planting and decorating

[flupke]

Hi,

i'm looking for info on how to decorate and plant a new aquarium.
For instance, how to build different levels, how thick the layer
of sand needs to be, how to anchor plants, stuff like that.
Anybody have any good links?

I don't have good ideas when dealing with stuff like that so
examples would help me out a lot :) I even got into trouble decorating
a small 15 gal aquarium. In the end it looks fine but there aren't
any real levels or intresting structures. I know that 15 gal
is limiting but still, when i'm going to get my bigger aquarium
(105 gallons) i will end up without any good ideas.

I'm used to building a small slope starting at about 2 inches in front
and ending with 3 to 4 inches in the back for the big plants.
And i do place smaller plants in front then bigger ones and the
tallest in the back. But that's not really exciting.
Oh, the new tank is going to be a community tank but with
lots of corys, some pleco's, otto's, tetra and gouramis to name a few.
So i'm going to add some rocks and bogwood also.

flupke

[NetMax]

"flupke" > wrote in message
...
> Hi,
>
> i'm looking for info on how to decorate and plant a new aquarium.
> For instance, how to build different levels, how thick the layer
> of sand needs to be, how to anchor plants, stuff like that.
> Anybody have any good links?
>
> I don't have good ideas when dealing with stuff like that so
> examples would help me out a lot :) I even got into trouble decorating
> a small 15 gal aquarium. In the end it looks fine but there aren't
> any real levels or intresting structures. I know that 15 gal
> is limiting but still, when i'm going to get my bigger aquarium
> (105 gallons) i will end up without any good ideas.
>
> I'm used to building a small slope starting at about 2 inches in front
> and ending with 3 to 4 inches in the back for the big plants.
> And i do place smaller plants in front then bigger ones and the
> tallest in the back. But that's not really exciting.
> Oh, the new tank is going to be a community tank but with
> lots of corys, some pleco's, otto's, tetra and gouramis to name a few.
> So i'm going to add some rocks and bogwood also.
>
> flupke

I've never come across a site which describes well what you are asking
for. I make tiers to hold back the substrate. The finer the substrate
(ie: sand), the more difficult it is to contain, but sand also tends to
compact later (good & bad). Very coarse gravel will slope much more
aggressively (slope of 1" vertical for 3" horizontal). How well it stays
depends on the amount of digging activity you anticipate. With diggers,
tiers are the way to go, so all the substrate within a section is level.
You can get 2 tiers on the average 18" deep tank, leaving areas for
plants. Start the front as shallow as your plant choices will permit.
To achieve your appearance of depth using slopes, your substrate will be
deeper than desirable by the time you reach the back of the tank. This
complicates gravel vacuuming, so plant lots in the back (the plants will
do your vacuuming for you ;~).

The question is how to make the tiers (and it depends on the substrate
being held back, for example, sand requires very well interlocked tiers).
You can take a piece of Plexiglas (or other plastic) and glue it down to
another piece of plastic (use the right adhesive) Glue it down in a wavy
pattern. Then put substrate over the base, and rock wall to hide the
plastic tier. This design makes for a lot of small gaps where detritus
collects, but otherwise works ok. Another method is to use readily
available plastic products (ie: ABS, nylon etc) and layering sand or fine
substrate into a layer of silicone over the product used, to disguise it.
I've also used river stones, clay tiles, slate, picture stone, glass
chunks etc etc with varying success.

The nicest effect I've gotten was with driftwood. I unfastened the
driftwood off of the slate base and turned the piece so it was flat
against the base, and I re-installed the screw(s). Not very economical,
paying for a piece of wood and hiding most of it to hold back substrate,
but it looked great and had no gaps for stuff to collect.

I've also used styrofoam :
http://www.2cah.com/netmax/diy_projects/sculptures/sculptures.shtml but
that's not your average project, and it's positioning is much more
permanent due to the amount of silicone needed to offset its buoyancy.
Looked great though, and you can include many level changes, pockets for
plants, little caves etc. Really only limited by your imagination and
materials available with any of these ideas. hth
--
http://www.netmax.tk/

[xtr396472]

Try searching the net under
Planted aquarium
Nature Aquarium
Golden ratio aquarium
Get more searches from key words in these sites


"flupke" > wrote in message
...
> Hi,
>
> i'm looking for info on how to decorate and plant a new aquarium.
> For instance, how to build different levels, how thick the layer
> of sand needs to be, how to anchor plants, stuff like that.
> Anybody have any good links?
>
> I don't have good ideas when dealing with stuff like that so
> examples would help me out a lot :) I even got into trouble decorating
> a small 15 gal aquarium. In the end it looks fine but there aren't
> any real levels or intresting structures. I know that 15 gal
> is limiting but still, when i'm going to get my bigger aquarium
> (105 gallons) i will end up without any good ideas.
>
> I'm used to building a small slope starting at about 2 inches in front
> and ending with 3 to 4 inches in the back for the big plants.
> And i do place smaller plants in front then bigger ones and the
> tallest in the back. But that's not really exciting.
> Oh, the new tank is going to be a community tank but with
> lots of corys, some pleco's, otto's, tetra and gouramis to name a few.
> So i'm going to add some rocks and bogwood also.
>
> flupke
>
>

[flupke]

NetMax wrote:

> The nicest effect I've gotten was with driftwood. I unfastened the
> driftwood off of the slate base and turned the piece so it was flat
> against the base, and I re-installed the screw(s). Not very
> economical, paying for a piece of wood and hiding most of it to hold
> back substrate, but it looked great and had no gaps for stuff to
> collect.

A lot of very good ideas. I like the driftwood method. Even a clumsy
person like can handle driftwood and look like a pro :-)

> I've also used styrofoam :
> http://www.2cah.com/netmax/diy_projects/sculptures/sculptures.shtml
> but that's not your average project, and it's positioning is much more
> permanent due to the amount of silicone needed to offset its buoyancy.
> Looked great though, and you can include many level changes, pockets
> for plants, little caves etc. Really only limited by your
> imagination and materials available with any of these ideas. hth

Those sculptures look great. Wow. I'll try and find some similar
materials here and see what i can accomplish.
I now have a better view of what can be done to make the aquarium
look good.
Thanks a lot!

flupke

[flupke]

xtr396472 wrote:
> Try searching the net under
> Planted aquarium
> Nature Aquarium
> Golden ratio aquarium
> Get more searches from key words in these sites

Ok, i'll try that. Thanks.

flupke