Aquascaping ideas and help?

[Sartor]

Hello all! I’m new to keeping bigger tanks, and am looking for some aquascaping advice!
 

I’m going for a heavily planted, no CO2 in a 20 gallon. My substrate is Fluval stratum, and I’m planning on using easy green. It’ll have blue neocardina, and I’m thinking 2 honey gourami, some ember tetras or chili rasbora. Maybe cories or a nerite or two. 
 

I’m Getting flamingo crypt and have some  of ludwegia repens, anubias nana, hygrophila difformis, elodea anacharis, pogostemon stellatus, and sagittaria subulata. Also have one that stays smaller I can’t remember the name of, but it’s up front to the left lol. 

Edited March 28, 2023 by Sartor
Pictures updated.

[lefty o]

lots of videos out there, but imo the trick to scaping a tank is make it look good to you. you will be the one who looks at it all the time.

[Sartor]

Thank you! I’m going to try to look up videos on my day off to set an idea, mostly I’m just having problems figuring out how to arrange the plants! No matter which way I put them they don’t seem to look good. I’d be able to try different plants to if I can get an idea of what would go good. 

[Biotope Biologist]

Videos of others will be great inspiration!

 

couple pointers for aquascape:

- You want your focal point and bulk of your aquascape off center. It looks more natural

 

- You either want your main feature to have depth or height or both. You can glue pieces of rock together using coral glue or fish safe glues

 

- plants in finished aquascapes either have been there for years or were planted so densely that long term they would die (temporary competition setups). So don’t fret on the plants looking sparse!

 

 

[NOLANANO]

On 3/28/2023 at 9:24 AM, Sartor said:

Thank you! I’m going to try to look up videos on my day off to set an idea, mostly I’m just having problems figuring out how to arrange the plants! No matter which way I put them they don’t seem to look good. I’d be able to try different plants to if I can get an idea of what would go good. 

As another poster already shared the link to his Youtube page, I think the MD is a great person to learn from. He gives pretty step by step guidance in his videos and gives tips and tricks along the way. He also stays pretty simple in terms of the rules and ratios that a guy like Geroge Farmer gets into super detail about.  Not to disparage George Farmer, just noting that he is Calculus compared to MD's Algebra. 

[PineSong]

On 3/28/2023 at 2:19 PM, Pepere said:

 

10. Plants of same species tend to look better planted together rather than scattered and mixed, though putting a sprig or two of a stem plant  just off fro. A clump makes it look like it is starting to spread itself..

 

This is what I feel has made the best differences in my tanks. If I have six stems of Plant A, I will now put them all in one area instead of 2 here, 2 there, 2 over there. 

Also, cutting stem plants in half frequently to get them to bush out instead of grow straight up. I float the cut off sections for a few days/weeks and then replant them next to the original parent plant to increase the size of my patch. 

No matter what, DON'T GIVE UP!  Your tank will go through many ugly phases before it looks beautiful to you, most likely. Just know that is part of the process and eventually you will figure out what grows well in your tank and what feeding it needs.