The Puffer Forum

Hi. This is my new tank. It's an 80 gallon, with two 264 gallon per hour Eheim canister filters, dual 32 inch high output florescent lights, 70 pounds of silica sand over a clay enriched peat carpet, two snake river driftwoods, and two malaysian driftwoods. I plan to establish and cycle this tank with plants for a few months, before adding a school of Oto's, and then a few DP's. I want to keep it understocked.

I could use some aquascaping advice. I love how it looks so far. Giving the puffers places to explore is more important to me than adhering to a certain aquascaping style or biotype. As far as I know DP's don't have a lot of use for open spaces. I can move the malaysian driftwood on the right towards the center or left, to make the left side more dense, and arrange the plants to match, or even add more wood, but I would really love to hear your ideas.

The only thing to remember is that if you can see the back wall, it's not enough! That's always Nick's advice, anyway.

I wouldn't add otos for at least six months.

I like those pieces of wood but I think you should cross them from wither side, making an X out of them. Let's see a pic of how that looks.

DPs like to spawn in Java moss, so you could try attaching some to the wood.

It shouldn't take months to cycle this tank: library/water-filtration/fishlessconsiderations/

I like your driftwood. I would add some plants in between.

you really need to create areaswith plants so that they can make their own territories

There are two problems with turning the smaller piece. I picked this piece with the intention of showing one side, and not the other. I find it looks awkward from the other side. It also has a saw cut visible on the other side. I moved it around at different angles, and didn't like it:


Before I put the largest piece in the tank, I looked at it from both sides, and I preferred this side because of how it's twisted.

So, I moved it back around, but this time closer to the center of the tank to see more criss crossing branches:


For plants, I'm thinking to grow different heights of plants next to each other across the tank, to provide cover for fish at all levels and everywhere in the tank. I haven't seen this in pictures. It may not look fantastic compared to traditional aquascaping, but I think it's what the fish would prefer. I'm not in a big hurry to plant something like java moss, because it's a high maintenance plant to keep under control.

To start, I like dwarf and giant anubias, staggered, to carpet the bottom of the tank, and maybe tied to the malaysian driftwood. I want to plant something this week to get the microorganisms started.

I like the lay out of the wood, My only suggestion would be to lay that heater more vertical, they work better that way

An updated image:


I added dwarf and broad leaf anubias, red tiger lotus, and bacopa monniera. I still want to add more plants when the LFS gets their next shipment.

I would still appreciate more ideas and suggestions.

Taller plants in the back, on the right & left. Tie some java fern to the wood. Plants need to be in odd groupings--3/5/7, not scattered all over the place. I would also move those spray bars, plants don't like all that movement at the surface.

The plants in the back are bacopa monniera. They will eventually reach the surface, then I'll cut them in half and replant the trimmings to make the back thicker. The two back corners have clusters of bacopa monniera to try to hide the intake pipes. I hope the roots of all these get knotted together so the plants are more stable in the sand.

I have 5 red lotus. I read that these get fairly large, so I tried to give them some space. I'm not sure how else to place them.

Updated pictures:


Left side:


Right side:


I added 6 java ferns, and regrouped the red lotus all together.

looking sweet

That looks very healthy

And very clean with very sharp angles

8 Otocinclus were added today.

Beautiful tank. Good luck with the Otos, though maybe you should have waited a little longer before getting them.

Are you planning on getting any moss?

And, because I can't resist saying it: nice avatar picture. I love Bjork. :3