# Any suggestions on how to rescape my 26 bowfront?



## aemaki09 (Oct 23, 2012)

My sorority tank is getting so old. I want to re-do it to look like some of the amazing tanks I see online. I'm having a hard time figuring out where I should move things and what I should add and remove.
Any suggestions on what to move and add or remove would be absolutely amazing.

Whats in it right now.
Manzanita Driftwood with java moss, and both regular and lace java ferns.
Anubias nana petit
rotala indica and wallichi
pennywort
wisteria
moneywort
bacopa carolinia
anarchis
2 amazon swords
frogbit and giant duckweed
1 banana plant that keeps floating everywhere
cabomba and hornwort
and 1 unknown plant.
(theres probably some other random plants in it)

Fish are:
7 bettas, a couple of endlers as a temp. holding, 5 cory's, and 4 ghost shrimp


I have a 15w t-8 6500k running at about 12-13hrs a day.
Aquaclear 50 filter
Dose with Seachem Flourish once a week.

What I plan to change already::
Turn it into an NPT. Soil with probably a regular tan sand cap.
Get a higher wattage light and/or another strip/lighting source
I also might add CO2 to this in April, but still have to decide if it should go to one of my 10's or to this tank.
I'd also like to get some more rooted plants, but dont know which ones would look good?
I also want to add some more hardscape. Maybe some rocks or a piece of manzanita covered in moss. Not sure

Here is the tank:: Sorry for it being cloudy, I'm treating with maracyn plus so I cant help it right now. Also, that male thats floating is only in there as QT before I move him into another tank. And there are some really gravid endlers in the net, its not usually there.









Like I said, any ideas or suggestions would be wonderful!!!


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## VJM (Feb 7, 2013)

All of this is just my opinion, so do with it what you will. 

I would go for some rocks or driftwood to add height to the hardscape, preferably drawing your eye through the tank. Right now, you have almost a grid of horizontal driftwood and vertical plants, which is very static to the eye. Then, I would clump the plants more, in places that emphasis your hardscape and provide a lush, green background. 

But that's just me. This stuff is hard, and takes a lot of fiddling.


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## aemaki09 (Oct 23, 2012)

I completely agree with what you said
How do you suggest to emphasize the hardscape though


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## VJM (Feb 7, 2013)

Well, the easy way would be to go buy either more driftwood with some verticality, or some stones that look good up on end. If you want to go with what you have, you could make substrate higher in one back corner and sort of cantilever the driftwood out off of it. Might need some supporting rocks to keep it there. 

It's hard to tell based on that picture what the driftwood looks like. Could you lean it up against a top corner with the base kicked out towards the center of the tank? That might make the most of what you have. 

Just spitballing ideas. I think once you start playing with it, you'll find something that works.


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

I agree, you need more height and a better defined hardscape. 

At the moment you have plants of varying heights in the foreground. In a scape, you want the smaller plants at the front and the biggest plants at the back, this will add depth to your scape. Sloping the substrate up towards the back will also add to this effect. 

I think I read somewhere that stem plants should always be bunched in uneven numbers (so 3, 5, 7 etc) as even numbers tend to look unnatural. So when planting don't put only 2 stem plants together. 

This is apparently a talller tank, and they acheived height by building up their hardscape. You don't even need to purchase expensive wood or rock as you could cover it in moss and then you wouldn't even see it once it filled in. 










A tank like that would be fairly easy to emulate as many of the plants are low maintenance such as the anubias, moss, java fern and crypts (could be exchanged for vallisneria).


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## aemaki09 (Oct 23, 2012)

You guys have some great ideas. I need to go purchase some foreground plants from the sounds of it 

I dont know how easy it'd be to do the idea with angling my existing piece of driftwood, it's pretty boring, long flat piece. I might be able to build a decent slope with some rocks and in one of the corners and angle it in though, that could be interesting.

As for the plants, with the existing substrate it's impossible for me to plant tem all as close together as I'd like, but Im hoping ill have time this weekend to change everything over to NPT style, hopefully I can find some rocks before then to add that slope.

That picture is absolutely gorgeous!! I hope I can do something similar to that!


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## Crowntails (Feb 12, 2013)

I'd change out your gravel for something more natural like a black or light colored sand or some eco-complete. Get a large piece of driftwood that extends to almost the top of the tank and larger background plants. Add more height to your tank. Best of luck!


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## aemaki09 (Oct 23, 2012)

Thanks crowntails, am already planning to change the substrate and make it an NPT with playsand. The existing looks like clown pike, I hate it. When I started it I just threw gravel from old tanks in

If I have time to get to the store this weekend I'll be starting it all on Sunday


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## aemaki09 (Oct 23, 2012)

Well, didnt have time to do much this weekend, but I did move everything around a little bit.
I ordered some more plants this weekend that should be shipped out tomorrow. Will be getting some fore- and midground plants to help out a bit. Also not quite sure on the placement of the stems.
Also have some slate and what-not being sent my way with one of the plant orders so hopefully it'll be enough to help me build a bit of incline. I'm thinking about having it in the back right corner. Not quite sure what I'll be planting on it yet though.


Anyways, let me know your thoughts. What should be moved around? What looks good? Etc.

thanks


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## VJM (Feb 7, 2013)

The clumping looks much better, as does having the wood over in the left third of the tank. I think slate sounds great. You could do a pile, either stacked or jumbled, and incorporate the wood in that. If it's flat, you could also use the slate and the wood to create terraces. I saw a tank where someone used plastic "eggcrate" to build up the hardscape from underneath, which let them make terraces without using a ton of deep substrate. 

If you are looking at plants, something like Italian Val could be nice for the height. Or a sword for the different leaf scale. 

Great progress!!


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## Stone (Jan 6, 2013)

I will be doing a 46 gal npt over the next 2 weeks I will put up a post with pictures on how I do it from how its layed out and the theme it might give you some ideas


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## aemaki09 (Oct 23, 2012)

Please do stone!

The stone should be coming in tomorrow. Can't wait to figure out what I will do with it.
Also thinking about ordering a large slate cave that someone on another forum makes her/himself. Still trying to figure out if I want more slate or to buy a piece of branched driftwood to add some height. 

Hopefully I can make it to the store tomorrow before I go to class and maybe set it up when I get home tomorrow night. Hopefully!! 

I also have a huge plant package I ordered with a ton of crypts and some stems. I think the person added double of HS about everythig because he was out of a couple of the main plants that I wanted. So I'll have a decent amount of foreground plants now


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## VJM (Feb 7, 2013)

That sounds a like a lot of fun, creative time! 

It seems like there is a lot of "rocks or wood, not both" sentiment floating around, but I think that is silly. They look fantastic together, if the layout is good. 

You are going to have such a great Before and After! That should really be a contest on here.


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## aemaki09 (Oct 23, 2012)

Just got the crypts in today. I still have a ton of stems that I need to try and find room for, but I'll wait till I change substrate on sunday for that mess.

What do you guys think? 

The plants in the background (left to right) amazon sword, vallisneria gigantae (tape), and crypt balansae. thinking about switching the val's and swords around when I change the substrate. but for now i was just wanting to see what everything looked like together.

I also think that they need trimmed badly, but I dont know how I should do it? I've never had to trim crypts?


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