Gilraen Took

My 60 gallon tank is still a mess >_> I just can't seem to find a layout that works with it. . .

Here's what I've got in it:

12 neon tetras, 1 harlequin rasbora(I guess 3 of them died and I just assumed I was seeing all of them, they never really schooled anyway) 4 white clouds, a lot of guppy fry(and a few adults) a bunch of cories, 5 khuli loaches, 1 clown pleco.

a good bit of wisteria, a bunch of wendtiis(which I love) some corkscrew vals(which I also really like, though they're slightly new and haven't adjusted to my tank quite yet) some chain sword, some water clover, some java fern on a small branch(which I'm trying to find a Good spot for >_> it's in the back left corner at the moment. . .) a few small unidentified crypts that can just go in with the others and blend, probably(they're near the front of the tank) a tiger lotus, 2 large-ish unidentified plants that are in the middle of the tank and look kinda like a sword of some sort, a couple sprigs of creeping jenny that I'm going possibly put in my terrarium, a lot of water penny(hydrocoytl?) that I couldn't find a place for(but want to keep) a few sprigs of ludwigia(the red one, probably going to put it into my 20 gallon tank)

And it looks like a huge mess >.< Should I take a lot of the plants out and just focus on a couple/few of them, or should I keep them all and try to make them fit together somehow? How do I make it look better?

Angie

I love it. Give it time to fill in and it should be great.

mott

I think you need some driftwood in there to break things up a lil.

Roger Miller

I agree with Angie. The main thing you need to do is let things grow in.

Your tank is set up with the major components in the right places for a practical aquascape. The large plants are at the back and sides, low plants are in front and you have an attention getting plant (the swords) prominently displayed in the mid ground. That gives your fish room to display in open water and gives you plants access to light.

As things grow in you should remove plants that aren't doing well. Don't try to maintain a few scraps of anything -- especially if they're unhealthy scraps. It makes the whole tank look bad. If you have plants that are growing well but for which you just can't find the right place, then the right place is probably in a different tank. They should be taken out. Some of the plants you have -- if you keep them healthy -- will probably outgrow their place in the tank, others may take a lot of manual labor to keep in their place. Your sword plants may be in that first category and the val and wisteria in the second category. If that happens then you can either replace the plants or put in the extra time to keep them under control and looking good. But you don't need to worry about any of that until *after* things have grown in more.

If you get your tank beyond that point and want to go further then the next step would be to add more structure. That can be done either with the planting layout or with rocks or wood.


Roger Miller