How do you keep your tanks neat?

rainbowcharmer

rainbowcharmer

AC Members
Jul 30, 2007
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East Coast, USA
Hey all. Been a long time since I've posted, and the notices board up there is yelling at me to post something.

Anyhow- I am trying to figure out how those of you with such beautifully planted tanks manage to keep them so nice and neat??

My tanks are growing out of control. The java moss is taking over, as are the water wisteria (i.e. most of my tank is dark because so much water wisteria is growing on the surface).

But really my main problem is I can't figure out how to get the plants to remain where I want them, and to look "natural". In my 75 gallon, the filter (eheim 2217) seems to be powerful enough that it shoves the plants around and they all end up stuck together in the corners.

I have a few rocks in that tank, and two small pieces of driftwood, and I have attached plants to those, but the rest of the tank is open (sand substrate), and I'd like plants to fill in the "open" areas, but can't seem to manage to get them to stay where I want them.

Suggestions? Ideas?

My 10 gallon is basically a home to a solid mass of java moss. I think snails still live in there, but quite literally it is 90% full of java moss. I need to remove some of it for sure.

My 46 gal bowfront is in the best shape as far as the planted "look" goes, though the java moss only seems to grow in a giant wad, rather than spreading out across the gravel (I was hoping for a somewhat carpeted effect, but no matter how many times I spread it out and tuck it into the gravel, it pulls loose and ends up back in the corner again).

Anyhow, I should post pics, but the tanks are a bit cloudy since I just changed the water about 30 min ago, so I'll wait on that.

Just looking for advice on keeping the planted tanks so nice and neat. I know there are a lot of you out there who are good at it. Share your expertise! :)
 
hey rainbow charmer. have you thought of ways to divert the flow of your filter so it isnt blowing your plants all over? maybe direct the flow towards the glass? And as far as plants in sand, cant you just use plant weights? Or the long route, remove the sand, put some sort of soil down on the bottom and place the sand back over the top, as to give your plants something to root into? hope to see pictures
 
rooting plants using 10" tweezers helps quite a bit to keep them down. push them plenty down and pull them op to where they should be.

as far as keeping it neat... mow it down when and where necessary and hide the camera till it fills in just right. waving your hand around near the substrate before w/c's and filter maintenance stirs things up good to be filtered out better. a turkey baster helps to hit spots where stuff settles that're hard to get to.
 
OCD helps me... :p:

In your smaller tanks you could just use plain cosmetic tweezers for planting neatly & deeply so plants stay put.

What kind of filter? If it's a HOB, you could cut out a cylinder from a plastic water bottle to create a baffle to slow down your water, or for canisters, set up a spraybar
 
You have to be heavy handed when it comes to fast growing plants. I purge a golf size amount of java moss during a water change every week. For water wisteria I cut about 2" off the bottom every week (this is the fastest growing plant I've ever had).
 
Lowish light and slow growing plants. :thumbsup:
 
Sure! So cut a cylinder from the middle of a 16-20 oz bottle... Cut a slit in said cylinder... If desired, cut out some plastic so you have more of a "c" versus an "o". Now you can wrap the curl of plastic around your HOB outlet (vertically). I use clear packing tape to attach the top piece above the output. You may want to trim some plastic from the cylinder to make it narrower, depending on how your water moves.
 
IME you can use fishing line to hold java moss in place. I don't know how fish friendly that is, but it works and gets hidden pretty good but the moss
 
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