How can I improve my 10g planted?
- Thread starter xoparis
- Start date
definitely better. what are those plants in the foreground though? you may want to think a bit more about their placement...right now it just kinda looks like they're weeds lol
Looks pretty much the same.
I think you should spend a little more time on making every part of the tank looks nice and not just filling it with water and putting plants in it.
Your water was very low in the first picture, everything is covered in algae which also makes it hard to even see your plants threw the algae covered glass. The blue gravel underneath the algae covered sand just makes it that much worse. If the plants leaves are dead or half dead just clip them off since they will not rejuvenate themselves anyway.
I sudjest to remove the plants and put them in a bucket of water.
Remove the substrate you have in there now.
get a scraper blade and clean off all the glass.
Clean the flower pots and everything else that has algae on it.
replace the substrate with a different substrate of your choice, sand cost about $5 for a large bag.
After adding back your decorations and substrate, add your plants back into the tank and prune off all the dead leaves before planting.
That black garden fabric weed block stuff works great for aqaurium background.
Clean the outside of your tank, the glass and the plastic trim and then take another picture.
It might take a couple to a few hours, but in the end when you are done it will be worth it and I think you will be more happy with your planted tank.
I spent 8 hours doing my tank before and it's worth it after all the work is done.
You really want your aquarium to look nice, just adding water and neglecting it will only be a eye sore.
After all that, keeping your plants growing and looking nice will be much easier and more enjoyable for all of us to look at.
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i LIKE the algae on the pots. I feel like it makes it look rustic. And people looking at my tank don't point out the thin layer of 'clown puke' underneath. I'm not trying to be rude or anything, and I thank you for your advice, but I kind of like how it looks. I'll work on it gradually. I can't use up 10 hours of my day completely re-doing everything.
It took me a long time to do mine because I had 20+ species of plants that completely filled my 29 gallon tank. Shouldn't tank long at all to do a 10 gallon tank. The algae will continue to grow on everything in the tank and get worse, it will not stay they way it looks now.
svf
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- Jul 14, 2006
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I totally agree! And nothing irritates me more than the "clown puke" comment. :silly: I did a whole pink tank to get over my snit about the clown puke comments. I love it.
Sometimes algae looks nice and adds to the tank as a whole. A lot of aquascapers seem to want to take things that look natural and replace them with things that look "naturally artificial". Maybe it's a control issue.
All that I would do with your lovely tank is to use a background - I have used black trash bags - an added bonus is that some of them have a nice texture to them that looks interesting (to my eye, anyway). That will hide the wires and focus the attention on all of your good aquascaping. I have also used craft foam (fun foam) when I wanted a particular shade of blue background. Works GREAT and is easier to put on there because it is stiffer than trash bags or the rolled up backgrounds that you purchase from a lfs.
And lastly, I would clean the glass inside and out. I do this at water change time. I have a fishtank-only scrubby pad and just go over the inside glass when the water is at it's lowest. Then after the wc, I just go over the outer glass with a little Windex sprayed onto a paper towel - not directly onto the glass. Makes all the difference!
Remember, it's your tank. Do whatever the heck you want with it and apologize to no one. Hey, I have an all pink tank and it's my favorite!
sometimes you just have to let the plant grow in. Once you see how tall the plants grow or how fast you get a much better picture of how you want to sculpt your landscapes. I once bought a $40 package from mgamer and just distributed them sort of randomly. After a couple of months they grew in but the tank looked pretty bad. After getting some ideas on-line, I probably took out half of the plants b/c I decided they were not for me. This was when I first got into planted tanks and had no idea where to place them. Experience is the best teacher...
