One of the most enjoyable things that you can do is creating your own aquarium ornaments. When designing and creating the interior of the tank you need to be conscious of the type of fish you will be placing in there. Are they the type of fish at that are a bit shy and need to hide somewhere or are you going to have school fish that travel in groups?
What to select and what not to select, how do you pick? Well you can create the type of tank that has a mix of everything, this will ensure that no matter what type of fish you select they will all be happy in your tank.
Here are some thoughts on how to set up your aquarium décor.
Creating The Natural Look With Rock And Timber
Lets start at the bottom and work our way up. You need to have some gravel at the base of the aquarium. There are many colours that you can select for your gravel, the colour itself does not really matter as they are made to match your other decorations any way.
After you have purchase the gravel, you must soak it in warm water to eliminate any dust before placing it into the aquarium. Big ornamental rocks can either be bought or collected in nature. Driftwood can also be found or purchased.
Photo By Sean Welton
You must clean both the rocks and driftwood completely before putting them in an aquarium. The best way to do this is to scrub them both with clean water, and boil the driftwood to destroy any bacteria or other organisms. When designing the layout smaller pieces are best at the front of the tank and the larger and taller pieces are best at the back. You can even assemble the pieces to form caves for the fish to hide in
Natural or Plastic Plants And Weeds
Plants or weeds are great aquarium ornaments as they create more interest in the aquarium décor. These plants or weeds can be plastic or they can be live. Do not select many plants or weeds for your tank because you do not want it to overpower the landscape. And remember that you will need to leave enough room for your fish to swim. So, just pick a few plants. Remember that live plants will require more attention and maintenance that plastic plants.
Selecting The Background
The next step is to pick a background for you tank. Most aquarium stores generally have some really nice aquatic backgrounds to select from. Select a background that will go with your tank gravel or vice versa. The background design is normally taped to the backside of the tank and this enhances the beauty of the interior look and feel of the aquarium décor.
The opportunities are limitless when decorating your home aquarium just let your imagination take over. The main thing to remember is that the fish will need to swim around the decorations so don’t over decorate it sometimes the simpler the aquarium the better it looks.