Tank revamp, ideas please?

danchristopher

danchristopher

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I've recently been walking past my axie tank and feeling less than impressed by it. I thought I had finally got it somewhat nice and comfortable looking, but I feel like there is still something missing.

What's in the tank at the moment:
Hides including a terracotta pot, a large curved piece of pvc pipe, a piece of rock with a hole drilled through it and a little fake log cave thing. I also have a bunch of live plants in there that seem to be surviving. There is also a large piece of driftwood that stretches for almost the entire length of the tank.

Overall the tank doesn't look very cohesive and it kinda just seems like I've thrown a whole bunch of random stuff in and hoped it'd work out. In my opinion.. it hasn't.

What I would like to do is probably decorate the pvc pipe (perhaps with sand?) so it blends in a little bit more naturally. The terracotta pot looks a bit out of place but maybe with a plant growing on top of it it might look a bit nicer and less out of place? I currently have a TON of java moss so that could work. Am also contemplating a java moss wall, or at least trying to grow some on the driftwood.

Most of all, I'd actually like to build some caves out of rocks and effectively do away with most of my 'unnatural' hides. I saw a thread a while back (I am pretty sure it was on Caudata) in which someone talked about using broken pieces of slate to build caves. It looked really cool and I would totally love to do something like that... except I have one problem..
I cannot find slate anywhere - at least not the 'natural' slate (not tiles) I believe I need. I visited a tiling showroom place and they claimed they had 'natural' slate except the guy told me that it would rust in a fish tank because it is oxidised or something.
Can anyone explain this? Is there a particular type of slate I should be looking for?
Even better, does anyone know where in Sydney I might be able to find suitable slate for an aquarium? If not slate, some suitable rocks that don't cost $20 for a small piece from a pet store :p
And has anyone had much success with constructing something with aquarium sealant out of river stones? Cause that could also be an option if it'd work.

If anyone has any other ideas or would like to suggest a great homemade hide or decor, please let me know!
Cheers :D
 
I got a load of rock from Gum-tree, and some from Facebook groups. Second hand is always good (and cheap)!
 
I made a slate cave thing using roof slate(I'm in the uk so it's natural pre cut slate) and used tank sealant to coat the edges so it isn't sharp,looks ok for a DIY,but prob better if next time I buy one someone else made!
Facebook seems to have a few slate cave makers/sellers maybe there's one near you?the guy I watch sells his quite cheap and will work to a personal design....


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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=53.788293,-2.406819
 
@Mogs---its a great idea lol
and I love the PVC Pipe Suzi, I may try something like that
 
maybe if you upload a picture of your tank we can all help better :]

I would say look for more live plants (that always makes a tank pop) and it's healthy for your axie
I did the caves out of slate but they started to rust so I had to take them out. i guess there's a certain kind
of slate to use. I know there is other kinds of rock that could work well too. I am looking for large pieces of obsidian and/or onyx but they are hard to come by. probably will have to order offline.

I would look on ebay for rocks too, sometimes people sell bundles that you can build naturalistic caves out of and look great. I think I will eventually do this if I can't find onyx or obsidian locally.

also, color of sand will totally change your tanks appearance. I recently switched to black sand with a little bit of white sand and specks of red/orange sand. turned out fantastic. ( http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...allery/79643-new-substrate-pics-kingsley.html )

ummm, definitely do the moss wall if you have a bunch of moss! that would make it look awesome. or even a java moss carpet in a section of the tank would be cool too.
or just growing it on the driftwood would be neat. I don't know how big your driftwood is but you could always cut it into sections so you can personalize it more. Extra large Rocks add a lot of character to the tank also.

but i'd say upload some pics of your tank so we can get ideas to help you :)
 
Thanks for the suggestions all :D

My tank was looking a bit ick cause of some leeching tannins from a small piece of wood until I did a mass water change and a bit of a rearranged it yesterday. It's looking much nicer!

I was able to arrange my piece of driftwood so that the large 'stump' kind of end was positioned in a way in the corner that makes it kind of like a little enclosed space. I'm hoping I can get some nice rocks of some sort to build up around it to make it more like a cave. My axolotls are already loving hanging out under it though :D I tied some java moss to the driftwood as well, hopefully it'll grow out nicely.

I'm not at home at the moment but I'll grab a photo tomorrow \o/ I've also taken the PVC pipe out to coat it in sand.

Does anyone use duckweed in their tank? I've heard it can be messy but a lot of plants struggle in my tank and apparently it grows like a weed...
 
I have duckweed in my tank.. its new im not sure what it does but it came free with plants I got.. so I threw it in lol!
 
kiathepooch said:
I made a slate cave thing using roof slate(I'm in the uk so it's natural pre cut slate) and used tank sealant to coat the edges so it isn't sharp,looks ok for a DIY,but prob better if next time I buy one someone else made!
Facebook seems to have a few slate cave makers/sellers maybe there's one near you?the guy I watch sells his quite cheap and will work to a personal design....


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I am here: Google Maps
Click to expand...

There's a guy on facebook who is making me one. He makes them to a design/specific measurements and he's pretty reasonable. Also he'll post them anywhere in the UK.

Log in | Facebook

If anyone is interested :)

I've just ordered mine and hopefully I'll get it next week, so exciting!

He also has a friend that posted on his group that makes mesh tank dividers.
 
slate cave.jpg

My cave :)
 
lol, it cost 12.50 with postage which I thought was excellant value. Now I just need to buy 25 more so everyone has one!
 
That is definitely an awesome looking cave! I would love something like that, but unfortunately am not in the UK D:

I have however found a guy nearby selling some slate that he's used in his aquarium previously so am going to go and hopefully pick some of that up.

I finally grabbed some tank photos the other day on my phone.
I have since shuffled around some of the plants and attached the moss one of the pieces of wood. I also decorated a PVC pipe with sand :) so after that soaks for a couple more days I'll shuffle stuff around again and pop it in the tank.
 

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cool tank, i think it looks good :] love the driftwood piece you have in there. i think the moss should look really good after it attaches to it. i just got some java moss today, and i'll be planting it on my driftwood tomorrow. also, is there a dark spot to your aquarium? (right side)
this might be a reason some of your plants struggle, they're probably just not getting enough light. I would say if you get duckweed not only will it be messy and hard to do water changes but it will eventually block all the light to the other plants and then they will really struggle haha.

Plants that grow well in my tank:
"water wisteria"
"java moss"
"aponogeton bulbs" - my axie loves to chomp them though so they never really get to grow in that well.
but they grow fast.
"java fern" I am using the narrow leaf one.
"cryptocoryne wendtii"

I would say your tanks looking good though, the only thing that sticks out that is "un-natural" is the clay pot and the orange planter. it seems you have enough hides (the logs) that you could probably just take it out and put your new pvc sand cave there instead. mostly what you're lacking i think is plant growth haha. That really does a lot for a tank.

You might also try "water sprite" which floats on top of water and has big leaves and cool roots that hang into water.

looks good though.
 
It is not really as dark as it looks, just crappy photos and lighting in my living room. There aren't really many plants planted on that side of the tank anyway.

But I agree with you on the plant growth. I tend to move things around a lot because I have just been trying out lots of different ideas so a lot of plants haven't had much time to get established, also, my tank has only been setup since July and most of the original plants have died since. I have burned through so much cash on plants that have just died D: (most of them supposedly being low light plants too) and I've been looking for java fern everywhere but haven't found any at my local aquariums, might have to get some online me thinks.

I replanted the lilaeopsis in my latest rearrange in the middle of the tank which receives a lot of light so I'm hoping it covers that area nicely.

The planter was from a recent purchase I hadn't got around to planting yet :p I don't remember the name of it, it was kind of a silly impulse buy - can anyone identify it? It's maybe hard to see in the tank photo but it has kinda purpley leaves. I attached a picture of a bit I planted in my shrimp tank to see how it would grow, it's the little plant in the back, why the image is turned sideways I do not know..
 

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I just re-done my tank with slate tile bottom and make slate hides :D looks great and the slate hides cost less than $5 aus dollars to make.
This is my hide, its not fully done yet, have to sand the edges and it will be done!
 

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Slate is lovely but if possible try to file down the corners and any jagged edges! If your axie gets spooked and tries to dash to the caves to hide he could hit these corners and cut himself badly.
 
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