10 Gallon Hardscape

Today I spent an embarrassing amount of time rotating pieces of wood 15 degrees clockwise, then 10 degrees counterclockwise, and back clockwise before flipping it over and trying something else entirely! I have three pieces of mopanI wood that I was determined to make work and I think I ended up with something workable and pleasing to the eye.

I really wanted to do what I call the Lion King ledge with the piece of mopanI on the left, but I couldn’t make it work. Bummer. I had to let that go so I could finally get someplace with this scape. Now I just need to figure out where to put my plants! I have an anubias nana, windelov java fern, regular java fern, and some java moss. I want to keep it low light and low tech.

I’d love to hear what you all think! I marked up a picture to highlight what I was going for with the composition. The water is a little cloudy and please forgive the picture quality.

 

I like the 'scape

You could also add some low-tech low-growing plants to the front of the tank, in the soil, for depth.

Anubias nana "golden" would also look nice for a change of color. It's a bright, lemony-green. It is pretty big usually, so I would personally tie it/glue it on low and let it grow up towards the surface. I would personally put it at the bottom of the wood on the right (facing towards the tank here) and then do petite nana up the left side. Crypt parva in the soil at the front and java moss on the back right side, tied onto the wood. Maybe a large java fern at the back of the tank, either tied onto the back of the wood or set with its roots in the substrate and rhizome above.

What fish will you be adding? Depending on species, you may also want to add some floating plants

 

I like the 'scape

You could also add some low-tech low-growing plants to the front of the tank, in the soil, for depth.

Anubias nana "golden" would also look nice for a change of color. It's a bright, lemony-green. It is pretty big usually, so I would personally tie it/glue it on low and let it grow up towards the surface. I would personally put it at the bottom of the wood on the right (facing towards the tank here) and then do petite nana up the left side. Crypt parva in the soil at the front and java moss on the back right side, tied onto the wood. Maybe a large java fern at the back of the tank, either tied onto the back of the wood or set with its roots in the substrate and rhizome above.

What fish will you be adding? Depending on species, you may also want to add some floating plants

Oh, that sounds like a nice layout. I started with just the two pieces of wood on the right and I had to pull the plants off to see what I was doing (a lot like your tank, actually!) and I’m having some trouble revisualizing the plant placement. I drew my original layout, I might try that again. Right now my poor plants are in a bucket.

I’m going to stock the tank with all yellow/orange livestock: ember tetras, Sakura orange dwarf shrimp, and Steve McQueen the golden mystery snail who is currently hanging out in a small biorb. I think it’ll look nice and harmonious.

A question on ember tetras: How is their color? They look rather vivid in some pics and videos online and dull in others. The ones I saw at the LFS were a bit dull, but I guess they could always color up a bit, tho.

 

I think Ember's color depends on the strain. The ones at my LFS tend to fall right in the middle, not too crazy bright but not too dull either. I would imagine part of that is due to them being kept on the wrong background color with no plants, in a more stressful environment than they'll be in at home. Remember green and orange are almost polar opposites on the color scale, so their colors will "pop" a lot more in a planted tank.

I have orange sakura shrimp in my 15 gallon display too, which houses CPDs and will eventually house D. dario as well. I really like them, and I think you will too!

 

I am so excited about the shrimp that I feel kind of ridiculous. My ultimate plan is to size up to a larger tank and have all yellow and orange livestock with a couple of golden gouramis as centerpieces, I think it'll look stunning with the contrast! I put the plants that I already have back in the tank and it's already looking great. It's amazing how much the plants soften the hardscape and tie everything together. I need to top off the tank so I can get some decent pictures.

I was thinking about putting something maybe grass-like in the back righthand corner to hide the filter... or maybe I should go with some more java fern. The LFS had some nice trident java fern that I had my eye on.

 

Haha I am getting shrimp this week too, for three separate tanks! I am excited too I'm hoping I have a wide enough genetic pool to breed.

Please do share pictures :3 We love pictures!

 

Haha I am getting shrimp this week too, for three separate tanks! I am excited too I'm hoping I have a wide enough genetic pool to breed.

Please do share pictures :3 We love pictures!

Here’s a picture of my tank with the plants I have as of now. I wish I could get a better picture, it looks so much better in person! I think I need to diffuse the light somehow. I increased the contrast a little with a filter to get it to look closer to how it looks to my eye.

Anyway, I’ve ordered the golden anubias nana to attach to the wood on the right and I have some dwarf hair grass that I want to edge the wood and lava rocks with. I know that it won’t carpet with my tank conditions, I just want it to maintain. I was thinking about putting Italian Val in the back corners, I really like the way the long grass-like plants look in the background!