The tank in question is a 37 gallon Eclipse Tank. Measurements are 30.25 wide x 12.5 front to back x 22.75 tall.
The tank will house three juvenile black angelfish and 7 neon tetras, and maybe some other things like cories. Not sure yet.
Our angelfish speaker at PVAS this weekend said that angelfish do not like huge bright lights, so I'm sticking with the twin tubes on the eclipse tank. They are 18 watt, 24 inch T-8's.
SO, I need help with a design and plant suggestions. This tank will be the focal point of my family room and I want it to be wonderful. Any suggestions?
Hey! you will need to go with low light not very demanding plants. will you do CO2?, you should! it took me a while to get it and is worth it...anubias, anubias and more anubias, the guys can probably suggest other species, talk to you later
Damian Davila
"Fishes-up, chill, Plants too"
"so many plants, so little space!"
Bolbitis is my favorite low light plant. Marsilea of some type for the carpet (takes forever to fill in, though). Then, of course lots of wood with anubias, java ferns and moss.
I'm liking the look of Subwassertang in one of my tanks, but I don't know how you could deal with keeping it in place if you had a lot of water flow.
You'll never get a foreground with that low of light and that deep. If marselea lives, it'll reach 12" tall for the light is my guess.
I see a background of Crypt Balansae, nice tall and folding over the tank top, and a front of smaller crypts, maybe lutea or wendtii. Transition between the two with nice broad anubias nana leaves.
Thanks all. Now what about wood, or rock or other hardscape? The footprint of the tank is tight and angels like vertical space. I have an intake tube and heater in one corner that I want to conceal..... Ideas?
There will be NO CO2 on this tank. But I have Exel.
The Crypt balansae would do a good job concealing the intake tube once it filled in. As would Val, or even the Bolbitis/java fern if combined with some hardscape. Something like Blyxa aubertii would be nice too, and wouldn't grow quite as tall as Val/balansae, but I'm not sure you could grow it in that amount of light, without CO2.
I'm thinking about a diagonal design from front corner to back opposite corner, to work with the maximum amount of space in the tank. I can terrace the back part of the diagonal higher than the front part, and have a "beach" area at the front diagonal area...... taller stuff goes on the back terrace, smaller goes on the front, with a small area of cleared space with nice gravel.....?
The terraces could be done with rock, gathered from the woods, and I could always add a piece of driftwood if I find something nice. I just want the angels to have a good area to swim, as they like to go up and down and vertical space is paramount to them.
Try to minimize tight spaces between wood and rock , rock and glass , etc.
When the angelfish get spooked or fight between themselves they will try to hide and will get all kind of scratches. Try to minimize sharp and rough edges, they will find a way to get scratched in them.
Eugen has a good point - driftwood will make a better hardscape material than rocks. Perhaps 1-2 vertical pieces of manzanita, with moss and anubias nana tied to them would hide the intake tube, not take up much footprint, and even provide some hiding places for when the angels get spooked. Add 2-3 crypt balansae, and perhaps some narrow leaf java fern for along the base of the driftwood, and you have your triangular setup.
Dave is right about foreground plants - you can try marsilea and/or dwarf hair grass (I have both in my low-tech 75g), but you'll probably be frustrated. Sagittaria subulata might do OK, and spreads quickly by runners, but in low light, may get 4-6" tall.
Kris, I can attest from experience that blyxa aubertii looks lousy when you try to grow it in a low-tech setup.
Any suggestions?
