New tank! Thoughts, pointers?

Hi! So we just just got our fish tank last week! Let it go through its cycle and decorated it. We’re new to this so please feel free to give us any pointers!
We have two live plants, a bamboo, two fake plants, and some decorative jelly fish. We just added a bubbler too. Not sure if it’s tooo much or it’s ok.

we have a

 

The colors...they are busy!

 

Looks great! Here's some pointers (and be aware, I'm not listing any of the good stuff, of which there is plenty, I'm going to be overly harsh and list all the things that can be improved):

1. Coloured gravel and leach the colours out in the water and harm fish. (edit: not always true). A natural coloured gravel or sand is usually optimal. And keep in mind you can't keep any catfish or Loaches in it because it hurts their barbles.
2. Plastic plants can scratch fish. Especially bettas, it rips their fins. Silk or live plants are far better.

Those are my two pieces of advice. Looks great, who's the cute lil guy in it?

 

The colors...they are busy!

I was trying to figure out if it was necessarily bad for the fish to have colorful things, I couldn’t find any information on colorful decorations just more so colored lights! Does it stress them out?

 

I was trying to figure out if it was necessarily bad for the fish to have colorful things, I couldn’t find any information on colorful decorations just more so colored lights! Does it stress them out?

I don't know, i have always preferred more natural tones myself, but a fish doesn't much care if it is pink, green or whatever if it feels the need to hide. Only petty humans are dumb like that!

 

Hi! So we just just got our fish tank last week! Let it go through its cycle and decorated it.

Welcome to FL!

When you say you let the tank go through its cycle (for a week), what does that mean? How did you cycle it?

 

Looks great! Here's some pointers (and be aware, I'm not listing any of the good stuff, of which there is plenty, I'm going to be overly harsh and list all the things that can be improved):

1. Coloured gravel and leach the colours out in the water and harm fish. A natural coloured gravel or sand is usually optimal. And keep in mind you can't keep any catfish or Loaches in it because it hurts their barbles.
2. Plastic plants can scratch fish. Especially bettas, it rips their fins. Silk or live plants are far better.

Those are my two pieces of advice. Looks great, who's the cute lil guy in it?

The colors will come off the gravel? oh man... sand sounds like the best option then because we were looking to get a few Cory catfish!
We have the two plastic (blue and pink/orange) so we will be switching them and adding in Silk, I didn’t want to put too many live plants because I read if there isn’t enough light the plants will take the oxygen!

he is a glofish - we have 4 of them and an African dwarf frog.

 

I was trying to figure out if it was necessarily bad for the fish to have colorful things, I couldn’t find any information on colorful decorations just more so colored lights! Does it stress them out?

I have never heard of colored gravel hurting fish. I have black gravel in my 55g right now. It does chip eventually. It is not good for cories though.

 

The colors will come off the gravel? oh man... sand sounds like the best option then because we were looking to get a few Cory catfish!
We have the two plastic (blue and pink/orange) so we will be switching them and adding in Silk, I didn’t want to put too many live plants because I read if there isn’t enough light the plants will take the oxygen!

he is a glofish - we have 4 of them and an African dwarf frog.

Corys do best in sand, or a fine gravel. Anything they're capable of shoveling through. I have mine on a 1mm diameter gravel. They naturally sift through sand and it's best to let them do that. Don't be upset, it looks good and I can tell you put a lot of effort into it. But I'd recommend changing the gravel if you ever do get Corys. They can live on gravel but they're much happier in sand or a finer gravel. But don't feel the need to change anything too fast. Your glofish will be absolutely fine. You've probably poured a lot of money into this setup, there's no rush to change it. Can I suggest a few snails instead of Corys for now though? You can always add them at a later date, so don't feel the need to rush anything.

I have never heard of colored gravel hurting fish. I have black gravel in my 55g right now. It does chip eventually. It is not good for cories though.

I have black gravel too. I mean bright colours like blue and pink. More reputable brands tend not to produce those colours because they chip, so you end up with cheap quality substrate.

 

Welcome to fishlore
That tank is very unnatural but it won't kill the fish. Personally I think a natural and planted tank looks 1000 times better than the style you've gone for. Look at some aquascapes for inspiration. The plants using oxygen is not a real risk at all, especially since you have the bubbler. My tank and many other nice tanks are packed with live plants and the fish are super happy in there.
Tbh my pointer would be redo it now and make it natural and nice. Up to u

 

One of my first tanks was a 40 gallon brackish tank. In that tank I had plastic plants and such. The fish were perfectly happy with the décor. I don't think it's too much decoration. In fact, I'd say more is better (to a point). It gives the fishes more cover, and they'll be happier for it.

I'm a bit concerned about your one week cycle though. While not impossible, that's pretty quick. Are you sure the tank cycled?

 

To each their own.....don't ever worry about what everyone else thinks! It is their opinion only.

 

Qfish21 Congrats on the new tank!! You could do a lot of really interesting fish in your tank. Dalmatian Mollies would look amazing in such a colorful aquascape, as would glass fish, and some shrimp as well. If the materials aren't sharp a white Betta would really pop in there as well. I hope you continue to have fun with it and don't get discouraged if your tank is different than others', it's always best to be unique and true to yourself!

 

If you like the colors, then stick with that. Its your tank. The fish don't care. That colored gravel won't hurt anything either.

If you really want those colors to pop, then I would suggest a black background. Those bright colors against a black background would look great.

I like to paint the back of my tanks black with plain old acrylic paint. A few bucks at the dollar store can totally change the look of a tank.

 

If you like the colors, then stick with that. Its your tank. The fish don't care. That colored gravel won't hurt anything either.

If you really want those colors to pop, then I would suggest a black background. Those bright colors against a black background would look great.

I like to paint the back of my tanks black with plain old acrylic paint. A few bucks at the dollar store can totally change the look of a tank.

A black piece of paper or card will also work if you prefer something less permanent. I agree black will make everything pop!

 

A black piece of paper or card will also work if you prefer something less permanent. I agree black will make everything pop!

The nice thing about acrylic paint is that it scrapes off very easily, so its really not a permanent choice. If you ever wanted to change it, it comes off quite easy.

 

The nice thing about acrylic paint is that it scrapes off very easily, so its really not a permanent choice. If you ever wanted to change it, it comes off quite easy.

Ohh, my bad, I didn't know that! Interesting, I've only ever used plastic sheets as backgrounds.

 

No worries. Some people also use spray paint, and to my knowledge, that's a permanent kind of thing.

But I should add, that I've only ever used acrylic paint on glass tanks. Acrylic doesn't bond well to glass, so it comes off easy. But if you have an acrylic tank, then that might be different. I have no idea how it would work on an acrylic tank.

 

Qfish21 Congrats on the new tank!! You could do a lot of really interesting fish in your tank. Dalmatian Mollies would look amazing in such a colorful aquascape, as would glass fish, and some shrimp as well. If the materials aren't sharp a white Betta would really pop in there as well. I hope you continue to have fun with it and don't get discouraged if your tank is different than others', it's always best to be unique and true to yourself!

Yes the Dalmatian mollies are so cute! I gotta plan accordingly because I don’t want to over crowd it too much (not that it is right now )

Yeah, not going for any natural/neutral aesthetic I dunno where the neon and jelly fish scream chill, but that’s not our vibe. Thank you!

If you like the colors, then stick with that. Its your tank. The fish don't care. That colored gravel won't hurt anything either.

If you really want those colors to pop, then I would suggest a black background. Those bright colors against a black background would look great.

I like to paint the back of my tanks black with plain old acrylic paint. A few bucks at the dollar store can totally change the look of a tank.

Ooooh yeah! That’s a good idea! It would probably hide the cords and stuff better. We do have blue LED lights so it looks really cool at night, do you think the black would make it too dark?

Everyone’s seems happy!
Is it normal for fish to pick a spot? The pink one up in the left corner really seems to like it there. He takes a few laps and then goes back over there. Any ideas?

 

I think the black background can actually make things look brighter. I think it keeps the light from shining out the back of the tank.

 

I think it looks super fun and is perfect fit for glow fish! Not gonna lie, I have a soft spot for those jellyfish things Some ivory mystery snails would be a really cool addition.

I kept rainbow gravel back in the day with no issues. I've also kept corydoras on gravel with no issues. It's true they love sand, but unless your gravel is similar to broken glass, they will be okay. They encounter gravel and rocks in the wild.

I would do some reading on the nitrogen cycle though and get something to test your water to be sure your tank really is cycled. One week is unusually fast.

 

Hi! So we just just got our fish tank last week! Let it go through its cycle and decorated it. We’re new to this so please feel free to give us any pointers!
We have two live plants, a bamboo, two fake plants, and some decorative jelly fish. We just added a bubbler too. Not sure if it’s tooo much or it’s ok.

we have a

Just FYI lucky bamboo is meant to be partially submerged and does not do well when fully underwater.