[djlombar]

I am staging my hardscaping and roughly planning out the plants as well. I have never done a natural tank before so I am looking for any advice/help I can get. Some quick details about the tank:

• 55 gallon tank, play sand substrate with some river pebbles mixed in, Fluval 407 filter, Full spectrum light, dual 150W Eheim heaters
• Planned fish (introduced over time of course):
  • 12-15 Neon/Cardinal Tetra
  • 3-6 Bolivian Ram
  • 5 Clown Killifish
  • 5-6 Corys
  • 10 or so Amano Shrimp
  • 3-4 Gobys (hopefully)

Below is the tank with the added sand and some rocks thrown in for now. I have assorted river rock I plan on using from small pebbles to the large 3-5" stones shown in the tank. This will be a low-tech setup so I am thinking of plants like Anubias, Java Fern, Moss, Cryptocoryne, and a floating plant (probably Redroot?).
What suggestions do you have as far as rearranging and placement? Besides not having a good eye for design, one of my biggest concerns is getting the right amount of plants give I do want a bunch of fish.

Thanks in advance! If anyone is willing to DM me for more back and forth I would be grateful!

 

[Rufi0h]

The website Aqadvisor will help you find out if the filtration you choose will be enough for the amount of fish you're stocking. I haven't done the calculations yet but it seems like it might be a little crowded based on your wish list.

That seems like a good plant selection. The anubias and java fern will want to be attached to the Driftwood or stones. They don't want their rhizomes buried in the substrate.

Crypto will do well in the tank but with just sand in it you might need to add root tabs down the line. There are a lot of different sword plants that would also do well in a setup like this.

As far as personal preference goes, I would flip the Driftwood upside down. This would allow the fish to swim underneath it and I love watching that.

 

[richard.hayward.melb]

I think that's a great idea to flip your driftwood upside down. Is it all one piece?

The reason is that those more horizontal elements currently resting on the tank floor would be ideal for attaching epiphytes such as Anubias onto. This enables you to create more height with your plants thereby making it more tempting for your fish to swim higher in the tank. Any hardscape that's just close to the bottom tends to disappear from view.

Also, I'm putting my hand up to volunteer to help you with this. I have some spare time, so please feel free to DM me about it.

 

[AlexM]

A game changer for me was glueing rocks or wood or both together. Using small pieces glued together can give a much more dramatic look and you can control more which way the eye is let by the hard scape