# Easy aquascaping for beginner?



## Blackheart (Jul 5, 2011)

So can anyone recommend some easy aquascaping/plants to use in an aquascape, with Eco complete in a 25 gallon?

I heard that a really good easy way to go for beginners is a tank with Dwarf Sag, and Jungle Val?


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## CatB (Jan 29, 2012)

are you going low tech/low light or high tech/high light? either way, you can't really go wrong with java fern and water sprite... super duper easy. if you're going low tech/low light, anubias is another good bet. i've gotten mixed opinions with how it does in high tech/high light, general consensus seems to be that if you're not heavily planted enough to combat algae really well, it'll get eaten up super duper fast. mine's doing okay-ish? but its lower leaves seem to be suffering a bit.
but all those plants get their nutrients from the water column, you could probably do some simple rooted plants if you were using eco complete. most swords seem to be easy, you'd want to go with microsword rather than regular amazon sword, since it gets ENORMOUS. 
oh, also mosses (java moss especially) are pretty simple, if you're interested in them.


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## Blackheart (Jul 5, 2011)

I was planning on going low-tech, and low to medium light.

I wanted to use Dwarf Sag, Java Ferns, Anubias, and a nice large piece of driftwood that I got soaking. But I'm not entirely sure how to plan it all out.


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Those are nice elements. A variety of color and texture really helps. 

I am very fond of my crypt. wendtii. It has been with me for over a decade and grows well in small and large tanks, with loads of light/CO2/fertilizer and low light/CO2/fertilizer. Mine is brown/bronze often with nice markings on the leaves and sometimes the leaves have ruffled edges. A new one to your tank will melt but come back from the roots in a couple weeks.

The very first thing is placement of your main focus. Usually that is the hard scape, probably the wood. Read up on the Golden Mean. That is a classic design principle the ancient Greeks used. Another is the rule of 1/3s. Place important points at 1/3 top to bottom, left to right and your tank will look better. It isn't called dead center for nothing, it really can kill the scape if the focal point is there! 

Look at tank journals and aquascaping forums. Lots of people, especially nano tanks with rocks will post variations of hardscapes.

Another issue is how the plants actually grow. I am still figuring out how some of my plants grow, some of this is experience. Look at lots of tanks using your planned plants. It would probably be a good idea to check out tanks the same size as yours to see what they look like in there.

As well as reading through the scaping forum here for how others have switched up the scape you might want to look at this blog about scaping. Here is one post about an iron man aquascape challenge that might give you some ideas but read further. 
http://www.scapefu.com/2010/11/20/analysis-of-2010-iron-aquascaper-aquariums/

Don't worry too much about it. Try to get some of this into your head and take lots of photos so you can plan your next arrangement once the tank needs rearranging. Even really permanent setups get tweaked a little nearly every time any pruning is done.


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Crypts, water sprite, wisteria, java fern, java moss, lidwigia repens. All grow like weeds for me in my low tech tank. The trick is to pack it full with plants and trim back. Bunch like species together, avoid negative or dead space and trim levels. Once your plants are healthy you will get an idea of what likes to occupy which levels of the water column. I honestly think its also easier to scape on such a small tank with no hard scape at first. It really depends on what you're going for though.


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