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I need help to scape my 44g Pentagon... Its a mess right now

C

candymancan

Member
Joined
8 Nov 2014
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99
I just got this 44g pentagon. Its my 8th fish tank. My other tanks I love the way they are scaped.. But this one.. I just don't know how to make it look good.. I found that driftwood as I live by a reservoir I boiled t cleaned it ect looks pretty good I think and provide a lot of caves for the fish to swim in... But I don't know how to place my plants correctly to look good... Yes I have to keep that piece of slate on top of the wood to keep it from floating.

Basically I trimmed plants from my 3 other main tanks my 55g, 30g and 27g hex.. And placed them in here but they don't seem to go well together..

I have Green Combamba, Anubias broad leafed, Java fern, ludwigia , watersprite, wisteria, Limnophila hippuroides, and a small sword.

Im thinking of cutting some of the roots (this driftwood is an old tree stump those caves are the roots) in the back which your don't see.. They stick out and thus touch the glass so I have to keep the driftwood directly in the center of the aquarium.. So it doesn't leave much room in the front and the back is kinda wasted I think because I cant see back there. Or do you think having the wood in center is good ? What I have done so far is put the green combamba in the back of the tank and some on the left side in the middle, so when it grows the back will have tall background plants. I put the watersprite under the slate stone so it will "float" this way it will kind of cover the stone and keep it hidden more.. I split up the Ludwigia and Limnphila hippuroides throughout the front of the tank, and I put the anubias on the right side of the tank, I put the Java fern under the driftwood to try and make a creepy seaweed look to the caves..

But the rocks, these rocks came with the tank and due to budgets (running 8 tanks isn't cheap) I decided to just reuse them... But im thinking its these rocks that are making this tank look like crap... I dunno I like black rocks personally but the tank is cycled now and I have fish in it so I cant just remove them and start over I want to make what I have work...

Can you guys help me Aquascape this tank ? It also seems very hard to light this thing.. I have a Duel 65W Power compact light over it.. Its sitting like 7-8 inches above the water line directly in the middle of the tank.. But the back of the tank is kinda dark I cant really see the Combamba so I might have to get a smaller T8 hood and mount it back there to light it up. Never thought this tank would be so hard to aquascape.. I have a hexagon and its fairly deep and I had no issues with it.

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If I flip the driftwood what is going to sink it ? Its pretty buoyant. plus if I did that there would be no way for fish to swim around the tank except in in a circle or over top of it.. I admit though it does look cool upside down with all the spikey roots, I will give that a try but ill have to figure out how to sink the wood.. I'll have to drill into the slate and screw it into the top of the wood to sink it if I flip it like that

.. I changed the tank around a little bit.. I moved all the Ludwigia to the left side of the tank grouped up, and then moved the big anubias plant in the front, and took the Limnophila hippuroides, the altenthera and 4 of the combamba and moved them on the right of the tank.. I took some more watersprite from my 27g hex which grows like a weed and I tied it to 3 suckion cups and I put them on the back glass..

One thing I did in my 27g hex was that because these tanks are so tall 25-26 inches its kinda weird looking at nothing but glass.... I moved the sword more towards the back of the tank and kept the other combamba in the back... The plants just need to grow out right now. They are all trimmings and small/short so its hard to aquascape this... Im not sure though if I like the anubias and the java fern.. The leaves on them are too forest green and I don't think it looks right with this color gravel. Am I right ?

I also moved the filter more towards the back.. Its an internal Top fin 40 filter.. I prefer these internal filters over hang on back.. They act as power heads and filters in one and I can adjust them anyway I want.. Plus all HOBS no matter how quiet are still louder then these things and since the tank is in my room I need quiet... Only thing is its obviously in the way.. But its in the back now so I cant really see it
 
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The wood is indeed very large, maybe toooo large. Did you ever consider to change it (or hack a piece off). Java fern and anubius don't really like to have their roots buried in substrate, placed on wood is often better. The wood would eventually sink, you could use a big stone on top as you are doing now, but as I said before, maybe some smaller wood or spiderwood would be better. grouping your plants is indeed a good idea, this will work more calm and less cluttered. Hope I helped you a little....
It's always a good idea to look at other scapes to get some ideas.
 
Well ima disagree with the java fern and anubias being buried.. the anubias in this tank is actually from one i split in half at the rhizome i had a peice in my 30g buried in the rocks and it was almost the entire legnth of the tank lol it was too large.. They do fine buried in gravel.

But deep forest color of it in ny tank with those rocks doesnt seem to look too good i dont think..

I agree this driftwood is very large... I just like the root system it has for the under water caves. But it does take up a lot of the swiming room in this tank in the middle. Bahh i dunno.. maybe ill go back down to the water and try to find a smaller piece..
 
Does this look any better ? I know it doesn't look much different but if you compare the first pics to these it is.. Notice the watersprite on the back glass ? Thingsj ust need to grow out a little. Should I just remove the anubias all together and the Java fern ? Which plants do you think I should take out.. The only other plants I have in my other tanks that I didn't put in this one would be Purple/red combamba and a pretty big red tiger lotus.. Im not sure how the tiger lotus would look in here.. Im thinking maybe take the anubias out and put the tiger lotus where the anubias is in the front.. Right now my lotus is in the center of my 27g hex in this pic (old pic before I trimmed everything. But that's how big my tiger lotus is


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This is what the wood looks like upside down

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If it were me I'd pick the back of the wood up and pull it up at the same time as taking the lower front back but keeping it at the bottom still. That way the back takes the wood more leaving the front open for carpet and other plants as well as keeping those lovely caves for the discus. Just my idea 😉 a 45' angle or maybe steeper leaning on the back glass. That way if it's wedged you won't need the rocks to hold it down, hopefully 😉
 
Im confused ? Do you mean tilt the wood ? Like this / instead of being like this -
 
Ummm no pictures came through. But maybe 😉 please Try to show us the pics again 🙂
 
The pics are linked on the forum I see them all.. you should too
 
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Ok well the last pic looks really similar to what you have already. I was meaning much steeper so the back part is near the top of the water...
 
Oh because it is the same pic you said my pics weren't working ? so I posted the pic again.. I haven't moved the driftwood yet but putting it in the tank I have to tilt it like your saying and it doesn't reach bottom if I do that and if I push to the bottom its too buoyant.. Its pretty buoyant originally it needed 3 pieces of slate to keep it down but now 1 holds it
 
candymancan said:
Im confused ? Do you mean tilt the wood ? Like this / instead of being like this -
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I was referring to this post. Sounds like you need to soak that wood for a while to get it water logged and heavy so it sinks. It's hard see what to do when it's not in front of you. I do like the way you have it also. Maybe you can work around that?
 
Yea I bought a big huge metal tub that you use to wash dogs in and put it over the 4 burners on the my stove ( its that big) and boiled all sides of the wood for like 3 hours.. Its been in the tank for like 3 weeks cycling and the cycle finished like 3 days ago.. Originally I need 3 pieces of slate.. but when I was scaping my tank I notivced I could take 2 pieces off and it only needs 1 now. I guess its just going to take more time to be totally water logged.. I don't mind the slate on it.. that's why I use watersprite to cover it up some.. This is a massive piece of driftwood.. deff wouldn't fit inside a 75g or 100g fish tank.. Only deep tanks like wide Hexagons or pentagons.. It barely fit in my pentagon I had to cut some of the roots a little..


To get more room in the front though what im saying is.. Look at the picture of the tank I took on the left.. It shows the back of the tank.. you see the 2 pieces of root sticking out in the back ? The pointing roots that are against the glass.. I could actually cut those off and it would allow me to move the wood another like 4-5 inches in the back of the tank freeing up more room in the front.

Do you like the wood at all ? I thought it was cool, it has like 4-5 different cave entrances and my discus and other fish use it often.. I originally wanted to make this a discus tank with the 3 discus I have.. but putting them all together the big one in the picture just picks on the other 2 constantly.. And petsmart hasn't gotten anymore discus in yet, but the max id want to put in this tank is maybe 4.. not sure if 4 would be enough to spread aggression.. So for now the 3 I have are split into 3 of my bigger tanks.. One is in the 55g, another in my 30g, this one is in the 44g pent.
 
hmm ok well since you put the effort into drawing that lol.. Ill put the effort into flipping it.. But ill have to rest the stone on it to keep it down and if it works Ill just drill and screw it into the slate on the bottom and cover it in the substrate.

Expect my picture tomorrow
 
Ok here is the wood flipped over.. If I do this I'll have to drill and screw the slate into the wood on the bottom to keep it from floating.. Im worried of it floating one night and crashing into my glass, its really buoyant lol.. But this is the general idea of what it looks like.. I think youre right this way does free up room in the tank... Specially more swimming room in the middle/top of the tank, and more room on the gravel on the bottom.. However this way I cant see the fish in the back like I could with the caves. Moving this thing scared my discus lol he went to the bottom of the tank and layed sideways on his side.. I thought for a second he was dying or something..

Oh no suction cups wouldn't work this thing if I let go of it on the bottom would shoot to the top of the tank.. I wouldn't trust suiction cups the ends touch the glass almost on 3 sides it would smash right through the glass.. Ill just have to drill into the slate and screw it in or something.

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