in my 36 bowfront i have a tri color green gravel, fake plants and a nice piece of driftwood. i like the gravel but think pool filter sand would look great in a bowfront. has anyone tried sand w/ fake plants? dunno if that would look good. only down fall w/ live plants is that i have buenos aires tetras and ive read they like to eat live plants. ive seen some of you go to arts and crafts type of places and get some great lookin fake plants. any feed back and advice would be great...
a little change
- Thread starter dempsey420
- Start date
im setting up my girlfriends new 26bowfront, we bought some play sand from home depot for 6.99, it easily filled up the aquarium. i think she is going to plant it. personally im not a huge fan of fake plants. i'd figure if your fish would eat it it might be a good thing to have some in there. i'd say try live plants out with fake plants and if you like the real plants good, and if you dont, well go for all fake. if you have a hard time keeping the fake plants grounded just put a small rock over the base.
I've had no problem keeping fake plants down with sand it keeps em down really well and you cant even see the base which makes em look a bit better IMO, However my plants never stay down long my turtles like to dig em up >.<
bump- everyone on here talks about sand and live plants but no one has advice but these two? well thx to you two atleast
I have an axolotl tank with white sand and fake plants. it looked a bit off for a while, but I think I like it now. I only used fake plants though because he doesn't do well with bright lights and i figured this was the best compromise. I think sand and rock formations would look best, and make the most sense. Maybe add a few live plants here and there. Zari told the truth on fake plants, the sand holds them down well enough.
A bit about fake plants not made for the aquarium: I would be wary. I don't know what kind of glue they use to hold the plants together (when they glue the stems to the leaves). So I'm concerned about them leeching something into the water. Also, if you get the ones with wire in them, the wire can rust. Just so you're aware, but they do look better than the fake aquarium plants.
A bit about fake plants not made for the aquarium: I would be wary. I don't know what kind of glue they use to hold the plants together (when they glue the stems to the leaves). So I'm concerned about them leeching something into the water. Also, if you get the ones with wire in them, the wire can rust. Just so you're aware, but they do look better than the fake aquarium plants.
I say go for it, like everyone else said; just make a small hill to root the fake plants enough to where they wont come up. I think it'll work out just fine..
I got some nice fake plants at Michaels that work well with my PFS. Personally I have never seen fake plants designed specifically for an aquarium that I like, but the silk plants at many craft stores look pretty real
so w/ sand does all the poop just sit on top of the sand? does it look messy? i have a penguin 200 ( i think thats the number i know its good for 55 gal) so how high should the intake of the filter be so it has little chance of sand gettin sucked in? i would think like 4-5" would be good enough.