# Subwassertang Wall



## Araielle (Jan 16, 2014)

So I've been asked to set up a sorority here at work in a 20g long tank. I'm going for a natural, heavily planted tank with about 12 girls. I will be working in the cubicle next to them for about a month to make sure things go well. I will mostly be using plants from my tank at home, but I want to buy some subwassertang & make a wall on the back. However, I want to be able to customize it. I plan on having 2 sponge filters & a heater back there as well. What I'm looking for is a material that will work to tie the subwassertang to. I'm wanting to run the cords & air line behind it, too.

I would like it to be:
- a material with no sharp edges & safe for an aquarium. 
- thin so it doesn't take up more room than necessary.
- solid enough to hold itself up with the plant attached to it with shrimp & snails on it.
- flexible enough so it won't break or crack while trying to remove or put it in place.
- a neutral or black color (if possible) so that it isn't too unattractive until it grows in. Black would match the sand cap.
- easy to cut to size & cut openings for heater & filters.

Not sure if it helps at all, but the filters I use are the dual sponge filters like the one in the picture below. The heater is a 100W submersible, suction Fluval heater.

























How well do you think subwassertang will work for a back wall? Also, any advice & such will be helpful. I'm just in the planning stages, so feel free to save me work, money, time & disappointment if you think this won't work or something might work better! I appreciate the help.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Sounds like you want some black Craft Mesh from Michaels or some craft store! lol I've never had Subwassertang so I'm not exactly sure how it would work with the mesh or if it would work at all but just throwing that out there in case it does work ^_^


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## peachii (Jan 6, 2013)

Craft mesh or Plastic mesh netting from Lowe's, pretty cheap. The plastic mesh from the hardware store is much thinner than the Craft mesh so you can take the subbwasstuff and put it between the mesh, tie the mesh together with fishing line and it will grow through the holes and use plastic report binders or suction cups to hold it to the wall. When I did mine, I just used what we had in the house and that was the white craft mesh we used to make the dividers in the betta tanks.

I did use white craft mesh and fishing line to attach it to the mesh, report binders to hold it in place on the back of the tank and so far it is doing well. It isn't spreading down so far like I wanted it to but I didn't have enough to cover the entire thing at the time. Soon I will pull it out, trim and spread it a little more. In hindsight, anything but white craft mesh would have looked better, it's very bright on the back of the tank but not really bad looking and might actually reflect the light a bit better to help it grow. It's been maybe 3 months and I have good but slow growth. I used fishing line because I wasn't sure how super glue would do with it, it's kind of touchy and I was afraid super glue would kill it. Also wasn't sure how fast it would attach so didn't use cotton string. I didn't want the string to wear off and the subwasserstuff to just fall off. 

Since it's 20 long, you can tie the pieces together with fishing line and use lots of the report binders in black to make it tight to the wall. You could even tie a long piece of plastic/acrylic to the back to anchor it in the middle or halfway if you use one big piece of mesh or 2 half pieces of mesh the length of the tank so you have no drag/give. Make the acrylic tight to the top and the bottom of the tank in several places and you might not even need the report binders to hold it in place on the ends. You do want it tight so the fish can't get behind it and get caught. I hope that makes sense.

My 2 cents since i did this on a 6.6 gallon tank and it looks great so far.


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## peachii (Jan 6, 2013)

Also keep in mind to not put it above where you will have the water line, so far I haven't been successful in getting it to live above the water line like my moss does on the tanks with moss on the back walls. It just kind of dries up and gets icky looking. Moss across the top may do well because it adjusts pretty well to being above the water line and sucks enough water upwards to keep it damp by itself and from the moisture from the tank.


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## Araielle (Jan 16, 2014)

peachii said:


> Also keep in mind to not put it above where you will have the water line, so far I haven't been successful in getting it to live above the water line like my moss does on the tanks with moss on the back walls. It just kind of dries up and gets icky looking. Moss across the top may do well because it adjusts pretty well to being above the water line and sucks enough water upwards to keep it damp by itself and from the moisture from the tank.


Thank you for this info! You wouldn't happen to have pictures of yours would you? I'd love to see!


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## Araielle (Jan 16, 2014)

lilnaugrim said:


> Sounds like you want some black Craft Mesh from Michaels or some craft store! lol I've never had Subwassertang so I'm not exactly sure how it would work with the mesh or if it would work at all but just throwing that out there in case it does work ^_^


Thank you!


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