I'm Not Fully Satisfied With How My Aquarium's Lookin

The fish are all in great condition, I just don't like the look of the tank in general and I need advice on how to make it better. It's a 20 gallon long

I don't know how to do pictures on here but the picture there is my tank and all. For 'decorations' I have a kinda heart shaped rock, a kind of archway type rock, 3 PVC pipes, a weird looking ceramic hand crafted pleco "cave", driftwood, and an anubias plant (the guy at my LFS never told me the name)

Any idea/suggestion is welcome!

 

id put some plants

 

I agree; plaaaants!!!! turn it into a jungle. a larger piece of driftwood with lots of character would be a great addition, too. or several branches. if you don't want to deal with a lot of live plants, there are some really nice silk (and plastic, if you prefer) plants out there.

 

Yep more plants and a few more rocks. Just my personal taste but I would ditch the pvc pipes.

 

I don't personally think my tank looks the best that it could (which is why I am ordering plants tommorow, check out my thread on that if you have any suggestions), but it only has 2 medium peices of driftwood and 1 medium rock, and the plants really fill up the tank. If your light is relatively decent you could try some anubias and anacharis for midground plants and maybe some jungle val for background, as those are relatively easy to grow.

 

I agree; plaaaants!!!! turn it into a jungle. a larger piece of driftwood with lots of character would be a great addition, too. or several branches. if you don't want to deal with a lot of live plants, there are some really nice silk (and plastic, if you prefer) plants out there.

Got any ideas on what plants I should put in? I was thinking of dwarf baby tears, an absolute BUTT TON of anubias and 1 or 2 bamboo plants. And should I buy more pieces of driftwood or just completely replace it?

 

I like the wood you have right now, no point in getting rid of it! it'll compliment some larger pieces. I personally love the look of amazon swords and java fern, but there are a ton of plants out there. just remember that you might need to upgrade your lighting too and get some ferts. go with low-light beginner plants if you want to save some money.

 

Got any ideas on what plants I should put in? I was thinking of dwarf baby tears, an absolute BUTT TON of anubias and 1 or 2 bamboo plants. And should I buy more pieces of driftwood or just completely replace it?

No way dwarf baby tears will grow in your setup, not in sand and not without strong light and some sort of co2 supplement. Plants that probably will survive are anubias, java fern, amazon sword(maybe), anacharis, jungle val.

 

You want the truth about decorating tanks...if you listen to all these people's post and buy the wood and the plants...at the end you'll never be satisfied with how it looks. Yeah it looks great now but in a few months you'll be doing it all again...

I'm never satisfied with my tank...and it's a good thing, keeps the hamster spinning the wheels in my brain.

 

I got some anacharis and it doubled in two weeks under a 60 watt daylight led. cool plant, my fry like it.

 

I agree. Plants. Either ditch or hid the pvc. Plants.

 

Much larger rocks and wood. Hardscape is the backbone of any nature style aquascape

 

Bamboo isn't a true aquatic plant so I wouldn't buy that.

 

I would definitely add more rocks and maybe some more driftwood as well. The only plants in my 55-gallon are anubias. They're wedged between a bunch of rocks and I hid my driftwood between the rocks as well for the pleco I have. I had a plant nursery near my house, which allowed me to purchase sixty pounds of rock for only $13.00. I also did a lot of research on proper aquascaping. This website really helped me out: