New aquatic beginnings

[Devoted Cat Mummy]

Good Evening everyone,

Taking the plunge back into the tropical planted world after keeping Marines for a few years now.

Will be going for a low tech approach as my marine tank takes a few hours to care for lol.

My partner always "yeah that looks good" to everything, so wanting some input to the new hard scape that I have done today or if there anyway I can improve it before the water goes in.

Appreciate the feedback.

Sarah

Sent from my moto g(7) power using Tapatalk

 

[Kezzab]

Hi, good start. Simple way to improve it would be to quite steeply bank the substrate from front to back, then do a similar arrangement with the wood and rocks. The slope will add a sense of depth.
K

 

[Dadofthree]

I really like that well done

 

[Fisher2007]

I like the scape but agree with the above re the substrate. I also think the background takes away from the scape though. Consider maybe just a plain frosted background or black. I prefer frosted myself

 

[Wookii]

To echo what others have said above, the scape looks good, but I agree that you should:

a) replace that background with a black or frosted one (my vote is for black! - I'm old school! lol) - I know that's probably annoying to read, as I imagine you've only just bought and installed that background, but trust me the tank will look a whole lot better once it's done.

b) slope the substrate. If you are planning on planting carpeting plants at the front, go for at least 40mm depth at the front and at least double that at the rear. You might also want to try the layout with a slope up from the left to right in additiona to front to back, so you have more height to the rear right and the main rock arrangement - that might create more visual interest, and the additional height will enable your stem plants to appear from behind the rocks easier - that could taker you to 120mm deep or more in the rear right corner.

That may mean you need more substrate material - or you can fill it would with filter media bags full of lava rock pieces or similar to build up the rear, if that is more cost effective. You can see this technique in Tim's substrate guide here: https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/the-soil-substrate-or-dirted-planted-tank-a-how-to-guide.18943/

Also, don't make the mistake I made on my recent tank. If your wood isn't pre-soaked and sinking, make sure you glue it down well before flooding the tank, otherwise it will just float to the surface!