Zephyrus Blue

I After having owned a 30ltr Biorb for a month I decided to upgrade for two reasons, firstly I though my fish would appreciate the space, and secondly I wanted real plants. I did my research – or think I did, drew up some plans, made a backscene, and brought a tank-kit. After having thrown away all the stuff that came with the tank (filters/lighting/air pumps) and buying some decent replacements I jumped in both feet first. Everything’s growing, fish are happy, water is tested, changed fertilised, co2 administered in liquid form, in fact the only problem is my crappy design. I had envisaged a beautifully aqua-scaped tank, and have accomplished an arrangement comprised of a childishly placed medley of plants, rocks and wood instead. So whilst my fish and plants seem to be having a good time, I’m not. The problem is it’s all up and running, and I now have the following fish – which won’t fit into previous tank whilst I re-design the layout.

6 male guppies
6 female guppies
3 pepper corys
2 dwarf toads
1 siamese fighting fish

What I’d like to happen is for the fake rocks to be covered in short growth greenery in their entirety. I was hoping the java moss would do this – but I have just managed to create mounds of it. Does anyone have any suggestions for a plant type that would fulfil these requirements?

In addition, I would greatly appreciate some re-planting/new planting suggestions that anyone feels might enhance what I feel is a pretty poorly designed layout. All criticism/suggestions welcomed, I have no pretentions of being anything other than a beginner.

I would like to acquire a snowball pleco too, but I have heard they can uproot plants, can anyone advise on this matter too, and is the tank even large enough to house one?

Last but not least, will my tank be approaching the over-stocked level if I did put a snowball pleco in there? I have heard many rules of thumb to do with surface area, one inch per gallon minus cubic volume of scenery etc, but I think I'd just like someone more experienced than me to give me some advice. I did buy a larger filter to accomodate more fish, but don't want to stress them by overstocking.

Tank Details: Epoxy resin-coated Polystyrene backscene, 230 ltrs capacity, over-sized external filter, over-driven twin t5 lighting, large air pump. Co2 in liqid form at the moment, but will upgrade to injection if recommended. Substrate is sand over laterite, over gravel. All plants that are growing on backscene are platted in cylindrical depressions in the backscene itself, with a laterite base.

Unfortunately in the pictures the water looks cloudy white, in reality it's perfectly clear, it's just that the lighting is so bright.

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geeks_15

1st, I think you are being too hard on yourself.

Here's a nice article describing the shape of the layout and making a focal point among other helpful hints. http://freshaquarium.about.com/libra.../aa122203a.htm

My main piece of advice aside from the article above is to get more plants. I prefer to get many of the same species of plant for a nice lush bunch of plants. For example, get 10 or 15 or 20 stems of java fern and cram them all into one area of the tank. Get 2 or 3 or 4 big groupings of more java fern or different species and that will go a long way toward improving the look of your tank. Having a centerpiece plant that as the focus of the aquarium can also work, but I think a thick lush green aquarium can look great without that focus plant. While rescaping the plants, just leave the fish in there. Take 50% of the water out, rescape the tank, and then fill it back up. Or you could rescape and then do a water change to clear the water quicker. Dirt and debris in the water shouldn't hurt the fish.

Java moss can grow attached to your fake rocks. Two strategies to try:
Tie the moss to the rocks with fishing line. Wrap the line around and around the rock. Some of the moss will become attached to the rock and grow attached along the rock. You'll still have to trim the mounds.

Take some java moss and rub it all over the rock. This works great with driftwood. If the fake rock is porous enough, little flecks of moss will become embedded in the rock pores. It will take a while (weeks) before you see any growth, but if it works you have java moss fuzz growing all over the rock.

Regarding equipment, lose the air pump. The fish don't need it and it takes CO2 out of the water. Regarding CO2 injection, it will take your aquarium to another level. Plants will grow better and faster and fuller. You'll be able to grow plants you couldn't grow otherwise. You can grow plants without CO2, and you can have a nice planted aquarium without, but you can have a truly fantastic planted aquarium with the addition of CO2. The downside of injected CO2 is expense. It will be expensive to start up. Once the initial investment is made, the maintenance cost is minimal.

I'll let someone else tackle the stocking question and I don't know anything about plecos, so I'll let someone else answer that one.

I think you have a good start, it just needs some adjustment. Half the fun is messing with the tank anyway.

Zephyrus Blue

Thank you very much for taking the time to give such a detail response....upon which, I might add, I have just acted on.

You were absolutely correct. The addition of more plants has transformed the tank, and it looks much more like what I had in mind. I am going to struggle with the tying down of the java moss however as the 'rocks' are siliconed to the back of the tank and I am unable to loop fishing line around them. If I leave the moss weighted down, will it eventually attach itself? Presumably I could then trim it thereafter?

geeks_15

The java moss should attach itself if it is weighted down, it is just a much slower process.

I usually just wrap java moss loosely around things, or push it into cracks and it will eventually grow attached to the rock or driftwood. Then you can trim the part that is not attached.