An update on the Co2 Experiment

Most of you will not remember the Co2 experiment, in fact it has been a long time since I have even worked on it, but I have not forgotten it. The Co2 experiment was created to try and find an ideal mixture of sugar water and yeast for producing Co2. I was also looking if adding fertilizer had any affect on Co2 production and start up time. This went well for a while and I managed to record results for one batch but then I took a trip out east for a week. That took out one week of results. Then it was another week before I was able to find the time to get things up and running again, but I took a trip out to the lake cabin that week and thus was not able to record the results from this. Then the technical difficulties began. I eventually discovered that a leak in the valve I was using was what was causing it too not produce any Co2. Now I removed the valve and resealed the caps and the system is back up and running. Assuming that no new problems come up I will continue the experiment

Aquarium Filter Failure

Over the weekend when I was doing a water change I noticed that something was not quite right with my tank. I thought about what it might be until I realized that there wasn't the quiet splash of water that usual accompanied my filter. I looked at it closely and sure enough a layer of calcium deposits covered the output slot, but no water. I went to the power bar and disconnected the cord and then felt motor, It was hot to the touch but not wet. So it had not short circuited which was good. But my tank had no filtration which was bad. Luckily in my still vacant down stairs tank there was a small sponge filter that I brought up and quickly installed on my main tank. All seems well enough now but at the time that I discovered it I was a bit worried, So here's what to do if your filter fails. 

1. Unplug it
If your filter failed it might be that some water leaked into the motor, although this might blow the breaker. Even if there is no water in it if the motor is still working but jammed it is not good for it to be under power but not moving as this causes more resistance which causes more heat.

2. Save your Bacteria
Without an incoming supply of water your bacteria will soon begin to starve. So place your sponge or other bacteria carrying media into your tank water. This way they will at least be able to survive while you sort out the filter. Note you want to put the sponge in, not the floss, you don't want to put all that garbage back in your tank, especially with no filtration.

3. Restore Filtration 
With no filtration ammonia levels may begin to rise quite quickly. If your tank is planted the plants will give you a bit of a buffer against this compared to a bare tank but its still important to restore filtration quickly. Take a filter from a vacant tank if you have one, borrow one from a friend but especially if you have a bare tank restoring filtration is critical. At the ery least put in an air stone to keep oxygen levels up and to keep up water circulation.

4. Water Change
This step could arguably come before the previous one but it honestly depends. If its a matter of going into your basement to pull out a filter then you should get the new filter running first. If you need to go across town then you should do a water change first. This will reduce the amount of Ammonia in the water and buy you some more time before things get nasty. Also once you do get a filter in place I would do another water change just to be on the safe side.

5. Fix your Filter
There is a whole range of things that could be wrong with your filter but I will try to cover as much as I can. Also the specifics I will be giving are for HOB filters but some of the basic guidelines I give apply to all filters.

5.1 Determining the Cause of Failure
Before we can go off tinkering and poking around in our filters we have to know what caused the failure. This could be anything including. Short circuiting, jamming, burn out, impeller breakage, valve or tube blockage, bad connections and gremlins. Most of these can be fixed, except the gremlins, if you  get those your out of luck.

5.2 Short circuiting
A short circuit is when a path opens up between the positive and negative leads in the motor and bypasses the motor. This may cause the breaker to flip or it may not. The motor may feel hot to the touch. The only real way to test is with a Multi Meter. If the seals on your filter crack and let in water it will short circuit the motor. You could try draining he motor and replacing the seals but other then that if its a crossed wire your just going to have to go in there and have a look for yourself.

5.2 Jamming
The causes for jamming are very numerous ranging from bent impeller shafts to broken impeller blades. But the most common of them is junk. You leave your filter and it chugs away doing its job and after a few months it plugs up with junk. Junk at least is fairly easy to fix. Remove the motor from the bottom and for starters try to remove the impeller. If you can give it a good leaning and scrub the housing with a tooth brush. If not its a bit trickier. You could try using some WD 40 to loosen things up but you will have to do some degreasing afterwards. Firstly give it a shot of oil and work it in by turning the impeller by hand, After it seems to have loosened some try to start the impeller. If it works great, if not it may need a flick to get itself going. Once you have it working you will have to run your filter with all filter media removed for a good half hour outside of your tank running through soap and clean water to remove the grease. If its not junk that has your impeller jammed look for anything else including blades and fibers that are clogging it and remove them.

5.3 Burn Out
IF your motor appears to be fine, turns freely by hand and is not hot to the touch it may just be burned out. There is no easy way to fix this other then replacing the motor.

5.4 Impeller Breakage
If you see little bits of plastic floating around but no impeller, some how your impeller shattered. There is nothing to do except to replace the impeller.

5.5 Blockage
If your impeller is spinning but is not sucking any water through then there is a chance that your intake is blocked. Wash it out and scrub the inside with a brush and see if that fixes the problem

5.6 Bad Connections
If the connections are bad the motor will not be running or will be starting and stopping. You'll have to go and look inside and see if the leads are securely connected.

These are the most likely problems that could come up with a filter but if you are still having trouble or have some other problem leave me a comment or hit the forums and see what you can find out.

Note: This is my Cascade Filter that failed but I still believe it is a good filter. It was my own negligience and a lack of cleaning that resulted in it jamming.

Back from a Break

After paying relatively little attention to my tank for most of the summer months I have turned my attention back to it and my blog. At the moment I have in my tank one adult plady, six juvenile plady's, five neon tetras and an assassin snail. I have managed to keep my plants in good shape but  between somewhat less water changes and keeping a less watchful eye on things some hair algae began to grow inside my Java moss. It slowly spread and I first noticed it when doing water changes and some of it had spread to the other plants. I will be talking about how to deal with this in the next few days. Other then that I have plans for building a larger yeast based Co2 system with better, gasket type seals and made out of metal, so that it will not soften when I go to sterilize it. Now that I am back from vacation my interest has returned to my Aquarium and my other hobbies. I will be paying more attention to my blog now and continue to post on things that I do with the tank and the research that I do on the internet.

Slope Aquascape

A slope aquascape is an interesting aquascape in that is very versatile like all aquascape but is quite easy to do. The basics component is just a slope, low on one end of the tank and rising up on the other side.

Creating the Slope
The simplest way to create a slope aquascape is to just take some gravel (preferably medium grade as sand will slowly erode flat with the water currents and too course can be difficult to arrange) and create your slope in your tank.

Focal Point
As always in aquascaping your going to want to have your focal point, whatever it may be, one third away from either side. Even though the slope ends at the edge of the tank it will look better if the focal point is one third away from one side of the tank. It will probably be easier to put your focal point on the high end of the slope but if you had a relatively gentle slope or a slope that curved up sharply at the end then I suppose you could put the focal point on the low end.

Plants
Simple, small leaved, low growing plants are going to be the easiest and probably the most fitting plants for this. You want them to be low growing so the they match the shape of the slope. My personal advice would be to go with java moss as this is going to be incredibly cheap, requires no Co2, only low light and little fertilizer to grow. And it will grow nicely along your slope and can be used to cover rocks or the substrate. Choose whatever you'd like as that's just my opinion but I would warn not to get any stem plants as they are going to require a massive amount of trimming in order to keep them short and in line with the form of the slope.

I will probably be using a slope in my new small tank and I will post pictures once it is done. 

The Parts of Fertilizer

Fertilizer is an important part of a planted tank. Many people do it but not many people know what the various chemicals and minerals inside fertilizer actually do. So I did a little research and this is what I came up with.

Groups of Nutrients
There are three groups of nutrients. Macro, Micro and trace elements. These nutrients are used in varying amounts in different places of the plant.

Macro Nutrients
These are your standard NPK fertilizers that you would find in most fertilizers. They are Nitrogen, Phosphate, Potash, Calcium, Magnesium, Sulfur, Chlorine, Iron and Sodium. These nutrients are used in large quantities and are essential to plant growth. These nutrients are used in different amounts so they should be dosed separate from a broad range fertilizer.

Micro Nutrients
These nutrients are a wide range of slowly used nutrients that include trace elements. These include things such as Boron, Cobalt, Copper, Magnesium, Molybdenum and Zinc. They are less essential then Macro Nutrients and because of there shorter life span they are harder to overdose and will not usually cause algae blooms.

I will be posting some short post on the use and how to detect deficiency of each nutrient.

New Feeding Schedule

I recently switched from feeding once a day in the evening to feeding my fish twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. I haven't done much research into this but the fish seem to be quite a bit more lively and the neon's seem to have a bit brighter color. Just something to try if your fish are sluggish and you are feeding only once a day.

IF your fish are sluggish it could be many other things too. Low oxygen, high nitrites or nitrates, too much Co2, shock, too much or too little light, environment (moving rocks, or having no places to hide, no plants) are all things you should consider before feeding more food to your fish because the increase in waste could overpower the bacteria in a bare bottom or overstocked tank. 

Fertilizer Dosing

If your are keeping a planted tank you probably use some sort of fertilizer. There are many types and brands of fertilizer out there which are all fairly similar but there are a few that rise above the rest. But to decide on which type you must find the needs of your tank.

Low Growth Tank 
In a low growth tank there is low lighting at or under 1 watt per gallon and has no Co2. Growth will be slow and often quite weak although with the right plants it can still turn out to be a nice display. Nutrients in the water will be absorbed very slowly and there is not a high demand for them. For this type of tank the dissolved minerals in the tap water from water changes may be enough to supply the plants and if not a low dose of wide coverage fertilizer such as Seachem Flourish will be enough.
What you need: Wide Coverage Fertilizer

Medium Growth Tank
In this tank there is at least some source of Co2 such as yeast based Co2 and has between 1 and 2 watts per gallon. In this tank there is medium paced fairly thick growth and there is a stronger demand for nutrients. In this tank there is a greater chance that the nutrients will become unbalanced as there will be higher demand for some nutrients then others so I would recommend using some wide range fertilizer and a three different fertilizers for your macro nutrients.
What you need: Wide Coverge and Trace Fertilizer
High Growth Tank
A high growth tank there is over 2 watts per gallon, a high amount of Co2 and vigorous growth. In this tank there is a high possibility for the nutrients to become unbalanced so i would say to dose a wide range, separate macro nutrients and trace elements to keep thing s running smoothly. Things happen very quickly in this tank so it is important to keep a close eye in things.
What you need: Wide Coverage, Trace, and NPK Fertilizer

Note that watts per gallon is a very rough way of measuring light and Lumens per watt varies between T12 T8 and T5 bulbs.


Types of Fertiliser


Wide Coverage Fertilizer 
These types of fertilizer such as Seachem Flourish cover all nutrients, both macro and micro in small amounts. Often the macro nutrients are only supplied in small amounts so that you can dose you NPK (Nitrogen Phosphorus Potassium). This type of fertilizer works well in a low growth tank.

Trace Fertilizer 
Supplies only the trace and micro nutrients. Can be used in a medium growth tank along with a wide coverage fertilizer.

NPK
Individual fertilizers for each of the three top nutrients Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium, so that you can precisely control levels of each fertilizer so that in a high growth tank you do not get a potentially toxic imbalance of nutrients that can cause algae blooms.

Things I am Working On

I have been away from the blog for a while. In that I did little but do the usual maintenance on the tank, Now I have several projects planned out. Firstly the six gallon tank has started to cycle with both Nitrite and Nitrate readings. After it has cycled I plan on moving my Plady fry into it so that they can get more food and grow faster and more fully. After they are grown I hope to give them away or sell them so that I can turn the six gallon into an invert tank with some shrimp and maybe a few assassin snails (these seem to have disappeared in my large tank, either in hiding or killed by shock). I am starting to research various types of compatible shrimp and maybe one small top dwelling fish for this tank. After fixing some leaks in my Co2 bottles I have started in earnest to try different mixes to find out the best one. Hopefully the small tank will cycle soon so I can put some of this into action. 

Dead Molly

On the weekend one of my Molly's died. I don't know exactly why this time and have no clues other then it looked very lethargic after I did a water change on Saturday. So far I have lost one Plady and one Molly. The first one I lost because it died of carbon dioxide poisoning when it got stuck under my Co2 ladder. I can see losing one fish accidentally but two very similar fish is a bit odd. Both fish were female live bearers. The only thing that I can think of that would have killed it was that there was a slight build up of blue green algae on the back glass of the tank but that doesn't make any sense because if there was rebuild of toxins from it the Plady fry would be affected first and they appear to be fine. Luckily I found the Molly before it started to breakdown and release too much ammonia so that the other fish seem to be fine. 

Starting The New Tank

I have been talking about starting a new tank for a while now, and I have now started things rolling. I already had  an old six gallon tank sitting around and I went for a trip to Big Al's to pick up some beige gravel, a heater and a sponge filter. The Gravel slopes off to the left back corner while the filter and heater are on the right. I was originally going to cycle the tank with Zebra Danios but realized that I would have to throw the tank up in a matter of minutes or release them into my main tank were they might harass my neon's or my young Plady's. So i decided to go with fish less cycling using fish food. Right now I have no plans for the tank but i do have a few ideas.

A Shrimp and Moss Tank
The small size of the tank means there is not a lot of room for equipment like Co2 and not a lot of room for fish either. Moss however is not fussy and will provide a nice food source and hiding place for shrimp.

Fry Tank
I may end up using this tank to raise up my young Plady's. In my current tank they only get to eat plants because they are scared of the bigger fish but in a tank to themselves i could actually feed them and then with the extra protein I am sure they would grow much faster.

Hopefully I will get pictures later but at the moment the Computer does not have enough memory to install the camera software. When I install it I will load up all the pictures I have taken over the last few months. 

The Problem with DIY Co2

When I originally chose to go with DIY Fermentation Co2 I chose it because it was cheap costing less then a tenth then pressurized Co2 and it didn't need a trip into town every three months to get the tank refilled. So I built two reactors with separators which worked well for a couple months. Then my ceramic diffuser plugged and put a ton of pressure on the seals. This must have damaged them because a few months later they My diffuser didn't have a single bubble go through it for several weeks. After resiliconing the seals I could get bubbles by closing the valve, shaking the bottle and then opening the valve in the line just the tiniest bit. After doing this over five times I somehow got a consistent flow. This is the problem with DIY Co2, it's too finicky for the consistency needed in the aquarium to keep plants growing and pH stable. That and the fact that most people only have one bottle so that there is two, three day downtime between taking off the old batch and the new one getting up to speed means that unless your willing to go through the trouble of timing your batches so they over lap, building multiple reactors and constant tweaking and fiddling you may be better off with the consistency and reliability of Pressurized Co2.

Forums

Along with cycling, and a good local fish shop being a member of a forum is one of the most useful things for people starting out and even experienced fish keepers will find it useful to join a forum. These can help with questions on hardware, plants, fertilizer, Co2, lighting, filtration, fish, inverts, stocking algae problems and local shops. I personally have joined "The Planted Tank" because it one of the largest and most experienced forums on the net and it also has profiles on fish and plants as well as info for setting up new tanks. Forums have helped me decide on whether I could put shrimp in my tank and how fully stocked my tank is. Also I have found loss of information on fertilizer, lighting, fish and plants. I would highly recommend joining a forum to anybody thinking of starting or already having a fish tank. 

Plans for a New Tank

So after several months of work on the 29 gallon and with it getting close to fully stocked and having no more room for plants I am trying to decide what to do next. I think I may go and try a smaller tank. Probably less then 10 Gallons. I am either thinking about a Betta tank or an invert tank. Shrimp and crabs can be hard to find though so I am still deciding. 

What to do Next

So after a many improvements in hardware, planting, getting new fish and a lot of research (though I still have a lot to learn) I have come to a halt. I no longer feel the urge to plant and fiddle with the plants as they are right where I want them. Neons, Mollies, and Platy's swim around the tank and I have started a slow but steady test of mixes for Co2 production (which has gone poorly so far as I need to keep up production even while i am testing) and I have decided what I am going to do. I have a total 74 cm of fish in my tank. I have used up 40 cm and now have 34 cm to use. This is a good size for me as I can keep up to eight more 4 cm fish which is the size of most schooling fish. I will also be able to fit in probably two new shrimp. The new Platy's I have I can not keep so if anybody would like them reply in the comments. 

Platy Fry

On the weekend I spotted three small Platy's swimming around the bottom of the tank. Currently less then a cm long. Being live bearers I suppose that this should not come as a surprise. I have no food to feed them but they must be living off of something. Anybody who wants them can have them. Respond with email address in comments section.

Shrimp: An Alternative to Bottom Feeding Fish

One of the things that I constantly been told and read since starting out in Aquariums is the importance of Bottom Feeding fish. Bottom feeding fish are the scavengers of the fish tank. They clean uneaten food from the gravel preventing it from rotting and clouding the water and polluting it. Also many of them will nibble away at algae keeping the glass and plants clean. They also provide some activity at the bottom of the tank. But in my tank the gravel is quite large, (6mm or more in diameter) and pointy and triangular. This can damage the sensitive mouths and underside of the fish and kill or injure them.



Fortunately I did find an alternative to these bottom dwelling fish in Freshwater shrimp. They vigorously search the gravel for left over food, some are excellent for algae control, and provide some activity at the bottom without placing a very large on the tank. There are a wide variety of shrimp in existence each with very different water parameters and compatibility. I've done some research and this is what I've come up with.

General Information 
Shrimp are one of the several types of freshwater inverts other then snails, and crabs. They have several unique needs. Firstly for those with planted tanks, copper is quite toxic to shrimp. But unless your putting a massive amount of copper in your shrimp should be fine. However without plants to absorb the copper the shrimps will surely build up copper and die. So be careful. Secondly Shrimp moult there exoskeleton many times during there life. During this time they are very vulnerable to predators and disease an need places to hide while there next exoskeleton regrows. Leave the old skeleton as they need the calcium. Shrimp primarily feed off a very thin layer that covers all things in the aquarium called bio film. To feed a large colony though you will need algae wafers or other like food. Moss is an excellent source of food both in that it is soft enough for shrimp to eat and provides a large surface area for bio film. Also in the right conditions a shrimp population can multiply very quickly and overload a tank, but on the other side many fish will eat the newly hatched fry and many can be lost to power filters so a sponge filter is best for an all shrimp tank.


The Plan
I plan on getting either Amano Shrimp or Cherry Shrimp. Amono shrimp can be very hard to find but Cherry Shrimp are fairly common.

Perfecting Co2

I have upgraded my Co2 system many times since first making it, resealing the joints several times removing the check valve and then going from a high pressure ceramic diffuser system to a low pressure ladder and now I have a new endeavour. I am going to try to find a mix in the brew that will give me the highest Average BPM (Bubbles per Minute) while lasting exactly two weeks so while using the least possible amount of sugar. Most recipes online suggest an eighth of a teaspoon of yeast and two cups of sugar but I am trying to get a high output mix that will last about to weeks to match up with my biweekly maintenance. Also I will be testing out the theory that by mixing in a small amount of fertilizer or certain nutrients you will get higher output. Because each of these mixture will last around two weeks this will probably take me at least a couple months until the results come out but once they do I'll look them over and put them out so that other people who use DIY co2 can use them our Modify them to suit themselves.

New Fish: Neon Tetras

On the weekend I went to the fish shop to finally pick out my new fish. I was deciding between Neon Tetras, Harlequin Rasboras and Lemon Tetras. Although I came in thinking of going with the Lemon Tetras I decided to leave myself some room to expand by going with a school of eight Neon Tetras. There colour contrasts with with my red gravel and I still have room for a small school of Rasboras our a few other fish as well.

Neon Tetra Info


The neon tetra belongs along with other Tetras to the Characin Family from South America. There flourescent colour makes them visible in the black water rivers were they are found. They have a complet blue and partial red stripe and grow to about 3 cm long. They have been bred in captivity for many years and thus they have adapted to a very wide range of water conditions although to breed them you need to replicate there natural enviroment of dim lighting, low pH and water hardness. Although in the wild they inhabit waters cooler then 25 degrees they will handle it quite well. Do not change the water qualities to quickly though as the shock can be deadly. They should only be kept with other small peaceful fish. They are omnivores who will readily eat flake food. They are some times afflicted with neon tetra disease which is incurable and has symptoms such as difficulty swimming, loss of colouration, restlessness and crysts.

Breeding
Requires putting a pair in a tank with no light and gradually increasing it with a hardness of less then 4. Once the eggs are laid remove the adults as they will eat them.

Peat Moss Filtration

In my attempt to find ways to keep certain types of tetras that like soften and acidic water I came across a simple and effective solution. Peat moss can be added to the substrate or in the filter to take the calcium out of the water as well as making it more acidic. The peat moss will absorb calcium ions from the water as well as releasing small amounts of acid. This is a cheap and effective solution for those looking at keeping or breeding less hardy tetras or other fish. A word of warning though make sure there is no fertilizer in the peat moss as this will be almost sure to create an algae bloom. I will not be using this unless the fish appear to be suffering in the current water, mainly because I will be running the tank near its maximum capacity (although my Cascade 200 filter will cycle the water completely 6 times every hour) and the added moss will slightly obstruct filtration and I may need all of it to keep so many fish safely.

Reconsidering Lemon Tetras

On my trip to the local fish shop to pick up some plants I saw a tank of very bright looking lemon tetras. They will brilliant looking fish and have been bred to become accustomed to the hard water. I previously ruled these fish out because they do not like the hard water but now I am reconsidering them. There bright yellow colour and red eye ring would look very good in my mainly red tank. They are also not to large like the rummy nosed tetra and not too small that they might become prey eventually for my Platy's  like neon or blue neon tetras. These fish grow to about 4 to 4.5 cm, like slightly acidic water but will deal with up to 7.5 and other then that are not picky about conditions except that the tank should be partially planted.

A Lemon Tetra in Very Good condition showing slight blue colouring in fins. 

Dead Fish

Unfortunately yesterday one of my Platy's died. The new Co2 ladder was placed a fraction of an inch above the gravel and the poor thing got its self stuck in there and I'm guessing that he got poisoned by the high concentration of Co2 near the ladder. I have fixed this by moving the ladder farther above the gravel and closer to the filter so that there is better circulation of the carbonated water. I also will go and get another Platy if I can the next time I go to the fish shop.

New Stuff: Lights, Diffuser, Rocks and Plants

This weekend I finally went out and got my new gear for my tank. I got a new fixture, not the one I was looking for but it is a newer model with high output T5 lamps and it seems to work well. Hopefully I will have pictures soon. I do have to cut a new top because the fixture is mounted a few inches above the tank and not all the light gets in. I also  flow bubbles from missing a new diffuser. This one is the ladder type but it needs a bit of fixing to stop overflow bubbles from getting past but it sill saves me from having to replace ceramics every few months. I also got a few blocks of petrified wood that matches my gravel nicely. And lastly I got a large clump of Java Moss and a few small ground cover plants. Today I will be taking all the plants out adding the rocks and then putting it all back together. Hopefully I can download my camera software and show some pictures soon. 

AquaScaping

As I read on the internet and look at other pictures of planted tanks on the internet, I realize to make there is more to making the aquarium look good then simply placing plants in a tank and making them grow. You must be an element of design to it. Just like in landscaping, there are two elements to aquascaping. First there is the gardening part, knowing the needs of a plant and making it grow. This is a fairly simple straight forward part of aquascaping. Then there is the much harder part. Arranging the plants and features such as driftwood and rock to make a visually appealing aquarium. This will be a fairly Large post so here is how it will be organized.

Intro
Parts of an AquaScape 
Plants
Substrate
Hard scape
The Focal Point
Rules of Aquascaping
The Four types of Aquascapes
The Dutch Garden
The Natural
The Jungle
The Biotope
Layouts within AquaScapes
The Mountain
The Hill
The Valley
The Slope

Parts of an Aquascape
To be able to understand and set up an aquascape you first have to know the parts. The are several basic parts to an aquascape. Hard scape, plants, substrate and the focal point.

The first thing to consider when setting up an aquascape is the gravel or substrate. It is a good idea to chose a neutral colour of substrate like white or black as colours like red (which I have) can wash out the colour of red plants and fish as well as drawing attention to itself. You also want a substrate that will support the plant such as Eco-Complete or Flourite. Also it is important to have enough substrate to be able to form hills and valleys as well as enough depth that you can plant into it.

Next you must figure out what you will use for hard scape, which is mainly branches of wood and rocks. It is a good idea to use only one neutral colour of rock as well as to have lots of them in different sizes. One rock on its own looks very out of place while a group of them will add to the scene. Also get several pieces of wood if you wish to add to the scene. It is easiest to add hard scape before a tank has water or plants in it.

Next we come to plants. For plants design why's any ways you want mainly small leafed plants with a few large leaf plants. Also it is good to have some ground cover like Java moss that you can attach to rocks with string. The string will eventually dissolve and the moss will have attached itself to the rock.

Last and the most overlooked is the focal point. The focal point can be anything, the highest rock, a group of interesting plants, but there a few important rules to follow with it. First, keep it off centred, it looks far more natural then a centred focal point. Second, only have one focal point, other why's the eyes can not decide which focal point to settle on. Third, if you are going to have red plants that are not your focal point you must have several of them or people will be drawn to them as well.

Rules of AquaScaping


Here are a few basic rule of aquascaping
1. Have only one focal point.
2. Add elevation with rocks and branches
3. Use small leaved plants
4. If your are using red make multiple groups
5.Use only one colour of rock
6.Use neutral colours for the substrate and rocks.

The Four Types of AquaScapes


There are four basic types of Aquascapes each with there own style. They are the Dutch Garden, The Natural, The Jungle and The Biotope which is a subsection of the jungle.

The Dutch Garden
The Dutch Garden was the first style of Aquascaping. It involves grouping bunches of plants together and putting them in orderly rows. Less common then it once was it can still be a very impressive display. They only sometimes include fish. 

The Natural
The Natural is a new style of Aquascaping pioneered by Takishi Amono. It involves using few plants and few types of plants to create a scene from nature like a mountain or a meadow. This type is becoming more popular now and can be very impressive and often has fish as well.

The Jungle
Probably the easiest  aquascape to do and very popular amongst beginners the jungle involves using many types of densely packed plants to create a jungle effect. Can be very impressive and over growness can add to the effect so trimming is not as necessary.

The Biotope
The Biotope is like the jungle except it uses plants from only one area.

A few Aquascape layouts
 Aquascapes can take any form but there are a few common layouts, the hill, the valley, the mountain and the slope.

The Hill
The hill is high in the middle and low on the sides. it is a very flexible layout and can incorporate lots of swimming space for fish, as well as caves for them to hide in. 

The Valley
 The valley is the opposite of the hill, high on the edges and low in the middle. I personally am trying to decide whether to do this or the mountain.

The Mountain
The mountain is a steep collection of rocks with only a small amount of plants, which are mainly moss and other small foreground plants.

The slope
The slope slopes up from one side to the top on the other side. Needs lots of gravel and rock to do this. It can be made to look like the side of a river bank. Driftwood works very well in this set-up.