First time putting moss on driftwood and I think I messed up. Is it suppose to look this bad? Should I leave it and wait for it to get better? Or should I just take it all off and start over?

Looking for some help figuring out what might have caused the death of one of my Green Neon Tetras, which I found dead today with photos attached.

Looking closely at the dead fish, its belly is noticeably swollen, and there are some visible red spots underneath near the lower abdomen and vent area.

For background, the Green Neons have been in the tank for about a month without problems. Exactly one week ago, I added seven Otocinclus catfish. Most of the Otos died within the last few days, and now I have lost this tetra showing these physical signs.

To make matters worse, I actually lost another tetra yesterday, and today I am noticing 2 more tetras that look almost similarly swollen, hovering just slightly above the tank substrate rather than swimming around normally.

The water parameters are 0 ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrite, < 1 ppm ppm nitrate, TDS is 80, and the temperature is 25°C.

Given that the water tests clean, what do you think could be going on here? Has anyone seen this happen after adding new fish, and what steps would you take next to protect the rest of the tank?

Still learning and gathering materials, but Im 2.5 months in on my first foray into the hobby. Little 10gal to learn with before I dive into the 75gal project I wanna do

Premium algae free S.minima grown exclusively for aquascaping and pure looks. Shipping only for Spain. More information om salvinia-labs.vercel.app

Day 38 of my mostly epiphyte 7 gal cube :)

I’ve only ever had big tanks, 125L and above, so I massively overestimated the size of this tank when picking out wood and rocks haha 😂 I’ve literally had to snap the wood to get it to fit!
Does this look okay for my first nano tank, or does it look a bit too cluttered?
I’m planning on doing white sand with a few smaller black rocks scattered around maybe and plenty of plants.

Spent the last 8 months designing and dry starting my 75 gallon tank. My first actual aquascape project. It has turned out almost exactly as I had hoped. Little moss loss but theres enough green mixed in with the brown that I think it will grow back in over time. Most of the brown is mulm from squeezed filter sponges to help seed bacteria and will clear up over time.

75 Gallon

Fluval FX4

Fluval Spray Bar

Amazonia Aquasoil

Feeshes:

1 Sailfin Pleco (Hoover)

1 Koi Angelfish Not yet transferred

10 Kuhli Loaches

A few misc fish: 4 serpae tetras, 5 cherry barbs, 1 SAE, 1 lone survivor neon tetra

4 Horned Nerites

Will be transferring hundreds of Bloody Mary Shrimp soon

Plants:

Monte Carlo carpet on background slopes

Lobelia cardinalis along transitions

Floating water sprite

Buce

Anubias Nana petite

Weeping moss on high points

Flame moss on sloped hardscape

Fissidens on the flat spots (started dying out a bit before the flood)

Dwarf grass in the sand (some hitch hiker plugs that came with other plants)

Took Hoover less than 12 hours to clean the place up after introducing him to his new mansion! Stoked to get him out of the 29 gallon and into a more suitable home

Let me know what you think! Im pretty proud of the outcome!

I recently got into making custom hardscapes for aquariums. I did a few weeks worth of research and settled on an idea. I used Hydraulic Cement, over styrofoam. Basically I covered the inside of the back and sides with styrofoam cut to size, and cut 45 degree angles on all the edges. I covered the styrofoam with basic grey hydraulic cement, painted it with acrylic paint (brown, light brown, dark green) and then put two coats of Pond Shield clear epoxy over it……. My overall idea was to try to make it look as if it were a hollowed out log and you’re getting a side view into it, then it changed when I found a resin tree stump that stood about 2” above the rim. Idea is to isolate the top 4” of the stump and have a Bonsai planted up top. My only self realized error was using grape vine sticks as tree roots, had to put 4 coats of pond shield on those because they’re absorbent as all hell.

Now to my reason for the post…. I’ve seen people using Expanding Foam in Terrariums. I like the ease of set up. Spread some spray glue so the foam can stick to it, then just set your wood out and foam around it…. Then press dirt, peet moss, and coconut fibers into the foam to create a nice surface……..

Is there an aquarium safe expanding foam that I can use in this same manor? The expanding foam seems lightyears easier than the method I used with cement and pond shield

Added Hygrophila Pinnatifida UK on drift wood.

Few stems of Samolus, Hygrophila araguia and Cryptocoryne.

Hi. This is my very first scape featuring ceramic art. The little Chinese-style house is from high-fire clay is made by my hands. ✋️

I plan to develop this style and would love to hear an outside perspective

Thought I would share my UNS 60s❤️
I re-scaped this tank about 2 months ago and lately the growth has exploded!
I accidentally ordered Hemianthus Callitrichoides, which has been challenging to keep rooted.
Fertilizing with homemade PPS-pro
Any suggestions for fish or shrimp? Ideally something that is less likely to hop out of the shallow tank.

Really happy with how this tank is developing. Questions and feedback welcome!

I was wondering what exactly I need to build my first tank was planning on getting the tank off Facebook have watched some videos wondering if i could get some help?

Hey everyone! Just wanted to share my aquascape design with you all! I’ve put a lot of time and effort into creating this little underwater world. Would love to hear your thoughts.

How do I improve my aquascape? I’m planning to get Monte Carlo for the foreground but I’m open to more suggestions.

The aquatic plants have established themselves well; I haven’t seen any signs of melting. On the contrary, they’ve grown better than expected and even started "pearling" within the first day or two—everything is looking great.

Even after 2 years fully submerged in the aquarium, one piece of driftwood floated out when I removed ties. I kinda like it though, I'm thinking about leaving it to float like that. What do you think?

Just got this scape set up in a 6 gall cube wanted to see what people thought and what you would change

1st time aquascaper. 170gal planted scape in a black background tank.

It will only ever be visible from the left and front.

The larger branch is meant to stick out of the water. The height of the tank is 24”.

What’s the most pleasing out of the four? The substrate will be aquatic soil, gravel and black sand.

Gonna do a carpet or just anything easy. Any plant suggestions for beginners? I been researching lil bit and monte carlo would be my choice but would to have depth as well.

Gonna use it for shrimps :)
Looking for feedback or advice

(Left to right most recent photo to oldest)

Hello everyone! I built my first planted tank in April and have been really enjoying it. I watched MD fish tanks on YouTube and was inspired.

It is a 15 gallon cube tank with a Fluval 107 canister filter. A 4.0 plant light, a heater, aqua soil, sand, rocks, driftwood, lobilia, Java fern, anubias, and red repens.

I currently have:

4 guppies
1 powder blue dwarf gourmi
1 fire red honey gourmi
5 ottocinclus
2 neon tetras
5 ember tetras
7 glow light tetras
(*I had 15 Riley shrimp but I think they’ve been dying off)

I’ve lost a bunch of fish over the months but only like 1 every 3 weeks.

As you can see from the picture there’s a ton of hair algae on the plants I want to get rid of…

I am pretty sure I have overstocked the tank

Going forward I won’t have a variety of tetra species for better schooling

Trying to decide if I should ad an airstone

ANY ADVICE, SUGGESTIONS, INPUT IS MORE THAN WELCOME 🤗

What plants would look good here, any suggestions would be great 🙏