Tank Looking "eh"

WrittenLyric

WrittenLyric

Bang Bang Shoot Shoot
Jul 16, 2006
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Massachusetts
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Tank Looking "eh" (new set up below)

Hi Everyone,
I'm new here, my name is Kris and I'm at a loss, I want to fix up my tank to look presentable, but made the mistake of starting off with crushed sea glass for "gravel". I really don't like it and have purchased some natural looking rock gravel to swap out. Luckily I have found countless topics on the best way to switch out gravel so I'm just waiting on some time in order to complete the terrible task!

Anyway, here is what my tank looks like currently:

tank2.jpg


I know, I know, "Fish Country"??? It's tacky yes, but it's a piece of fish history. My adopted red cap oranda, Pudge, was the proud owner of the sign originally and it's kind of an heirloom now.

Anyway, the tank is a 10 gal (us) with a Penguin Bio-Wheel 100 filter, 50 watt stealth heater, and Whisper air pump. It currently houses 3 pearl danios, 3 rosy barbs, and 2 serpea tetras. (I realize the potential of outgrowing the tank - no worries - back up is available! hehe).

What would you all do to re-arrange this mess??

Also - I thought about going with live plants, however I wasn't positive on whether I could do this after the tank was established.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!
 
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live plants can be added at any time, and i think they would greatly improve the look of the tank. fake plants really do look fake, and live plants do nothing but help the look and chemistry of the tank.

the main things to consider when adding live plants is lighting, and nutrients.

you should have at LEAST 30 watts of flourecent light over a 10g tank. smaller tanks, and larger tanks, tend to need more light per gallon than something in the 30-75 gallon range. my tanks, i use a sheet of plexiglass (an actual glass top would work better, but i'm cheap, lol!) and just set the light strips on top of the plexiglass. i stopped bothering with hoods. you could use two 18" light strips over the 10g.

while some will argue that the spectrum of the light doesn't matter so much, i prefer to use light with a "Color temp" of around 6500-7000k. this is the best spectrum for plants. look for bulbs that are "daylight" or "full spectrum"

as for nutrients, if you choose some low light, low mantinence plants, you shouldn't have to worry about nutrients, as your fish's waste and the minerals already in your tap will provide what they need.

some suggestions: java fern, java moss, anubias, any kind of cryptocoryne, hornwort, elodia (anacharis), rotala rotundifolia.

also a nice piece of driftwood as a focal point set a little off center would be very nice too.
 
In addition to the plants and driftwood, I would take out all the decor except your "fish country" sign (you already said that's staying in there) and replace i with real rocks. Looks much better when everything is real, in my opinion.
 
I'm definitely taking out the "decor" hehe it was momentary insanity I think. After seeing photos of other users tanks I got that "awww..why can't my tank look like that!!" syndrome so after I switch out the gravel I'm going to get the plants and rock etc. Who knows, I may even retire the "fish country" sign. *gasp*
Now I'm all excited to change the tank over, I think I've gone mad!
Thanks to you both,
Kris
 
I say go for driftwood, not only does it look great but it is good for the fish.
 
You should get rid of the air in the tank if you use real plants, you will lose some CO2. Also, 1 18" fixture over a 10 gallon is fine for low light plants, java fern and anubias do fine with 1 watt per gallon, even less.
 
Phase I complete...
The new gravel is in! Once the "dust" settles, and the stocking with the old gravel comes out - I will start looking for some of the plants suggested and begin planting. Let's hope I did everything right and there are no casualties!! :hang:

Thanks for all your help guys!
 
WrittenLyric said:
I have found countless topics on the best way to switch out gravel
Click to expand...
Just out of curiosity, what was their advice? I recently changed gravel in 2 of my tanks and hope I did it right. My old stuff was less than ideal, also, with rough edges, but not as bad as glass!

All I did was vacuum the old stuff (so there would be less poop floating around), drained half the tank, took everything out and then put new gravel in. My fish were stressed out from the lack of decorations, but it didn't last more than an hour. It was cloudy for the night, but clear by morning.

I'm also constantly watching for a mini-cycle, just in case the loss of gravel removed enough of the nitrifying bacteria to make a difference, even though same filter, tank, decorations are still there.
 
Let's see.. Since I have nothing as for "proper" tools in my home, here is what I did.

First rinsed out the new gravel for what seemed like an eternity so it ran clear.
Syphoned out a good chunk of my tank water into a bucket. Loaded all my fake plants, decorations, and the bubble stone into the bucket. Netted out the fish from the tank and into the bucket. Took more water out of the tank. Filled a stocking with the top layer of gravel that I was removing, put that in the bucket with the fish/decor/air stone. Then with my handy dandy spatula..yes I used a spatula!..I scooped out the old gravel, vac'd the glass bottom to remove random debris, then poured in the new gravel. Then started to replant the fake plants and deco. Netted the fish back in, put the sock into the tank on top of the new gravel, and syphoned some of the old water back in. Then topped off the tank with clean treated water.

So far so good, the tank was clear within 2 hours and the fish are back to their normal routine.

Hope that wasn't too confusing~!
 
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