Sad realization!

[CanadianKeeper]

Ive come to terms with that im not going to have a good looking monster tank. It is very hard to keep up maitnence and to keep things in place with large fish ! Especially when in school and working !

So After seeing a few white dots on my doviis tail I freaked out (not thinking hey you have sand in ur tank dummy) and put him in a hospital tank for 3 days. He is now fine, I had emptied and dried the tank the first day and this is what it came back together as. Very open simple and ich free (Lol never had ich but hey what ever). Also if it seems blue, thats because I blasted it with one last dose of ich meds lol.

ALSO I have my first "pet store" decoration in my tank EVER hahaha, Ive allways hated the stupid corny decore, but I got this for free (along with a FREE 35 gallon with everything (stand filter heater light cover EVERYTHING)). So I tossed it in to help hold down the dry wood till it sinks again. Accually kinda dig it LOL ONLY because I have a "wolf" dovii cichlid in there.

Im running two Ehiem classic 350 (ment for 90 gallons) with the foot long dovii and the 14 inch ornate birchir !

 

[everlastace]

It's true, it's easier to have less. But if you're not happy with it, you can add some large rocks and stuff. Here is my 125. Very low maintenance, lots of open space for swimming, and the fake plants hide the heater and filters pretty well.
Ignore the reflections of the kitchen. And sorry about the funny angle, it was the best way to not have my reflection on there and I didn't feel like putting clothes on before taking the picture.

Sent from my LG-P509 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

 

[ShadowBass]

That's why I used to do barebottom or just a thin layer of sand with just some driftwood and stuff. Doesn't mean your tank has to look bad. Just be creative.

This was my 125g native tank. I think it looked decent.

Other than the castle.....but I had fish that loved it and I couldn't bare to take it from them
lol

We did 90% water changes every week though because of heavily feeding a bunch of growing carnivores.
It's easier if you get a wider diameter flexible tube (if you have big fish that it wont suck up) from home depot, and attach a joint made of two 90 degree elbows (use a barbed hose fitting) so that it will hang on the tank, and put a long length of pvc on it for in the tank. Then just drain it outside real quick, or into the toilet or bathtub (toilet drains quicker). Bigger diameter the tube, the faster it is. We use 1 1/2 inch. Too big and it's hard to get a siphon going, so be reasonable.
I'll take a pic if you're confused.

It takes about 10 mins or so to drain my 220 85%+, then I just refill with the python.

 

[lix.ma14]

cool

 

[PDRed302]

I wouldn't worry too much about lightly decorating. A nice piece of drift wood, a fake plant or two and a couple of rocks goes a long way. My old 125 was lightly decorated and I loved how easy it was to take care of.

Making maintenance easier on yourself will be a big helper in the long run and its not hard to make something simple look great. Besides the fish are the main attraction anyways

 

[CanadianKeeper]

I would agree with that! the less is more im starting to dig anyways. Get to see the fish more.

 

[squishface]

Some simple, well placed decorations can be great for completing the look of the tank. But overall I prefer a low maintenance set up (bare bottom with a few accents) over something completely decorated. Think of it as 'monster zen'.

 

[boldtogether]

Some of the best tanks are the one that are dramatically simple. I dont care for bare bottom tanks but a large driftwood stump and a cool rock is all you need sometimes. The key to simplicity is quality.

There's nothing wrong with your setup. Suggestion, try and put all the decor in one location. Arrange it like a centerpiece, it will be dramatic, simple.

 

[aquaponicpaw]

Ive come to terms with that im not going to have a good looking monster tank. It is very hard to keep up maitnence and to keep things in place with large fish ! Especially when in school and working!

Sounds like You are settling, And thats not fair to Yourself. Most decorations can be had for free or next to nothing. When in doubt use flowerpots. There are a few gorgeous tanks on here with nothing but flower pots for decoration. I would just say be patient and use Your imagination. The goal is to enjoy every aspect of Your tank be it maintenence or eye candy.

All tanks go through a building stage, but build it correctly and it will evolve on its own.

 

[ShadowBass]

Yup. Like my strawberry pot and the weird one next to it. Though it woulda been nice if they were the same color red.

I also collect natural rocks from outdoors (make sure to clean them), and use discarded mussel shells from the river (clean those too), though I mainly keep those with my little fish for hiding spots. There are some really neat mussel shells that are pink pearl colored inside. Some big mussel shells laying on the bottom makes it look like a river or creek bottom, because that's what you'd find in nature.

With fake plants, consider gluing them to a big flat rock or piece of driftwood, then they won't get moved around. If you don't want them exposed on the rock, you can stack beach stones around them to make it look like they're growing out of crevices, like on the one tank pictured above.