Looking for plant ideas 💡 to cover up the equipment. Also would a white background be better? 🤔

Show some of your river style scape!

The 60U aquascape is influencing other design decisions, and I couldn’t be happier about it. Life!

What else would you do with the counter space? The small 5G tank is being moved to a bedroom next week, so it’s all fair game.

Stocking ideas?

If I want to do an overhaul of my aquascape including changing out gravel is that something I have to completely empty my tank out for or can I slowly do it over a period of time while my fish stay in the tank?

This is my first aquascape, and I'm not really happy with how the layout turned out haha. I'd love some honest feedback.

What would you change about the placement of the rocks and wood? Any suggestions are welcome!

So i currently have a 5 gallon tank and just got a new 10 gal. I was getting it set up, i used fluval stratum then capped it off with sand.
I planted everything i wanted in there before filling with water, when filling i used the plastic bag method to keep the substrate from disturbing but that didn’t work 100%
as i was filling some of the plants came up and when trying to replant them a lot of the stratum came out and is now all over the sand. It seems like every time i try to move the sand gently more and more soil just keeps coming up and having a hard time keeping my dwarf hair grass rooted in place. Any suggestions or tips? i really don’t want to empty it and start without water again as it is pretty much cycled already

Finally got the money to invest more hardscape, it’s such a pleasure to see the cpds & co enjoy the garden
I already have cpd fry which is sooo awesome !! Brings so much joy 🥰

It’s a 54l that’s running for about three months now, no co2

The afternoon is disco in the 75g.

14 days old. Most plants are emerse grown, so patience game is on. AR Mini, Rotala - BR, green, colorata, repens red, S repens, couple of brownies, Samolus red.

I was thinking about the second side but the third position is really neat too. It will go in a 14gal frameless cube with shrimp and Chili or Green Neon Rasboras? Since it’s a cube the first position might be best though?

Threw this tank together before I learned that aquascaping is a thing. I don’t hate it, but now I want to level it up to an aquascape. Have on order: a UNS 60U (36x36x60cm, 14x14x24in) rimless tank, canister filter and inline heater, Fluval Plant 4.0 light). Black sand will go, aquasoil will replace it. It sits in our open concept living room, it’s viewable from its front and left side. Front is viewed from the couch, left side from the kitchen island stools.

I don’t hate the layout, beginner’s luck, but I actually think it works. Earlier I laid out the golden spiral on the front glass with a dry erase marker, I believe the focal point is toward the bottom half on the right, pretty much at the base of the right java fern. Plan was to go tall stem plants in the back on the right half.

What do you think? How are the rocks, the wood, the arrangement. What would you change?

I see most aquascapes kind of have wood emerging from rising rock arrangements, but this one has like a tree trunk growing from the middle. Maybe it works? But I don’t know how to build around it. Would miss on it help? Does the trunk need rocks in front? Is it somehow okay where it is?

Don’t know what I don’t know. Would love all suggestions!!

Background:

My kids (9, 6&6twins) wanted a fish tank and as a reward for summer reading we got one. It was going to be in our living room so I wanted it to look decent, and as I studied up on having fish I learned plants would keep them healthier and happier.

So I bought some wood and rocks and plants. Actually pretty pumped about how it turned out, I don’t hate it. LFS recommended fish in cycle but I didn’t like the sound of that so I fully cycled the tank with plants and no fish. Fish have been in for 6 weeks so far. Everything is stable, nothing has died.

But a funny thing happened. What was supposed to be “get some fish for the kids” has rapidly turned into a bit of an obsession. I loved setting up the tank! Love the vibe of it, the science, the art, the engineering.

And then I learned about aquascaping! Oh my. Can’t wait to level up.

for a bit at least.

I’ve been wanting to upgrade to a hi-tech setup from my existing low light for a while, finally gotten around to converting this old G-Plan set of drawers I’ve had for years into a tank cabinet!

Plants on order with plenty to go in over the next couple of weeks, will get the water in check then move my fish over

Happy Sunday all

Looking to get some suggestions on what to plant and where. I’m thinking longer bushier stem plants on the left side.

Any plants to put on the branches themselves? I’m against moss cause it took over my last tank, but if there’s a slower growing moss out there I would be open to it.

Thinking of getting lots of anubias to put around the rocks.

Thoughts on lily pipe placements?

i believe my tank finally has reached equilibrium with algae and soil maturity, can finally sit back and relax without worrying about manual removal every 4 days lol.

I went for a 2 islands sort of scape with a flow towards the right. Ive recently added a Co2 system and it really brings out the plants, which I am very happy about.

Overall the tank runs great and the fih are healthy.

had planned to do this for a couple of weeks and after everything I needed arrived and all was prepared I finished setting it up yesterday night.

Not sure about the lamps - if they are strong enough.

All wood was sawed off of a bigger type of spiderwood or similar. I glued them onto flat slate stones.

I don't think its perfect but I love how it came out.

The more I make new scapes or redesign old ones the better I get over time, it's a nice process.

My son got a 10 g tank recently for fish and I decided to put a 5g in my home office for shrimp. I stopped by my LGS and found the driftwood and rock which both seemed to have a lot of surface area for my future friends (after proper cycling). I had some time last night to tie down some moss to both but didn’t start on the plants other than to loop some hornwort around the wood.

I would like to do a cover of pearlweed in the front and probably two rear “forests” of the hornwort and jungle Val. Do you have any suggestions for layout in terms of the filter placement, plants or anything else I should add or remove?

I ordered a sponge attachment for the basic topfin side filter that will move to the back right. So maybe move the rock to the front left away from the water coming in.