# Ned help scaping 55



## Subtletanks91 (May 29, 2013)

Here is the link to better hard scape pictures. http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/album.php?albumid=12353

But I want to do a rescape on my 55 because the plants are just kind of scattered around right now because I haven't had anytime to scape it.

I have 4 pieces of Malaysian wood in there right now. As well as 4 pieces of lace rock.

Plant list includes the following;
Green cobamba
Crypt undulatus 
Crypt nurri
Downoi
Blyxa
Val
Wisteria
Hygro aungustifolia
Amazon sword
Sygno Manaus
Hygro ployssperma
Hygro brown
Some sort of repens
Xmas moss
Onion plants
I think that's it

My current stock list of fish is
4 angels
Two sae
Two Otto
3 nerites
Two female beta
Three balloon mollies
Two forktail rainbows
One pepperd Cory
Two African dwarf frogs
Two red whiptail catfish
One female bn pleco and one metallic halfbeak

I'm not looking to do anything fancy in this tank but I am looking for some sort of plant layout. If I have to get another bag of floramax to do some sloping I could do that. Or if anyone from the bay want to do it for me I would appreciate that haha jk but I am open to all suggestions, some older pics are in my album 55g planted tank, it has pictures of my hard scape in there.


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## Subtletanks91 (May 29, 2013)

Any takers on ideas. I know your out there


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## Meganne (Sep 3, 2012)

a picture with a full view of the tank might get you some response


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## Subtletanks91 (May 29, 2013)

I took multiple segments so it is easier to see, because my phone camera sucks. And there is a link to better pictures of my hard scape.


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## Subtletanks91 (May 29, 2013)

The first picture is the center, the next two are the left side and the fourth is the right side,


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## DogFish (Jul 16, 2011)

If you like the plants you have collected and they all do well, I suggest you consider a Dutch type scape. Loose the driftwood, read up on that style as there are some rules/guidelines on how to do that style.


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## Subtletanks91 (May 29, 2013)

Loose all the driftwood? And thank you it's taken me 7 months to collect a lot of the plant I like. Now how the hell do I scape it haha. I was going to do it today but I don't have no idea how to do it. I was thinking Dutch but. To many rules lol


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## Subtletanks91 (May 29, 2013)

Her is an update, I changed the background out this morning. It wasn't easy considering its against the wall haha


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## DogFish (Jul 16, 2011)

Subtletanks91 said:


> Loose all the driftwood? And thank you it's taken me 7 months to collect a lot of the plant I like. Now how the hell do I scape it haha. I was going to do it today but I don't have no idea how to do it. I was thinking Dutch but. To many rules lol



Sorry, I'm pretty good at laying out a scape, reading minds...not so much. Best of luck with your collection.


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## Subtletanks91 (May 29, 2013)

How would you lay a scape out?


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## Subtletanks91 (May 29, 2013)

Anyone? I am willing to get new hard scape for this aquarium provided with some input on what the layout plan should look like.


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## Luminescent (Sep 13, 2013)

Subtletanks91 said:


> Her is an update, I changed the background out this morning. It wasn't easy considering its against the wall haha


Oh that looks much, much better. I would think about 'weighting' one side of the tank with the bigger pieces of driftwood and the tall bold plants and let plant the shorter and shorter - toward the other end. At the 'short plant' end I would fan out the very short bottom cover plants- the finer more delicate looking. And save one of the more delicate pieces of driftwood for this area too.

So the eye would travel from bold and large - down to a more open swimming space with ground cover. Left to right.


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## Subtletanks91 (May 29, 2013)

I have been thinking about doing that too, but now I'm thinking to drop all thefmalsysian wood, and getting some manzanita that's branchy and sloping the right side of the tank and still having tall plants on the left. Bare bottom middle right. Or will this look at stupid as it does right now


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## Luminescent (Sep 13, 2013)

It doesn't look stupid- your plants are lovely. And it is difficult to work in a 55 because of the width. Just try different things if you aren't happy and don't worry about what other people think.


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## Subtletanks91 (May 29, 2013)

I think it looks kind of ugly. Thank you for the compliment. I do like my plants and they are very lush. But the scape needs a lot of work.


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## Luminescent (Sep 13, 2013)

Well spend more time thinking about it and planning it than doing it.


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## ua hua (Oct 30, 2009)

I think all your plants look really healthy but as far as scaping a 55 I can feel your pain. It's just one of those tanks that is hard to create a scape that looks to scale with such a narrow depth. What I can offer for advice is try to think outside of the box and try things a little different than you would in other size tanks. I have only seen a few 55 gal. tanks that have looked really good as far as the hardscape goes not because the people doing them don't know how to place the hardscape but more of the limited space from front to back in these tanks. I will give you a link to my favorite 55 gal. scape that I have seen on this forum and maybe that can give you some inspiration to try a different approach. If you notice in the pictures how some of the hardscape is right up against the front glass on one side of the tank and the other side has it in the back. Hope this helps you in some way.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=197579


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## Subtletanks91 (May 29, 2013)

That is definatly a good starting point thank you, I like the branches and the way the hard scape is set up it definatly gives it a lot of depth wich as everyone has already said is the hardest part of a 55, I have been considering a 50g because it has more depth to it, but I don't have that kind of money right now. So it looks like I'm going to have to get more dragon stone from Dave, another bag of floramax, and a couple pieces of manzanita and ditch the malaspysian dw. Do you have any other suggestion for me? This is helping me out a lot guys


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## Fish from Philly (May 28, 2013)

Subtletanks91 said:


> That is definatly a good starting point thank you, I like the branches and the way the hard scape is set up it definatly gives it a lot of depth wich as everyone has already said is the hardest part of a 55, I have been considering a 50g because it has more depth to it, but I don't have that kind of money right now. So it looks like I'm going to have to get more dragon stone from Dave, another bag of floramax, and a couple pieces of manzanita and ditch the malaspysian dw. Do you have any other suggestion for me? This is helping me out a lot guys


Hey man - you will be changing the scape little by little every month! Don't worry the details so much yet and just get your skeleton down. The rest will come to you...promise


You can spend a bunch of $$$ to get all new wood but the ones you have are pretty nice! Here are a few suggestions, probably in order of importance:

1. FOCAL POINT - The reason your aquarium is "ugly," as you call it, is because it lacks a focal point. Your tank is not ugly at all though! It's a bit boring mainly due to the distractions of many types of plants and unorganized flow of materials and colors. There is no pattern for how the scene should be viewed so the mind begins to wander and eventually becomes uninterested because nothing grabs attention. Hot colors make the best focal points (red, orange, etc). I suggest you do some research on rule of thirds, golden triangle and golden ratio to give you insight on where to place the focal point. IMO, the DW would be the piece and it should be placed off center to the right (maybe 8" from where you have it now). Rather than having it lay flat across the tank - try setting it up to angle back to give it more depth. The way you have it laying on the lava rock doesn't look very natural. Position it to look interesting and leave the moss so it looks aged - very cool!

2. Less is more - As much as you want to fill the tank with cool pieces of dw and rock, more often than not the tank will look better without it! The open space allows the mind to concentrate on the focal point and helps with the swimming room for fish too. You could do the left to right approach or vice versa and can also do the "V" layout where both sides of tank are lush and as you get toward center of tank, the plants get shorter and eventually all open. The "V" should not be the actual center of tank though - again consider reading up on rule of thirds

3. Planes - You need to establish what is foreground, mid ground, and background planting. You have a lot of plants but need to organize them better. You can leave foreground open like you have it now but fill in the mid ground with medium size plants (your crypts, Blyxa, wisteria) and keep background with the jungle vals, cabomba, onion plants and hygros. Try to plant in odd numbers since it's more natural looking. Continue same background plant throughout. The cambomba grows fast and will likely need to be pruned soon. Cut in half when it gets to top and replant in bunches - eventually occupying most of the back. Plant some of the hygros in front of it. 

Check out the attached pic I made for ya to get idea. What do you think?


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## Subtletanks91 (May 29, 2013)

That's a pretty drawing, and I see it in my head working great. I just ordered more dragon stone and Manzanita though I have had this dw in my tanks for almost 4 years now, used to be cichlids before so it is about due for a change to dry out. IM thinking of incorporating your drawing with a little terrace mg in the left and right hand side. With plants from left to right high to low to medium. And then placing the Manzanita over the edge of the terrace as a fallen tree. What do you guys think.

Thank you much for the drawing that is an amazing help


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## Fish from Philly (May 28, 2013)

I think once you have the materials, you will be playing with it for days if not weeks! If you go to my signature and check out the albums, you'll see my early versions where I tried to do a terrace with fallen tree. 

Just remember about the focal point (only 1! It's only 55 gallon...not 550 gallon) so don't overcrowd with stuff. If you're going to add stone to the mix, then position them on different planes inside the tank so not everything is the same. There is chaos in nature but it shouldn't look like you got a gift certificate to plant store and just bought one of each and planted it. Tie in the left side with the right side by using same plants, rocks, and/or colors. Have fun!


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## Subtletanks91 (May 29, 2013)

Awesome, I'm looking forward to getting the wood and rock so I can plan the rest out according to the pieces I recieve. There are a few plants I will be getting rid of in my tank as they have been an annoyance since I received them


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## Subtletanks91 (May 29, 2013)

So here is my plan from the top view, one ledge with a cave on the left side and two ledges on the right side with a cave under the first ledge. A "river" in the middle wich will be some type of white sand and of course there will be manzanita coming off the ledges acting as a tree would growing off a cliff. The ledges will have moss tuckd between the rocks. Sorry if it isn't right side up


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## Fish from Philly (May 28, 2013)

Cool man. Excited to see it come together 


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## Italionstallion888 (Jun 29, 2013)

I don't agree. In a 55 you have 48inches of length. Which means you can/could have up to 3, if you divide the tank into 3rds. Drift wood right, center, left. Plant around and inbetween to tie it together. You have a lot of green. Throw some rotala macrandra or magent behind it. The green will pop more. Use it to fill in the gaps.


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## Subtletanks91 (May 29, 2013)

I have some red plants and purple cobamba, but it's all green because I don't have bright enough lighting, I just got another 7500k bulb to replace the original colormax bulb my t5 came with.


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## Subtletanks91 (May 29, 2013)

Tomorrow marks day one of rescape, the hard scape placement, and river build. I took the old piece of acrylic water guard for my t5 and cut in half to use as a seperator for my flora max and white sand force he river, but I need to shape it still. 

Manzanita should be in tomorrow as well. This is going to be fun. My fiancé said she wanted to give me a hand, she always has good ideas on how to make things work and she doesn't know much about fish,


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## Fish from Philly (May 28, 2013)

Post some pics! 


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## Subtletanks91 (May 29, 2013)

I'm doing hard scape right now! Unfortunatly my tank is cloudy and I can't resume until it clears up. But the ledges and slopes are in place. I can't place any plants until the manzanita arrives hopefull Tuesday. It should have been here today


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## HSA1255 (Apr 2, 2013)

*ideas...*

I also have a 55 gallon and although challenging, you can create a cool scape. First, google Scapes 55 gallon and find out what you like. You can determine your tastes based on the ones that catch your eye, taking into account the materials you have on hand (such and the plants and rocks). Be realistic because if you have all of those different kinds of plants it would be very hard to create a minimalist tank that works... Based on things you like and the materials you have on hand try mocking up some looks and drawing in plant grouping to get the feel of different layouts. I like the last pic and how it has one long piece of wood and sections for plant growth. I'm sure you would have to take into account how your plants grow in your tank. Consider diff heights/colors/placement along the current path, etc and see what your grouping could create. 

I had tons of rock from when I kept cichlids before, and I transitioned over into a planted tank with schooling fish. I am planning a rescape soon because I want a decent slope and I am going to change the substrate and rocks over to lava rock and substrate that will not affect my parameters. Anyhow, I like using rock and drift wood together... and I am going to work to create as steep as a slope as I can get with my 55 gallon when I rescape because that really appeals to me. You can check out what I have now if you like, the 55 has a profile. Here are a few smaller scaped tanks that have a variety of plants which may help to give you direction;










Many spend hours trimming to obtain their scapes, so once planted it's still a long ways from complete. I'm sure you are familiar with your plants and what they need and what time you want to put into this thing, but hopefully these give you a few ideas. I like the dutch type look with driftwood mixed in. Do what appeals to you. Try for a some depth with slope and large groups of plants (considering how they will grow in). I am interested to see how yours turns out because I am going to do my 55 soon as well.


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## Subtletanks91 (May 29, 2013)

I finished the hear scape slopes and river today and placed some plants in but have to move them around, I'm getting rid of over half of them. Haha, they jsut don't fit into the tank. And when you use plastic dividers to place the sand in and seperate it from the "river" once everything did done do you remove the plastic? 

I'm. It to happy with the side of the stank plant wise but I am happy with my hear scape and river I will be posting pictures later tonight when I upload them.

A 55 is very tough to scape, I like the chaos of my old tank, but the clean look of the new one very much.


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## Subtletanks91 (May 29, 2013)

In case you can't see there is a little cave for my fogs under the left terrace. I like the scape, but plants need to be moved around a bit and definately some red plants added. But what kind? How much? And where?

Right now there is crypt undulata and crypt (uknown) downoi, green cobamba, sygno Manaus, blyxa, s repens soon to be added by the river, onion plant, waiting for the manzanita to add narrow leaf java fern el Nina fern and Xmas moss.


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## Subtletanks91 (May 29, 2013)

Waiting for manzanita  I'm very impatient


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## Fish from Philly (May 28, 2013)

Lol


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## Subtletanks91 (May 29, 2013)

Seriously lol, I order online because I can get more of a variety and quality goods. But waiting is the hardest part


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## Subtletanks91 (May 29, 2013)

Manzanita has arrived woohoo! Thanks pc1. Now after my daughter goes to the doctor and I get my Rx I will be scaping the surest of my tank, timing moss and fern and doing the final placements, one thing I am having trouble with is my sae keep pushing floramax into my white river making it unsightly  what can I do to stop this?. Also what red plants can I use to go with my scape?


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