Planted Tanks (Aquascapes)

This freshwater aquascape features a bonsai-style centerpiece covered with lush green plants, surrounded by natural stone and clean white sand. The open layout gives the fish plenty of swimming space, while the tree’s branches and roots create shelter and visual depth. A small school of neon tetras adds bright color and movement to the peaceful, minimalist design.

The tank itself is a UNS 90L, with a chihiros wrgb slim on top. Filter is a UNS delta 60 and I also have a co2 reactor installed for diffusion. The story of this tank starts with the end goal. I wanted something that would be eye catching in my living room, but also worthy of an IAPLC submission. I ordered hardscape from Aquaforest Aquarium, sight unseen, and began playing with the batch of Sansui stones I received. Knowing the hardscape design was going to be critical, I set up a dojo and continuously played with it for weeks. Tweaks here and there, complete teardowns and restarts, more tweaks, until I was finally happy with the result. The amount of time I spent was critical for me as I really needed breaks from scaping to be able to see flaws or things I really didn't like. When it came to plant selection, my initial inspiration was for a Brazilian style setup, but the hardscape setup really seemed like an iwagumi style would be more fitting and thats the route I ended up going. I wanted to illustrate a strong right to left flow with plants, a strong counter to the stones structure pushing in the opposite direction. Given this, I opted for Eleocharis montevidensis on the right side so that it could drape across the tank in the direction I wanted. I also added eleocharis acicularis on the left that I could trim along the shape of the hardscape (since you can't trim montevidensis). The foreground and midground was a mis of eleocharis parvula, monte carlo, marsilea minuta, and hydrocotyle tripartita mini. In the end, the marsilea basically disappeared with the other 3 plants taking over. For the foreground substrate, I added ADA la plata sand so that there would be a strong contrast between the sand and rocks. Aside from the front inch or two, I planted everything else in Controsoil. There was also initially a sand path that felt too unnatural, so I let that get overgrown with the foreground plants.

A peaceful freshwater planted tank featuring lush Anubias, natural rocks, driftwood, and a dark substrate. The low, open layout creates a clean and balanced aquascape, with plenty of greenery and hiding spaces for its inhabitants.

I think "Fallen Ghost" is going to look incredible once that moss fills in! I can't wait to see the mini Anubias fill in the gaps, creating a really nice contrast against the rugged gray Seiryu stones."

No story to tell, just plant and let it grow. Jebao EP6500-M: Left outflow Jebao EP10000-M: Right outflow and maintenance manifold Jebao EP1000-M: for CO2 Reactor, separate loop DIY Ferts dosed daily via Hydros Minnow auto doser CO2 Injection: - PH Drop: ~1.1 - Time: 11 AM ~ 7 PM - Rate: 60 cc/min - 20lb CO2 tank, swap every 175~195 days Light Schedule: - Ramp up: 1 PM ~ 2 PM - Full Power: 2 PM ~ 8 PM - Ramp down to off: 8 PM ~ 9 PM

Really wanted to set to set up a huge tank with a army of gobies inside of it, the tank was initially meant to be a hillstream inspired river bed. I quickly ended up getting carried away with driftwood and plants though. All sorts of fish have come and gone in the tank, but the gobies have been constant and I plan on keeping them for their whole life spans. Currently the main permeant stocking is, serpent loaches, panda loaches, green lizard loaches, stiphodon annieae, stiphodon ornatus, stiphodon semoni, Stiphodon atropurpureus, and stiphodon percnopterygionus. Other fish include pseudomugil gertrudae, danio tinwini, orange/snowball/yellow amanos, red neos, and a single blue fin killifish that magically appeared. Substrate is soil with a sand cap, four kessil A80's, a small amount of CO2. Filtration is sump that houses the CO2 reactor and some bio media. Tank is unheated year round.

Started as neocaridina shrimp tank, colony crashed a couple times, added >40 species of plants, added Aphyosemion australe killifish after colony crashed second time

New five gallon with buce, schismatoglottis prietois, rotala blood red, hygrophila pinnatifida, and some swords and java ferns and rrf

I was given a 10 gallon tank, with plans to house a pet tarantula. However, I had been watching many fish keeping videos on YouTube, and I felt inspired to create a nano aquascape. I had tried keeping pet fish a few times as a child, with little success, and had lost interest for the past 20 years. For some reason, I felt deeply drawn to try keeping a fish again. So, I studied the care requirements and decided to attempt a simple, freshwater, planted setup - just a betta fish! After I began, I realized I didn’t want to stop. What started as a very minimalistic and simple set up, rapidly developed into a proper community tank. Now, my precious Betta has a flourishing dark water aquarium, consciously rescaped, with a small school of Cory cats, Cherry shrimps, and Nerite snails! I look forward to growing in my knowledge and experience. My future plans include adding more substrate and hard scape elements, lots of new plants, a school of compatible, mid-level fish, and then… enjoying my tiny new world!

This little world started off as a Guppy Planted Tank and now is just a planted Tank. Guppies are happy in 36 gallon tank I have. This tank will be converted into a shrimp tank/snail tank. Stay tuned for the future!

This tank right here was created by my Son and I as a bonding experience and cannot be happier how it turned out. It’s a jungle and is awesome!

Called it Dutch Lagoon for the planting style, rows of crypts and java fern with the apistos holding territory underneath. Blue bolts everywhere in the moss.

Cat sits and watches the endlers for way longer than she should, seiryu stone and moss carpet, cherry shrimp everywhere.

Two pieces of Malaysian driftwood set the whole layout before anything green went in, and the hairgrass and monte carlo grew in around them instead of the other way around. Moss has thickened up nicely on the wood. Cardinals and neons school through it, corys work the bottom, shrimp pick at the moss.

funny enough the dragon stone did more for the water hardness than my scaping skills did. apistos rule this one now.

Wanted a bigger planted tank after running smaller ones for years, something with room for a real hardscape. Spiderwood and malaysian driftwood anchor it, dwarf hairgrass and monte carlo carpeting in. Neon tetras and crystal red shrimp fill out the rest, ph steady around 6.8.

Got into this after seeing a friend's low tech setup and thinking I could do a moodier version with dark wood. Danios and amano shrimp ended up being the easy part, the moss took way longer to fill in than the driftwood did lol.

Calling the Jungle because it looks like one, the stone still looks lopsided no matter how many times I shuffle it round - left it anyway. White clouds and blue bolts get on with it fine.

Barely touch this one besides a weekly top off and the occasional trim. Cherry shrimp and danios seem fine being left alone.

Tucked into the little alcove by the bookshelf, it gets just enough light from the window to make the Chihiros almost unnecessary some afternoons. Amazon swords anchor the back with buce and anubias tied onto driftwood up front, hairgrass filling the open ground. CPDs and endlers move through the top and mid water while the cherry shrimp, a good 38 of them now, clean up everywhere else.

Just a rasbora and apisto tank with a cave carved into the hardscape. Endlers fill the open water, jade shrimp work the Amazonia. Simple, no bigger point to it.

A friend once swore this looked years old, not months. The otos still don't have names.

The assassin snails are the real workers in here, cleaning up while the Bucephalandra slowly wraps itself around the seiryu stone. Vallisneria's finally sending out runners and the hairgrass took its sweet time but it's spreading now. Small cube, easy to ignore some weeks, hard to ignore others.

This one replaced a bowl setup that never really worked out, no filtration to speak of and the plants just melted... The 60P has been a different story, the vals and monte carlo actually hold on and the shrimp seem happier for it.

Chili rasboras and cardinals doing most of the swimming, with a pretty large bristlenose crew keeping the sword leaves clean.

Cardinal tetras are the ones I watch most, ten of them schooling tight over the hairgrass with the rasboras cutting through. Jade shrimp graze the seiryu stone all day. Carpet's patchy in one corner still, moss filled in nicer than expected.

Wanted an iwagumi, ended up with a jungle because I can't say no to plants at the store. Two seiryu stones basically vanished under Monte Carlo and hairgrass now. Fifteen apistos in a tank this small was probably a mistake but the chili rasboras don't seem to mind.

Betta's fins under that dragon stone ledge get me every time. Blue Bolts (24 of them) cleaning up after him nonstop.

What gets me is how the ember tetras disappear against the driftwood until they don't, then it's just this cloud of orange moving through the vals. Monte carlo and hairgrass carpet most of the front, moss on the wood doing its own slow thing.

Been running a while now and it's changed a lot since the dry start... Dragon stone's mostly buried under moss and buce, embers school tight in the open water, otos graze the glass. Way more shrimp than I planned on.

The harlequin rasboras are the ones I actually sit and watch, they school loose near the moss most evenings and never really stop moving. Chili rasboras stick lower, closer to the substrate, easy to miss unless you're looking for them. Blue rili shrimp have multiplied more than I expected, I keep finding tiny ones on the glass in the morning. Hardscape is old pond rock from my parents' place, been sitting in my garage for years before this cube gave it a job. Monte carlo filled in between the rocks after a slow start, java fern and moss holding steady on the wood. My kid still checks on the shrimp before school most days.

been running since last summer, and the wood's darker now, moss finally thick enough to hide the anubias threads underneath. sword leaves get trimmed back every few weeks or they shade everything out. rummynose and harlequins school together most of the day, white clouds keep to the upper corners. dosing flourish light, nitrates hover around 15ppm - ramshorns showed up on their own and i've stopped trying to remove them.

Just a planted community tank, tetras and rasbora weaving through rotala and a couple chunks of driftwood, shrimp cleaning up whatever's left.

Nothing says relaxing hobby like apistos staring you down at feeding time

soft golden light through wood and stone, kinda going for that warm blackwater feel. neons school around the rotala most days.

Seiryu stone and the Malaysian driftwood took a while to get right, no plants touching rock. Amazon Sword's throwing new leaves weekly, Java Moss filling the wood grain. Guppies and cardinals mix well, 35 Crystal Reds picking through it all day.

Celestial pearl danios spend most of their time picking around the seiryu stone, with jade shrimp working the moss and wood in between. It's a quiet little setup - the sword anchors one side, moss has crept over the driftwood, and the assassin snails handle themselves without much input from me.

First attempt at the hardscape here was wrong in every way — wood too big, soil too shallow, and the whole thing looked cramped before I even added water. Redid it with Controsoil and smaller pieces, much happier now. Celestial pearl danios crowd the vallisneria most evenings, blue rilis picking through the bucephalandra. Small tank (3 gallons), keeps the Inkbird busy holding temp steady.

Sits on a shelf by the window where the afternoon light hits it just right. Bronze corys dig through the sand, shrimp are everywhere on the driftwood, and the crypts finally stopped melting.

Spiderwood scape built around chili rasboras, Notch included, plus pygmy corys.

hairgrass and buce over stone and wood, that's the whole idea here. the buce has properly settled onto the wood now, hairgrass still has a few gaps but it's filling. white clouds ended up in instead of the rummynose i originally wanted, worked out fine, they shoal nicely against the green. amano shrimp keep the glass tidy between algae scrapes. kessil's on a shorter photoperiod these days after it got away from me a bit.

What I like most is watching him claim the dragon stone like he owns the place, which, fine, he does. The shrimp colony has taken off too, twenty-some Crystal Reds picking through the hairgrass all day. What bugs me is the Monte Carlo, it just sits there refusing to carpet no matter what I do. Six gallons, dual sponge filters, otherwise no complaints.

First attempt at this scape had way too much hardscape and nowhere for the amano shrimp to actually roam... Redid it simpler and they clearly approve now.

The cat sits by this one longer than any other window in the house... Endlers and the apistos keep her there.

The thing I like most is watching the corys work the substrate in the morning, all of them at once like they planned it... The moss has finally softened up the stone so it doesn't look so bare anymore. Danios stay up top, otos graze the glass, and somehow it all just settles into a quiet little routine by evening.

Dragon stone and hairgrass doing most of the work here, with the hygro pinnatifida filling in the awkward gaps. Gerald the apisto runs the place, two females trailing him around. Crystal reds clean up whatever the trims leave behind lol

went for a soft blackwater sort of look, spiderwood and low light, nothing too structured. otos graze the moss, endlers breeding away, crystal reds all over the wendtii. keeps itself pretty stable most weeks.

White clouds and cardinals dart around the moss most of the day, corys grubbing along the bottom like they own the place, shrimp everywhere you look

Otocinclus and blue bolt shrimp share the amazonia with a couple sword plants and a few java fern clumps tied off on spiderwood. Fluval Plant 3.0 over the top, sponge filters doing the work. Sword leaves need trimming every few weeks or they shade out everything under them. Kid still checks on the otos every morning.

the chili rasboras are the ones i actually sit and watch, darting through the vals and ducking near the buce every time i walk by. blue bolt shrimp are doing their own thing across the substrate, and the corys root around in front like they own the place. it's a 10g so things stay tight, but there's room enough that nobody's bothering the endlers. rotala's finally pushing new growth, ramshorns keep multiplying whether i want them to or not.

Java fern and bucephalandra tied to the wood, moss filling in around the base, guppies and rummynose keep it busy

Just a small planted rimless with driftwood and hairgrass up front... Crystal reds all over the wood and neons holding in the current from the Oase. Sword's the tallest thing in there now. Simple, kind of chaotic, works for me.

I rushed the first hardscape and it looked cluttered no matter how I turned the spiderwood... Pulled it all and started over with fewer pieces, which is the version that stuck. Apistogramma pair up in the sword leaves now and the embers stay mid tank, ignoring most of it.

Coming up on five months running now, and the difference from those early cloudy-water days is night and day. The moss has filled out across the spiderwood, the pinnatifida keeps pushing new leaves, and the bucephalandra finally settled after a rough start. Cardinals and rasboras hold in the current together while the cories work the sand and shrimp pick through the moss. Work's kept me from tinkering with it much lately, which honestly suits it fine at this stage.

Honestly this one doesn't ask for much. A glass wipe here, a trim on the rotala when it gets out of hand, and that's about it. Pygmy corys and rasboras keep busy on their own, the pleco mostly hides until evening, and the hygrophila fills gaps I never planted it in.

Sunset Haven got its name before there was even water in it — the stratum has this warm reddish cast under the Kessil that reminded me of one, and it stuck. Hairgrass has finally filled in up front, hygrophila needs trimming again already. Pygmy corys spend most of the day darting through the sword leaves. 29 gallons, though it feels smaller with the moss taking over the wood.

Barely touch this one and it keeps chugging along fine. Water changes when I remember, a dose of Prime, and that's basically it. Spiderwood anchors the whole layout and the hygrophila pinnatifida has finally started hugging it instead of growing straight up, which took a while to convince it to do. Rotala stays in check with an occasional trim, otherwise I mostly just watch it. Crystal red shrimp are the main attraction, a whole colony of them now picking through the moss and grazing the glass alongside the ramshorns. Found a baby shrimp during a trim a while back, way smaller than the others, first sign they'd actually bred in here. Temperature stays steady thanks to the inkbird so I don't worry about that side of things at all. Small footprint, big personality tank, and easily the lowest maintenance thing I own even with thirty shrimp crammed in there being their usual paranoid little selves.

Went for a soft, mossy stream kind of feel with the seiryu stone and controsoil instead of anything too tidy. Cardinals and harlequins school loosely through the sword plants, crystal reds pick through the java moss most evenings. Nerites keep the glass pretty clean without much help from me.

Funny thing about hardscape... You place it once and swear you'll never touch it again, then you do. Chili and harlequin rasboras school together, moss is filling out, shrimp doing shrimp things.

Moss and a couple sword clumps do most of the work here, nothing carved or fancy, just let it fill in on its own. Endlers and CPDs school around it now, jade shrimp pick through the moss most evenings. Grown in a lot since those bare-substrate days.