tomas110011

Greetings from Sydney Australia..

This is my first post on this site and it is due to the frustration I have at not being able to achieve my own version of some of the Amano photos I see around the place. I have a 6" 250 liter planted discus tank which is in good health (fish and plants growing well) but I think it looks a mess (even though my oscar keeping friends tell me it looks so good, "all forest like").

I am therefore considering a complete makeover into a minimalist rock scape with only ground covering plants. Either riccia (which I already have lots of) or glosso (which I can collect in the local creek!)


I would appreciate feedback on the following principals which I consider crucial for this type of layout:

1. Sloping substrate. I plan on sloping the back and sides much higher then the front and middle to create a depth illusion, as this tank is quiet slim (45cm)

2. All rocks (13 in total) facing towards the feature rock. Rocks are black granite collected locally.

3. Maintance. Which grows faster riccia or glosso?? I have diy CO2 and over 200 watts of light from regular fluoro's and my riccia already needs trimming almost twice a week!
Would prefer less maintance as low level plants are hard to trim.

4. Will discus ruin the layout? It seems to me that most of Amano's tanks house only small schooling fish such as tetras. Is this so the focus is on the aquascape and not the fish??

5. Back ground. Currently I have a light blue background attached to the outside of the tank. It seems that most of Amano's tanks have no background but they stand in the middle of the room, as this is not possiable for me will a black background look more asthetically pleasing?

6. Substrate. Currently I am using a base layer of JBL aquabasix with 2mm river gravel over the top. Will a black sand textured substrate look beter/ grow better with this plant selection?

Thanks in advance for the help!!

Attached Thumbnails

 

|squee|

1) I'd slope from front to back, but that's just me. The substrate flattens out over time so you might want to slope greatly. Looking at pics of Amano's tanks of the sides, his substrates are absurdly sloped.

3) I'd say Riccia grows faster, but glosso is pretty near behind. You can't get less maintainence with either of the two plants

4) Yes, Amano focuses on the aquascape most of the time. He has mentioned that fish are usually chosen for complementing the scape, not the other way round. And imho, yes, discus will ruin the layout.

5) My take is, go without a background if your water is really clear. Otherwise, black usually works.

6) I agree that it'll look better.