JChacon

Okay, so I purchased a new 16 gallon aquarium today for my room. I also purchased the oh-so-required decorations with air bubble features. I am trying to make the aquarium look as natural as possible, but those pesky air bubble tubes are taking away the sense of naturality!

Is there any way to blend these tubes in or make just hide them all together?



EDIT: Here's a picture of the pesky tubes!

agabr123

i'd get some tall background plants and wrap some of them around the tubing

JChacon

I was thinking about that. I already purchased a few artificial plants to try and hide, and well.. I didn't position them too well. But I'll get them tomorrow along with the natural plants! Thanks for the help



Also, I just got through looking through your thread of the pictures of your tanks and fish. You've got some beautiful fish as well as aquariums. Do you think it's okay to keep bettas (Wal-Mart salvaged ones :P) in those small hexagonal tanks you usually find near? I would like to get a few and put them on my desk. Each in their own tank, of course!

agabr123

You're welcome

Thank you! I have three five gallon hexagon kits and they're wonderful for bettas The only thing you really need to buy aside from the kit is a heater and then substrate/decorations.

JChacon

Ahh, alright. The aquariums I was talking about though were these:



Would this at all be humane for the bettas?

agabr123

unfortunately no

bettas really need heated, filtered tanks just like all tropical fish with a lot more space than the little cubes (or hexagons) can provide.

JChacon

Okie dokieeee, I'm just a little low on cash from buying all the equipment for the bigger aquarium and love bettas. Thanks for your help!

agabr123

you're welcome

ooibhuskyoo

I was at my LFS and saw this airline tubing "disguised" as an artificial plant. It looked pretty weird IMO, I would just suggest putting as much tubing as you can under the substrate then at a corner of the tank you should hide the tubing with tall plants.

I guess aquascaping is your bestfriend when hiding airline tubing =p

aquarist48

You could also hide the tubing by replacing the blue back ground to black and buying black tubing. ( I saw black tubing at PetCo past week).

JChacon

The blue background is actually my bedroom walls :P

I personally think those wallpaper-like backgrounds for aquariums are too tacky.

ooibhuskyoo

+1 for the tackiness!

I think someone made some post about using black spray paint on the outside of the tank making it look really clean

JChacon

Would the black not make it attract more heat and cause the tank to heat overall? I don't have it exposed directly to sunlight, but my room gets a lot of sunlight in the afternoon. And I've already got a heater.... even so, I don't want to lug the giant tank around to spray it :P Sounds like a good idea though!

David593

For the tubing, what I do is run the tubing along one corner of the tank and have to go into the gravel and run it to the airstone under the gravel. That way, the only tubing you see is hidden in a little corner. And since your tubing is clear, it would blend in with the silicone keeping the tank together.

JChacon

Okay, doing all this, should I wear special gloves or something? I don't want to dirty the tank with my hands or wear something I'm not supposed to. I'm also scared if I wash my hands, the soap could mess with the water. Any way to work on this with water still in or should I remove the water?

David593

dont't remove the water. IMO as long as you didn't just use lotion or hand products, you can just put your hand in. I also know that some fish store sell gloves just to use with your aquarium.

Wyphy

Someone mentioned the black tubing, and there is also blue (and green) tubing; since you have a blue wall, it should blend in fairly well.

As to the backgrounds, everyone has an opinion on them, but many sources say that you should cover the back side as it will help the fish feel more secure (though that may really mean for ones with a plant/coral pattern), but they do make plain black or blue backgrounds, and the blue would blend with the wall and hide the filter, assuming there is a HOB filter there.

agabr123

i use black or dark blue backgrounds on all of my tanks (i'll have to get new pictures up, the ones i have are prior to putting the backgrounds on) and i think it looks really natural and SO much better than really busy backgrounds. ive also heard that it actually makes the fish feel safer to have a background, but i dont know how accurate that is

ooibhuskyoo

They sell some gloves on http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/...type=3&subid=0

I think it's like $17 for a pair, but I hear they are really good and can last a while.

namehater

im trying to figure out why you have so many air lines? i have the same ornament in my 14, it has a bubblestone inside of it with only one airline, that is the only air being pumped into my tank and ive never fish not getting enough air.

heres a pic of my tank, with its tacky background

pepetj

This what I do also. I use those small suction cups to keep the air hose somewhat straight.

Pepe
Santo Domingo