AndreaW

@Brandon p ~ I will be able to shift things around a little bit, but I'm trying to figure out as much as I can before because I'm not going to remove the fish. I'm hoping to glue and plop the driftwood/rock and then plant and arrange around it. I am nervous about the weight and making sure things are steady before they go in since it's a little precarious and I don't want a broken tank. @Beardedbillygoat1975 ~ Thanks! I've been looking at the rule of thirds but trying to figure it out in 3D since the tank will be viewed from different angles. I love symmetry and so I'm fighting the urge and trying to fight the balance! Here are two more options adding a rock and removing one of the driftwood pieces: Option C: Option D: Option E: I don't think I can tip the large piece of driftwood upright. It's too awkward and unbalanced. See the tear in the back paper? Yeah, I think I just cracked my imaginary tank on that one! Options D & E In the large driftwood, I'm seeing something posing on the rock with their arm raised. Trying to break out of the symmetry: Option F: and building further on that, adding in the odd piece of driftwood: Option G:

@ScottieB & @Widgets ~ I'll try an upright position for the left piece although it is a heavy piece and I'm not sure how I will prop it up. @Jawjagrrl ~ Thanks, I'm not going for that kind of look so I'll keep rearranging! This is the tank my 11-yo son took over, so.... thanks for your honest and professional opinion. That's what I'm looking for! Wish I could do a real time video with responses. Now that you mention it, I do have a rock that was too big for my 10G that I might be able to use! @Katherine ~ Please tell her that I will most definitely use that rock in that location in the final setup! I'll mark it so I make sure it goes in the right spot! Alright, I'm going to pull the driftwood back out and start rearranging. I'll post some more options. Thanks everyone -- You guys are all awesome!

ETA: I think this is the scape I'm going to work with (Option G): ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ I've made templates for my 46G bowfront for reference. There will be taller plants in the back, some attached to the driftwood and around it, and some rocks/pebbles surrounding as well. I would like some open space for tetras and I have a Pleco, Kuhlis and Cories in the tank that I would like lots of space on the bottom. I've included front/top view of two options. Option A: Option B: Please tell me which you like better and why?

I've had my driftwood soaking in preparation for my light (arriving tomorrow) and my plants (arriving Monday). I'm pretty excited this is going as quickly as it is. I was planning on taking it slow and transitioning one thing at a time, but keeping the filtration the same has made it much easier. I'm still thinking I should swap the powerheads and direct the flow toward the outside walls instead of toward the center of the tank. Maybe breaking up the flow will help calm the water a bit. I made a template of my tank since I need to know for sure how I'm going to situate my driftwood and plants because I'm going to be re-scaping with the fish in the tank. I might remove the Pleco though. I plan to attach the Anubias Petite and Barteri to the driftwood and then place them in the tank. The rest of the plants will be attached to rocks and placed, or planted in the substrate after, hopefully not stirring things up too much in the process. Front view of driftwood placement: Top view of driftwood placement: I'm not quite sure about the two pieces together on the right. I may play around with them a little bit more and separate them. I think the fish will be happy with all the places to swim around and through. They love the castle I currently have in my tank and many swim inside and through, but the snails sometimes get stuck. I spent a couple hours sanding the driftwood last night to make sure there were no rough spots for fins and snail feet. I'm off to pick up some more white rocks/pebbles from the hardware store to cluster around the driftwood.

I've had a piece of driftwood soaking for about 2 months in hopes it would sink -- which I don't think will happen. I'm sure I will have to weigh it down. However, I forgot about it and just went to change the water and the top corner that was floating (in a container with a lid) has grown mold. I scrubbed it under running water with a toothbrush and poured hydrogen peroxide over it. I was expecting it to fizz, but it didn't. Should I treat or disinfect with anything else or should it be okay? I'll be setting up the aquarium in the next few days.

I can't find the specific one I used, but you can find aquarium stocking calculators online where you put in your tank info, filtration and stock of fish and it will calculate based on that. Filtration is going to pay a part in your stocking as well as planting and size/type of fish (I don't think the calculator I used took live plants into account). I would look up a couple different ones and see where you compare.

A sketch of my general idea so far. I think everything would move toward the front of the tank more and be spaced out. This is ordering one of each of what is listed above, except ordering 2 Anubias Barteri, Anubias nana "petite" and Cryptocoryne Lucens.

What I currently have in my ACO shopping cart: Name (placement, light, fertilizer) Vallisneria (background, low-med light, EG, RT) Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus (background, low-med light, EG, RT & Iron) Scarlet Temple (background, med light, EG) Java Fern (midground/background, low light, EG) "Windelov" Java Fern (midground/background, low light, EG) Red Melon Sword (midground, low light, EG, RT) Anubias Barteri (midground, low light, EG) Cryptocoryne Tropica (mid-foreground, low-med light, EG, RT, Iron) Anubias nana "Petite (foreground, low, EG) Cryptocoryne Lucens (carpeting, low light, EG, RT, Iron) Is this a good start or should I get multiples of some of these to get started? I have a bunch of Java Fern babies in my other tank that will eventually be moved to this tank. The tank is 36" wide x 16" deep, and the large piece of driftwood is about 18" long x 5" deep and I have another smaller piece that's about 14" long. Also, I ordered the light and it will arrive on Saturday! This is exciting!

@Odd Duck & @Patrick_G ~ Thank you! I think I will leave the UG filter for now and later add a sponge filter. It will be nice for power outages or for later down the road when the tank is stocked lighter. If the flow ends up bring too high for the taller plants I might be able to replace with smaller powerheads to keep the UG filter going. I'm going to add more substrate and rocks with the driftwood. I found a great piece of driftwood today. That's my arm with the driftwood, and my hand with the gravel I will be adding. I'll also order the LED light. I talked to my son about the Pleco and he agreed to re-home him if we can find a perfect one. He will get a Bristlenose Pleco after we re-home him. I plan on planting it heavily. I'll have to post my list and quantity of plants to get advice/approval once I figure it out. Thanks again for your help!

@Patrick_G ~ Thank you!

I have a 46G tank I'm going to upgrade with live plants. (See this post) It's 36"W x 20"T x 15"D Bowfront I'm not planning anything fancy, and I'm new to aquarium plants so I don't think I need anything fancy beyond a light that will grow plants, I can schedule, and I like the idea of being able to adjust intensity and do a sunrise/sunset option. I'm thinking of planting some medium and low light plants like Pogostemon, Vallisneria, Ludwigia, Cryptocoryne, Java Ferns and Anubias? This is the light I'm looking at getting: Substrate will be a mix of rough gravel (already in the tank) and topped with a smaller, smoother river gravel. I'll be using root tabs and Easy Green for fertilizer to start out. I also have an UG filter I'll be removing the powerheads and tubes, but leaving the grate to collect mulm and I don't want to upend the entire tank and its current inhabitants.

I'm currently thinking I should proceed this way: Remove Powerheads and tubes. Cap off and leave UG at the bottom to collect mulm and give the plant roots something to grab on to? Add additional HOB filter to maintain filtration and lessen water flow. Give it a couple weeks to make sure the nitrogen cycle stays intact and I don't stress the fish too much. I can change out the light at any time. Add additional (smaller, smoother river rock) gravel, maybe 1" more(?) on top, and it will eventually mix together. Add live plants and driftwood. Do I keep plastic plants in tank for a while while new plants are starting out to keep a good supply of beneficial bacteria in the tank? I'm pretty sure I will be removing the castle when I put the driftwood in the tank. Figure out lighting and fertilizer schedule for live plants. Is this overkill or am I not being cautious enough? I really want to avoid disturbing the fish and would like to keep them in the tank during the process, if possible.

@Vaping Giant ~ Thank you for your response! Here's a list of the types of fish I have. Many of the tetras all school together even if they are different types, but I don't think I can/should add more at this point: 8" Common Pleco 2 Kuhli Loaches (1 was dropped off to me and I bought another so it would have at least one friend since they school) 6-7? Panda and Green Cories (all school together) 6? Buenos Aires Tetras 4-5? Black Skirt Tetras (some long-finned) 3? Lamp Eye Tetras 1 poor lone Neon Tetra 2 Mystery Snails I think I have a total of 15-16 total tetras. I've had many of these tank inhabitants for many years already. (One Kuhli and the snails are young, recent acquisitions. Will I need to worry about any of these eating my plants? I have a constant 0ppm Ammonia, 0ppm Nitrites, 40ppm Nitrates. Even through the recent move, I was able to keep my nitrogen cycle intact and all fish survived and were happy. About 2 weeks after the move, my sister dropped off the Buenos Aires and Kuhli Loach who were the only survivors when her heater went out and her tank got down to 55*F. I was also able to get them acclimated with no deaths which surprised me. I did get some diatom algae from overfeeding, but the nitrogen cycle stayed stable through the additions. I think my tank is 36" wide x 20" tall. Would this light be a good light option? I have pretty hard water, so I don't think I should add crushed coral, and I'm thinking I would like to plant directly into the substrate so the plants can spread across the tank. I think slowing the flow of the water at the top and front of the tank might help the fish and plants. There's a pretty strong current right now, mostly from the powerheads. I don't mind the sound of the HOB filters and keep the water level up so they are not noisy. I would love to add Anubias in this tank, and probably Java Fern. I would like some taller plants in the back, maybe Pogostemon or Vallisneria? I need to research light requirements and such before I can choose the plants, I think.

Now that I've got my 10G Betta tank going, I need to start thinking about what I'm going to do with this tank. It's a 46G Bowfront I've had running for about 20 years. My son has taken it over and it has a random mix of fish that he has picked out and some stray fish dropped off at my door. It truly is a hodgepodge tank. Inhabitants: Currently it has a bunch of tertras, Cories, Kuhli Loaches and my son's Pleco named "Gary" who is the most peculiar Pleco I've ever met. I think he's defective, but my son loves him. He has a flat nose and I've never seen him suck or rasp at anything. In fact, I've never once seen him eat or poop, but somehow he has grown to 8". I swear he's a zombie. The tank is at full capacity as far as stocking and I need to convince my son that his Pleco will need to be rehomed eventually. Until then, I will be keeping all the current inhabitants for now. He also has two Mystery Snails. What I want: I would love to do a planted tank with driftwood and make a better setup for the Pleco, especially. I'm new to aquarium plants and would like to keep it simple while I'm learning. History/Setup: It originally housed a couple fancy goldfish and a Pleco (the reason I have such heavy filtration on the tank) and I have had various tropical fish since then. This is its third location and I've redone the silicone once. I'm still running the original setup of a Marineland Emperor 280 HOB filter, with an under-gravel filter with (2) Marineland Penguin powerhead 550s. So I have a total of 570GPH flow in the tank. It has a fluorescent hood light with a 24" full spectrum bulb and a glass top. (The tank is 36" wide). I've tried live plants before, but they never survive most likely because I didn't know what I was doing like fertilizer/lighting/substrate, etc. (still don't know most of what I am doing). Considerations/Questions: Since it's so heavily stocked, I think I need to continue a higher filtration, so I'm thinking of removing the under-gravel plate and powerheads, but add another HOB filter to the other side so it still gets even flow/filtration. Then down the road, I can swap the HOBs to sponge filters if it's stocked lighter. I was told if I wanted to grow any live plants I would have to upgrade the light to an LED. I don't know if that's true or not? It currently has 2" typical aquarium gravel, which I would like to keep (I want to do my best to keep the nitrogen cycle intact), but will probably need to add some additional gravel if I'm going to do live plants. I will probably get some smaller river gravel that is smoother to mix in with the coarser gravel. Or should I top the coarser gravel with the smoother, smaller gravel? Will live plants survive the inhabitants? I bought some stem plants recently and dropped the whole pot in but neither of them survived. All the leaves fell off (or were stripped off) and I just have bare stems left. I buried the stems in the gravel but so far they aren't doing anything. I've heard Plecos will eat and beat plants up pretty good and that the Mystery snails will eat live plants. But, If it's heavily planted, will the plants have a better chance of surviving? I'm looking forward to trying some different plants. I haven't done any stem or larger plants because most are too big for my other 10G tank. Any and all advice appreciated. I'm kinda lost where to start, what to do, and how much to do at once, or if I should space things out to keep the inhabitants and nitrogen cycle happy.

I agree, I think the Anubias would be lovely on the rocks. Sometimes when you pull them out of the rock wool, you will find two smaller plants. You could also get some other Anubias varieties. Barterii has big beautiful leaves. I think some of the wisteria weighted down would be nice as a backdrop as well. Java Fern would look nice attached to the rock or just behind as well.

@Cinnebuns Here's a blog post about Anubias and they say you can just drop it in the planter. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/faqs/how-to-plant-anubias-and-java-fern?_pos=6&_sid=ebf17819e&_ss=r

I'm trying to remember for sure, but I think the rhizome of mine was in the rock wool so I would check for that.

I got some Black Beard Algae (BBA) from a moss ball I bought. It's actually tufts of dark green algae. It's never taken over the tank and kept to a reasonable amount. I've also had Green Spot Algae for many years (the tank has been running for about 20 years) and some of those types of algaes grow in well-seasoned tanks. Give it time and you will get there! Also, 'borrowing' algae from another source (like my BBA) is an option. I wasn't actually looking for it, but since I've got it, I figured I might as well appreciate it since I will probably never get it to go away.

@Rachgee ~ What style of scape are you going to try and what fish do you plan to keep? I found a great book at my library that is basic, but informative and has great advice for beginners. It's called Aquascaping by George Farmer. I'm sure there are other great books, but that's the one I could find through my library. I'm new to aquascaping but not new to fishkeeping (and I'm also a gardener). I wanted to set up a new tank and decided I wanted a Betta again so I designed everything around that. Because I wanted a Betta, I decided on a 10 gallon tank with a lid (to keep the humidity high and to prevent him from jumping), and I knew I needed a heater and lower flowing water, as well as nothing he could snag his fins on (even though I ended up getting a short-finned Betta in the end). I had the basic LED lights built into the tank hood, so I'm using low light plants. Once I had the basics figured out, I went on the hunt for my spider wood that would become the centerpiece (found at a small local pet store), as well as my substrate (found at Petsmart). I found some medium and larger rocks (Lowe's hardware) and made sure they wouldn't dissolve any nutrients into the water. Make sure you have a good test kit. If you are looking for quick, Aquarium Coop has some strips. I've heard the most accurate are the liquid kits API Master test kit has all the basic tests and I think is cheapest on Amazon. Beyond that, research your plant and their needs and make sure you have the right fertilizers and requirements for them (similar to non-aquatic plants). Ask lots of questions -- this is a friendly group! Watch videos and then get it set up and go from there!

This is Barnaby, our predator cat. He will patiently wait all day at a gopher mound to catch his prey. He is a gopher death machine and catches more gophers than my husband can trap. We live next to a large field so there are plenty of gophers for Barnaby even with the Red-tailed Hawks constantly watching over the field too. I don't like him going after birds (Mourning doves, quail, chickadees, house sparrows and finches). Once he proudly came running home with a large magpie in his mouth. I was quite impressed he caught one and could fit it in his mouth!

@Brentirwin ~ Common Plecos need a minimum of 75 gallons but their ideal is potentially 150 gallons, so you are fine. At one time I had a 14" Pleco in my 46 gallon and he didn't seem to mind (I wouldn't do that now, knowing what I know). My current Pleco is 8" and I need to convince my son to rehome him as I feel like he's not happy in the space.

Beautiful! I could use this as a screensaver!

@Apulo ~ Beautiful! I originally wanted a Betta that looks like your Blinky, but "Cosmo" chose me and wouldn't let me walk away without him!

You seem to have top and mid dwellers. Do you have any bottom feeders yet? Cories are great in a school as well as kuhli loaches. (Cories are some of my favorites though.)

It's impossible to go back and redo something we haven't done -- that being said, if you suspect a fluctuation in pH could have been the issue I would continue to test the pH of those tanks to see what happens in the future. Keep a log and see if the pH fluctuates between water changes, and when you do your next water change, do a smaller one and continue to monitor what happens to the pH. An unstable pH does affect fish and they will show it in their gills and they will appear to have difficulty breathing. I have had one fish exhibit symptoms of a problem when all others seemed just fine. ie: a whole school of Cories was acting fine and happy, but one would lay on his back gulping air at the top of the tank and then lay sideways. I tested the water and had less than .25ppm Ammonia. As soon as I did a water change and add Prime, he was fine and happy. I think some fish, like people, are more sensitive than others.