Aquascaping Ideas

[Jrobber]

I'm staring at my new tank which is currently empty and I am wondering how I am going to aquascape it. My other tank is very bright with lots of plants (albeit, fake) white gravel and some brownish decor. When the light is on, the tank really "pops" as it sits in the corner of the living room. However, this new tank is in a extra bedroom so I am thinking about giving it a "darker" decor. Kind of like a forgotten ruins of sorts.

I really like the Column ruins and arch I have posted in my equipment thread, but that is really only going to take up about 1/3 or less of the tank. I would like a piece of driftwood, but a smaller piece about 6-8" longer and more so a background piece. As far as plants go, I am not worried about picking those out now. I would like to create some caves with rocks, but I don't know what type of rocks to use.

Also, any other decor that would go good with the two I have selected could help also.

Any tips or suggestions??

 

[BennyB]

I was going to suggest the sunken column ruins, actually. From what you described, I would go black sand, or gravel, with the colosseum on one side, and the smaller, rectangular piece on the other, with the smaller pieces in the middle.

That goes to the Petsmart Ancient Ruins themed collection.

Put some darker plants in the background, your driftwood would be nice, then top it off with a nice black background. Then be sure to spruce it up with some really colorful fish!
Then take pics because I wanna' see.

 

[Jrobber]

Hmm...I hadn't seen that one Ben. That would like good on the other side of the tank.

I'm going with Eco-Complete and then a layer of black gravel on top of that.

Any suggestions on background? I was thinking about painting the background black, but I think that might be too dark.

 

[Aquarist]

Good morning,

I hope you have fun setting up your tank. I like black backgrounds. I think it really helps to display the colors of my fish. Especially the orange Bloody Parrots. I think the black gives more depth to the tank too.

I'm sure you'll get more responses.

Ken

 

[BennyB]

I think black would look nice, you could try blue. The blue may contrast the black and make everything stick out a little better. Get a piece of black paper and a piece of blue paper and tape them to the back and see how it makes the tank look.

EDIT: I'm just curious, because I've never tried, but if you have sand under the gravel, how do you vacuum out the gravel?

 

[Jrobber]

Hmmm...Not sure about the gravel vacuuming, I'd assume you probably just vacuum the top layer of gravel and maybe put some snails in the tank to do the rest of trick. Not sure though, since I've never used sand. Perhaps, someone with more knowledge on that will stop by and comment.

 

[jeniferdwn]

I love that ruin peice from Petsmart. I looked at it last week, but I think it;s too big for my tank. But I'd love to see how it looks if you get it jrobber!!!

 

[LyndaB]

If it were mine, I'd make it kind of a swamp theme, only not a smelly swamp.

I just like the dark, mossy, natural kind of thing and then stock with fish that enjoy that type of environment. But I really do like theme tanks that others put together. Can't wait to see what you decide. hoto:

 

[Jrobber]

LyndaB, I'm going to tie some java moss to the columns and let it grow down them to give them an "aged" look. Hopefully, it turns out looking as good as it does in my head.

 

[LyndaB]

Ah, so you're going for a Louisiana Bayou run down plantation kinda thing..... me like!

 

[peacemaker92]

Hello

Just some idea, you could make small abandoned or old underwater houses/huts out of coconut shells. There's a link for it but I can't seem to find it. So sorry. Some members on this forum have made a few before and it looked very nice.

I'm sure your tank will be another beauty! Best of luck!

 

[A Sneaky Fatman]

What if you got the ruins thing and "destroyed" it. By destroy I mean strategically break and possibly put some plants in the pieces

 

[Jrobber]

That would be cool. Petco offers a single standing column for $2.50 that I could try that out on. I'm not sure about the edges being sharp though.

I had seen a website that built column ruins for aquariums, but I can't find it now. They seemed expensive, but they custom built a bunch of different ones, different sizes, and colors.