Unnatural Tank Decoration: An unknown and a first

Pinkey

Pinkey

AC Members
Nov 16, 2004
279
66
31
Denver
Real Name
Nate
Hello,

I am trying something I have never done before. I have had heavily planted tanks for many years. I have a 125g planted cichlid/aquaponics natural tank right now that I am very happy with.

I recently had a 55g tank with a ton of live plants including many terrestrial plants. It turns out that, while philodendron grows quite well out of an aquarium, it is also toxic to all animals including fish. For simplicity and ease, I would like to try keeping an aquarium without many crazy plants.

I would like a castle, or a sunken pirate ship, or maybe some Greek ruins.

If you have a community tank with artificial decorations that you are happy with, please post a picture or a link. I would like something dramatic rather than a bunch of little dead divers with bubbling heads. I will not buy any Spongebob themed decorations (but if your kids made you do it please share the photo anyway).

I'm just looking for inspiration and to see that it can be done well. I will still keep the natural gravel I have. It is easy to take care of and I just won't bring myself to put clown barf gravel in my home. Anything else is possible.

Thank you,
Nate

Tank Specs:
55g standard
Wet/Dry Sump rated for 130g
up to 5x per hour water turnover
Light enough to grow plenty of plants (may reduce this later depending on algae)

1 Tiger barb
1 Clown Loach
2 Pearl Gouramis

3 tall lucky bamboos
a dozen bunches of short val growing in the back (may take these out, too)
 
I have some "rock formation" style decorations in a 25g community tank I set up for my sister. Unfortunately she chose "clown barf" gravel in the blue/green packs, but the background jungle kinda subdues the obnoxious gravel. Will try to post a picture. My last attempts to post pictures started to post them upside down, so I gave up until I could figure out the right process.

I also found a 2 piece wrecked battleship that will go into either my 29g gambusia tank or a much larger tank housing my tinfoil and Denison barbs.
 
I hope this works. The "rock formations" are the plastic/resin type, the plants are real. Lighting is the standard fluorescent that came with the aquarium kit.


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Sunken ship is a great idea, and will suit your tank stocking well. The ship itself will, presumably, have some sort of cave-like structure on the bottom for your loach to hide in, as well as decor for your other fish. Plant around it, add some more barbs and loaches, and you have a tank.
 
The tank pictured actually has 6 khulis, and they seem to prefer the plateau decoration on the far right. Not that they hide much, these are a rather lively and active bunch. I personally think they love to tease the cats.

The neons hide in the cave in the middle, as well as the larger "rock" on the left.
 
I like the green and blue in your tank. It just works somehow. I guess I associate artificial decorations with tanks people set up for their young kids with as many colors and bright things as possible. Maybe it doesn't have to be that way.
 
Thanks for the compliment! My sister chose the gravel, I'd have gone with natural myself. However, I'm happy with the tank - it has that jungle feel to it. The decorations are from Petsmart.

Here's a more recent picture of the 46g. It's constantly changing courtesy of the fish hamming for a mugshot.

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It's an A/C thing. If you tap on the upside down pics, it shows them right side up...

I personally love to see tanks with the 2 piece airplanes. Someone should make luggage and seats and stuff to scatter around it too.

I don't have pics to post, but it had a tank I did in glass. It has a 1 inch base of smooth glass chips, and another 1 1/2 of marbles on top. I used jungle Val's and swords along the back of the tank, a couple of green and blue old glass bottles with wide openings for hiding, and a really large clear vase in the middle. Off to one side I had a glass box. I used the plastic "jewels" in multi colors and some mardi gras necklaces to drape over the box and vase. Scattered some crystal pieces and old fake pearl necklaces around. The whole tank looked like a busted open treasure chest. It turned out really cool. Cleaning it was a true PIA.
 
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