this site).

The only thing I do for the plants is two types of liquid plant food. Can't recall the names... I'll have a look tomorrow and let you know but it works amazingly. Also... half of my tank does catch a small bit of sun in the morning. This might also have some influence. And the algae is non existent thanks to my two dear little hard working otos.

Oh and the gravel that I used is actually straight forward, plain old silica sand that I bought from a nursery. Very cheap. But looks good.

I hope this helps.

 

@Fishtastic, your tank is a good example of a low tech planted tank.

:adore:

 

Is that a good thing? I'm still very dof with this stuff. Lol! :blink:

 

Ok guys...

As promised. Here are some pics of the plan I made for the "unnatural" look of the corner filter. For me... it was spoiling the look of the tank.


And then this is the stuff I use for my plants:


I hope this is helpful. I use very little of the stuff... a few drops a week.

 

@Fishtastic, Looks great. Just make a plan with the background image. It shows gaps. You can use olive oil and an old credit card. Put some olive oil on the background and stick to the glass. Then use the credit card to push out any air bubbles. This will also make the background much more visible. Hope this helps.

Other than that. Tank looks very nice.

 

Just watch your water perimeters. Those corner filters are ok for very low stocked tanks, more so in tanks growing out fry... but they not really effective on the bigger scheme of things. Also not sure what (if any) effect those rocks piled on the filter will do to the efficiency of the filter.

 

Wow... thanks man. I was wondering how I'm going to sort out that problem. :cheesy:

 

Check out my article on setting up a tank.... I discuss how to attach these things in detail with pictures. (It's in the article section)

 

I chose nice big stones because even when they are piled up, there is plenty of space for debris to get in between them to the filter. Also, the corner filter is going... I'm just waiting to get a hang-on filter. I have another filter sitting on the right side of the tank as-well which does help.

 

Hi guys...

Latest pics of my little tank at work. I took the advice about the background with the olive oil and that worked well... thanks again. And just added a couple of plants I rescued from a bucket. Lol!! So they look a little ruffled now but give them a few weeks and I'm sure they will look great. :bigsmile:



My friend is bringing his camera to work tomorrow with a polarized filter, that should take the glare off... then at least I can put some good pics up. Although these are a lot better than what I have been posted. Once again, a friend did it for me. What would we do without friends hey. :cheesy:

 

Hi @Fishtastic , I am not a expert but java fern must not be buried in the substrate.

java fern must be tied to driftwood or rocks.

 

Hi @Fishtastic Nice looking tank and setup I like the rock idea!! Do the Flourish supplement work for your plants and how many do u use per day or week.

 

@ Dewald
I wasn't aware of that but have seen it grow in the gravel... do you think I should move it? Do you perhaps have an example for me of how it's done on the driftwood?

@ Christo
The flourish works great. I only use about half a cap full of each bottle once a week. And that's on a 30 liter tank.

 

Nice work .. That is a great looking for such a small tank. ,I like your style .very nice

 

@Fishtastic ,do not bury the roots it needs to feed from the water colume.
Example: take fishing line and

do the same with the driftwood. :bigsmile: