Aquascape tips for my 10 gallon? PICS

When I moved my tanks from their wood stands to the double metal stand, I went all out and completely revamped both tanks from the messy, completely overgrown plant disasters they were before. I pulled out all the plants (had to so I could get all the fish and drain them) and spent about four hours separating, trimming, and replanting.

This is my first *real* attempt at doing an actual aquascape.

I unfortunately don't have any "before" photos, but here are the afters

I'm looking for any advice/suggestions on how to better my 'scapes.

Tank 1- Sawyer's Tank
Inhabitants:
Fauna- 1 male betta, pond, mts, and ramshorn snails
Flora- Ludwigia narrow?, bacopa australis

(Trying to show off the red plants, they look a lot brighter in person)

Tank 2- Froggy, loach, and shrimp tank
Inhabitants:
Fauna- 6 ADF's, 4 Kuhli loaches, 1 remaining ghost shrimp, pond, ramshorn (leopard, blue, and red) snails
Flora- Anubias var. nana, Bacopa australis, ludwigia repens?


(I know they seem all the same, I was trying to show the shape of the path)

Thanks for any comments and suggestions!

*The colors are a LOT brighter and more vibrant in person*

jpappy789 said:

I actually like both tanks, you're getting some pretty good growth so you're doing something right!

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Thanks! What's funny is I've been incredibly neglectful to my plants (only doing weekly Excel and haven't done Flourish for over a month, not perfect lighting cycles, shoving stems in the sand or eco without being gentle, etc.) and they grow like weeds still! Left the trimmings on top as I had no where to put them, and they grew roots. It amazes me how easy these plants are. I'm back to daily Excel, weekly Flourish, and timed lighting cycles.

jpappy789 said:

For the first tank, the random patch of Ludwigia on the right seems out of place. Maybe place a smaller piece of wood or rock in front to break it up or something, but it just seems sort of awkward to me.

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I agree it seems out of place and awkward. I wasn't sure what to do there, as you can tell. Do you think I should place a rock (if so what type/color?) or similar colored driftwood in front of the ludwigia, then the bacopa in front of the wood/rock so it is more cohesive to other side? Then maybe if I go the rock route, place a smaller one in front of the driftwood on the left to tie it in all together? I know the left side is really "heavy" compared to the right.

jpappy789 said:

For the second tank, you have a lot of round-leaf plants. Maybe trimming back the Bacopa carpet and adding a taller, different looking plant for behind the Anubias wood would give it some more variety.

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How far do you think I should have the bacopa carpet go back? Any suggestions for a fairly easy plant? My lighting is two 18watt T5's. I was thinking of (once the ludwigia grows some more), taking some of the trimmings and replanting them behind half the driftwood pile and taking out some of the bacopa. Although, that doesn't solve the issue of all round leave plants. Perhaps if I were to take some of the ludwigia narrow trimmings from the betta tank and put them behind the other ludwigia on the left side? So it would be the narrow leaved ludwigia, broad leaf ludwigia, then the bacopa.

jpappy789 said:

Just my quick thoughts. I'm sure others' eyes will see differently too.

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Thanks for your thoughts! The water level was low just for the 'scaping, both are filled up now

Random, but I have 5 dwarf lily's that I pulled out, as they are so hard to keep short. Do you think one would look good anywhere?

Slappy*McFish said:

I agree, those are great looking tanks and I'm a fan of the natural look over a perfectly trimmed garden style tank. I think they look very nice.

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Thank you so much for the compliments. I like the look of some garden style tanks, but the maintenance has to be a complete nightmare for some of those. Especially ones with moss, I've given up trying to use moss.

Slappy*McFish said:

As far as tips are concerned, I'd just move the bacopa A. over to the right side of the tank to fill in the negative floor space and move that patch of ludwigia back over with the rest on the left side.

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I have a whole bucket of the bacopa australis trimmings/stems that I can pull from, so you are saying to completely fill in all the negative floor space on the right side with the bacopa australis? If I move the ludwigia over, would you recommend (once it grows some), planting the trimmings on the right so it lines the entire back?

Slappy*McFish said:

On tank 2, I'd probably just move the wood/anubias back about 2 inches or so and slightly closer to the path. (In the region in front of where that filter intake(?) is.) Also, if possible, moving the light forward a bit will illuminate the front of the tank better and darken the back more. This would greatly improve the depth and overall aesthetics of the scape. You'd lose much of the glare off of the equipment, as well. Sometimes removing the glass tops (or the hinge) is needed to do this, however.

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I really like the idea to move the driftwood pile back a couple inches and closer to the path, I think it will look really nice. I didn't even think about moving the light, I was worried about trying to place it on the center to give equal lighting for the plants, but I'm going to play around with moving it, at least for pictures. It's easy to move the light and top, which is nice

67chevelle said:

They need a black background. Other than that, they look awesome!

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Thanks! That's been on my "to get" list forever, I had a piece of dark cardboard behind them before, but my doggy chewed it up. I love the bassets/spaniels? in your profile pic btw!