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Inherited a Fluval Flex 34l - looking to improve

shorn

Seedling
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Joined
6 Jan 2022
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Location
Southampton
Hi, I'm not sure if this is the right place, but the forum came up in searches.

I've just inherited a Fluval Flex 34l tank. It's currently got a mixture of temperate fish. Danios and some others but I'm not sure what. The tank has some coloured gravel and plastic plants. It's a little grubby in places, but nothing a good clean won't fix.

Ideally I'd like to give it a little love and make things a little more natural. i.e sand/stones rather than the brightly coloured gravel. A decent bit of hard scaping (dragon stone?) and some better planting. Ideally I'm not looking for anything too much, or requiring high maintenance, just something nice and subtle.

I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on where to start? Also with regards to how I go about replacing things like the gravel? I'm guessing its a "fish out" job?

Thanks!
 

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Yes, I suspect your fish’s eyes are bleeding from the colour assault from the gravel. 🤣

It is gravel out to change it.

If you put in a laterite substrate capped with gravel or river sand, you could put in a few crypts, some vallisnaria at the back. They don’t need huge amounts of light or CO2.
 
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Hi, the other fish you have are variatus platy's.



If you want a simple setup with plants then epiphyte plants (those that don't need to root in the substrate) are ideal. The lighting on the tank isn't that bright which makes java fern and anubias perfect, java moss is good as well . You can often find these already attached to pieces of wood at your local shop. Cryptocorynes are a great, lush, easy plant as well.
I'd personally go for an inert substrate like sand or plain gravel unless you have another tank to house the fish in for awhile because some plant substrates can leach ammonia to begin with (unless you know for certain that the substrate you are using is fine straight away) .
 
Hi shorn
If you have a look at my signature you will see how I set this up from the beginning!

 
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