jackh

this is my 20H. i have an aqualight 36w on it and no co2. im kinda bored with how it looks right now and im thinkin about rescaping it soon. i cant really decide how to rescape though. i could have all the wood in one corner and have a sort of valley infront with maybe some HC or other carpeting plant. im really not sure what to do i just know i want to rescape. im lookin into one of those co2 things you put on a co2 tank from a paintball gun and another 36 w light to replace the purple "night light" bulb that came with the fixture. i also plan to add cherries and maybe some more fish. yall have any ideas? im a total noob to this stuff so please help lol.

if/when i do rescape, do i need to wait like 2 weeks to add fauna like i did when i first set up? jw cuz all the beneficial bacteria etc is already in my gravel but the plants will need some time to get settled in. thanks for the help

Tex Gal

No you don't have to wait for your tank to recycle. You could get an ammonia spike due to digging in the gravel but a w/c will take care of that.
As far as what to do to re-scape it, find some tanks you like the looks of and do a similar or composite of them. The world is your oyster!

bratyboy2

i really actually like the start of the tank as is why not keep it and add some more plants...it would really enhance the tank alot

jackh

id be ok with that, save me a lot of trouble. i just dont know what to add and where to make the tank look more natural etc. id like a carpet plant in the foreground but i dont know if ill have enough lighting and co2 for HC or glosso. any ideas? anythings appreciated

cs_gardener

Instead of making a curtain of the vals in back, how about moving them all to one corner (I'm thinking left behind the wood) and then adding some stem plants like Rotala sp. green, or a colorful crypt. Also, look through the PlantFinder to see what plants would do well in your tank and what you like. Have you looked at the Marsilea species for a foreground? (see here) They will grow well with lower light and they do stay reasonably short.

arto

you can take those plants and on the right and left side you can use the to make it kinda like a jungle and then take some swords or ancharis to cover all along the back and infront of that put the wood and for a foreground you can use dwarf hairgrass and ot will look pretty natural and you dont need yo use all the rock and wood also you can sell some of those plants and replace them with something else and for co2 can can have a diy co2

sorry if i didnt help but i tried

jackh

cs gardener- that sounds like a good idea to me but, if you look closely on the back glass of the tank, you can see a white design with holes in it. this tank used to be full of cichlid and there was a big limestone rock resting against the back wall and for some reason it left this pattern on my glass and i cant get rid of it. therefore, i sort of try to cover it with tall plants like the val, but if you know a way to get this stain out im game

arto- it helped but what you said was hard to understand since there was no punctuation

cs_gardener

I see the pattern on the back, I guess I just figured it was a background you'd used on purpose. I don't know how you'd get off that type of stain. I've had some luck with scraping some deposits off using a razor blade but it works best with an empty tank. Hmmmm, how about a moss wall?

jackh

that would be ok with me but i have yet to see a tank with a moss wall that looks really natural and everytime i mess with adding moss it gets full of algea in like 4 days its so annoying

Tex Gal

If you put some stem plants in there they will get full and cover the back. Actually it doesn't have to be stem plants. Any plants colse together will cover it. You can hardly see the backs of many of the tanks people post. Of course they are heavily planted.