# Ideas for my wall-mounted slim 10g tank...



## Samon (Sep 9, 2013)

Hey all,

I'm doing a full tear-down of my 10g wall-mounted guppy tank (converting from basic gravel to Eco-Complete) and am after some ideas on how to best make use of the unusual tank shape.

It's one of these, which is 1m wide, 0.5m high and 90mm deep. Yes, you did read that right, it's only 3.5" deep:









Here's my attempt at a simple ascii-art diagram 


```
_______________________________________________
\                                             |\
|\                                            | \
| \___________________________________________|__\
|  |                                          |  |
|  |                                          |  |
|  |                                          |  |
|  |                                          |  |
|  |                                          |  | 500mm (20")
|  |                                          |  |
|  |                                          |  |
|__|__________________________________________|  |
\  |                                          \  |
 \ |                                           \ | 90mm (3.5")
  \|____________________________________________\|
                     1000mm (40")
```
Anyway, the tank was initially setup as non-planted tank, with African Cichlids and only rocks and fake plastic plants, but when moving to Guppies i decided to try and add some real plants (with the much easier 7.0 pH) instead.

I've currently got a couple of what I believe to be Bacopa Carolina in there as well as some Anubias Nana on wood.

The tank is mounted on the wall in the middle of the living area, so while it in itself is a feature, I'd love to do all I can to make it look as amazing as possible, in spite of the very narrow depth of the tank limiting the options.

The tank has a Fluval U1 filter (basically the best filter I could find at the time that actually fitted in the tank) and a 125mmx25mm (4"x1") airstone, along with a heater which keeps the temperature fairly stable around 25ºC (77ºF). For lighting, I'm running a CurrentUSA 36" Satellite Freshwater LED+. Obviously anything there can be changed if you guys have some better ideas. Because the tank is mounted on the wall, CO2 etc isn't really an option.

I've probably rambled on a lot there about lots of irrelevant stuff, but figured I may as well try and put in as much information in there so that I can get the best possible advice!

Unfortunately I haven't been able to find too many good examples of planted tanks in this style tank, so hopefully you guys can give me some ideas 

Thanks in advance,

Sam.


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## GimmeGills (Oct 6, 2010)

What about a carpet of Hydrocotyle Japan and let it creep up around the wood? Maybe a node of of Val behind the wood in the corner for contrast? A bushy blyxa on the opposite side with a Rotala rotundifolia tucked behind it for a spot of color...


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## HuntCast (Aug 25, 2013)

I'd forget the fish, and go nuts with the plants. Maybe some shrimp. 3.5 inches is pretty tight, even for a guppy, lol!


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## Scottyhorse (Mar 13, 2013)

I agree, I would switch out the guppies for some nano rasboras, or shrimp. As active as the nano fish are, since they are so small, they should be fine. 

Can you change the background color? I think black would look much better with the silver frame instead of blue. 

I think some white/tan sand, some 'branchy' driftwood (if you can find any to fit, that would be tricky!) with anubias nana tied on it would look nice. Then some Chili Rasboras for a nice bright red contrast. I would try and get the DW to take up about 2/3's of the tank, and starting from the top right corner. That's how I envision it


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## Samon (Sep 9, 2013)

That was just a stock photo that I found on the internet, the background I have on my tank is a much darker 'deep ocean' blue. This photo doesn't really show it that well because of the reflections/lighting, but in person it's a bit darker than it looks in the very bottom right corner here (yes, I know, the tank looks very empty and the Bacopa looks pretty sad at the moment!):










Re: the guppies - do you really think the tank is too small for them? The largest one I've got wouldn't be quite 2" long...

I'm kinda committed to using the Eco-Complete substrate now that I've bought it (it's about $60 for a 9kg/20lb bag here in Australia ).

The driftwood - I'm worried that if I have too much 'hardscape' (rocks, wood, etc) in there, due to the narrow dimensions, I won't be able to get underneath to vacuum the gravel/plants (e.g. if i had something running from say the top right corner to bottom over towards the left)... is this a valid issue? Even a 'branchy' piece would make it very difficult to get down to the bottom with the siphon hose, but I'm probably just being paranoid!

The idea of a carpet of hydrocotyle japan with some val, blyxa and rotala rotundifolia sounds great... now to try and see if any of the aquariums around here stock any of that!


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## Samon (Sep 9, 2013)

Well after hitting up about 6 different aquariums, couldn't find any who had either hydrocotyle japan or blyxa, so just had to make do with what I could get.

Here's the result, with the EcoComplete substrate:










Right-to-left:

Telanthera Rosefolia
Lace Fern
Pongol
(unfortunately I didn't get the name of these 'grassy' plants)
Anubias Nana on wood
Dwarf Babytears
Babytears

Reasonably happy with it for a first attempt at a planted tank


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## JKS (Aug 10, 2013)

> Right-to-left:
> 
> Telanthera Rosefolia
> Lace Fern
> ...


Hi from another Aussie 

I have always loved the look of the wall hanging tanks, I just knew you really shouldn't keep a lot of fish in them.. Shrimp on the other hand has made me re think this tank. 

The grassy plant looks to me like lieaopsis 

I'm sorry to say though that the Pongol is actually mondo grass and won't survive being submerged. 

I think you have done a great job just get rid of the pongol before it starts to rot


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## frenchie1001 (Jun 23, 2013)

look great! 

i am a aussie also, wish i could just nip down to a LFS and come out with such a awesome collection!


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## Seedreemer (Sep 28, 2008)

It's gorgeous! I don't see anything wrong with keeping your guppies. I only see 4 so you don't seem to have overstocked. Really, you did a wonderful job with this.


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## peachii (Jun 1, 2013)

That looks beautiful, nice job on it. You could look for dwarf sag or pygmy chain swords for a kind of similiar look to the mondo grass.


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## AnotherHobby (Mar 5, 2012)

Nice job! I really like that. You did very well with the tricky dimensions!


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## Saxtonhill (Dec 28, 2012)

Good job!


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