Aquascaping Critique

[jpappy789]

Yeah, I had the same fake cave and my spotted corys absolutely loved it....too bad! They got over it real quick when I gave them a nice big piece of Mopani that was kinda hollowed out a bit, they fell in love with that. So my spotted corys have the wood and my peppered corys have a slate cave that I built for them.

Same happened to me!:grinyes:

If you truly want a more natural looking tank than ditch the cave and the pots and find some more rock and driftwood. And the plants when you can

 

[Kashta]

The tank looks great. And a lot of people start out with fake plants, then just swap them out for real ones over time. (Or not.)

Don't know what you've done since with the slate and the pots. From what's still pictured, I'd keep one pot and remove the other. One pot is a nice accent piece, visually. It's an interesting focal point... some added personal touch. Having two like that detracts for the visual interest you'd get only having one. Since you have the slate available, you won't lose the hiding place.

 

[fishorama]

The tall plant in the middle has the smaller plants too close for me. They look squashed together. IMO if you have fake plants it's ok to have pots for caves. Maybe lean some slate on the pot in the erosion zone with some plants beside it.

 

[abcdefghi]

As far as HOBs, my Top Fin (Whisper) and Penguins did that with my sand in certain tanks at certain water levels, they never seemed to leave my sand alone. Now that I'm running AquaClears on all my tanks, this only happens when the water level drops considerably. AquaClears are good at shooting the water across the surface instead of almost straight down.

Funny thing is its my AquaClear that is doing it, I might try and move some stuff around (maybe move the tall piece of driftwood there to deflect the flow).

I made some updates last night, changed the background and cave, also loaded a couple pictures of the angels.

 

[jpappy789]

nice angels!

 

[BoredAgain]

If your AC is doing it then I say your water level is too low. If you see bubbles shooting down into the water, your water level is too low. If you can't find that right level for some reason, then you will need to just work with the contents of your tank, as you have been, to deflect some of that flow. I have tons of driftwood, and I mean tons, to help with the flow in my tank.

Nice Angels, can't wait until I get mine, about 3 more weeks when my Bolivian Rams are out of quarantine.

 

[fishorama]

That looks much better! I like it. Pretty angels too. Not sure about the tall wood though, seems "forced" somehow.

 

[abcdefghi]

If your AC is doing it then I say your water level is too low. If you see bubbles shooting down into the water, your water level is too low.

I do see bubbles shooting down from the AC, but not sure how much higher I can fill the water. I usually fill it so that you can't see the water line below the tank frame, will experiment with the next water changes.

 

[BoredAgain]

I do see bubbles shooting down from the AC, but not sure how much higher I can fill the water. I usually fill it so that you can't see the water line below the tank frame, will experiment with the next water changes.

Yeah, just experiment with it. For my AC 110 on my 55g, I just keep filling it until I get the desired results, it's about half way between the bottom of the frame and the lip of the frame.

 

[abcdefghi]

Updates

A few updated pictures, I took out the pots, the fake cave and one of the fake plants. Added 2 new slate caves, and 2 real plants. Ignore the level of sand around the 1 plant, its just to keep the roots covered for now, when I move house I am either going to change substrate or get some more sand to level it out and keep the roots covered.

I am thinking of taking out a coulpe of the taller fake plants now that I have some real ones in there. Thinking of removing the tall one on the right since it never stays up anyway, and then moving the 2 tall ones in the middle to the right. Hopefully the Amazon Sword and Crypt that I have in there will grow nicely and I can start to add more plants once I feel ok to try some more in there.