setting up a 10 gal now...need to 'brighten' the decor

[gnahc79]

So I've emptied the problematic Eclipse 6, aka the "Death Tank" and have a new 10 gallon glass tank with:
-AC20: 1 sponge cut in half from our 20 gallon, 1 new sponge, 1 bag o' bioball stuff
-standard 50W heater
-black gravel

We'll be putting in some community fish later this week . My question is decor-related. What's a good way to prevent the tank from looking too grim and depressing? We tried black gravel in our 20 gallon a while back and it didn't look too cheerful. I think the black in the castle (pic in sig) threw it off. My wife is thinking of mixing in pink & purple gravel, which I'm too crazy about of course. We plan on putting one of those fake plant backgrounds, a lightly colored castle, and a light tan rock in the tank. Any ideas?

 

[blueturq]

Your tank doesn't look that bad, I sorta like it

What you could do to help intensify the fishes colours is get a dark coloured background, better yet, if you want to save money, go to Wal-Mart or a craft store, and get some dark coloured (black or dark blue) bristol board, and cut as much as you need to cover the back of the tank and tape it, so it of course sticks.

HTH

 

[geoffgarcia]

What's a good way to prevent the tank from looking too grim and depressing?

• paint the background or do styrofoam+cement; tape-on pictures always look terrible IMHO
• use natural colored gravel or dirt, stay away from black, florescent color, and sand (IMHO - obviously to each their own)
• use a water polishing filter
• use abundant lighting to highlight the tank yet not enough to let the algae get out of hand
• keep the glass free from algae
• from time to time use a UV filter to clean the water even more

 

[gnahc79]

I'll post a pic of what I have so far when I'm home later today.

Description:
- All black gravel (thinking of changing it to natural looking gravel)
- Two honey quartz (white w striping) rocks in the corner forming a small shelf, left side
- three plastic plants, right side
- small castle in the middle (this is going to go for sure)
- no background (thinking of a solid dark blue)
- thinking of adding some fake wood or more rocks

Right now my question is lighting. The stock All-Glass hood's light is not appealing at all. I have an Aqua Glo in my 20gal and it's ok, kind of dim for me.

What kind of lighting should I get for this 10 gallon? I looked at all the tank pics in the general sticky and liked the lighting in these tanks:
dwyane's

spiffish's

fishlvr's (my favorite)

My wife is 'girlifying' the 20 to her liking, so I have free reign for the 10. I want a more realistic tank, but it doesn't have to be 100% realistic since I don't want to deal with live plants.

 

[gnahc79]

pic

 

[waterdawg]

Your aquarium looks pretty good as is. I might consider adding some short foreground plants to add some depth. I also thought bluturq's suggestion of a darker backroud would be worth experimenting with.

 

[gnahc79]

yeah, I plan on add some short plants up front. I'm thinking of adding a small ruins structure or some fake wood on the right side. Thx for the input everyone.

Oh, here is how my wife's 20 gal tank is looking so far, she wants to replace the gravel with pink & purple gravel

 

[waterdawg]

...looks pretty cool.