33G: New Tank, New Aquascape

A few weeks ago, I posted some pictures of the new aquarium stand I had built for my GLA 33G rimless aquarium. Well, I finally got around to actually setting up and aquascaping this tank. One of my goals was to keep this aquascape fairly minimalistic. Therefore, I originally planted the entire tank with only one plant, Ranalisma rostrata. Then, after looking at it a few days, I decided to add Staurogyne repens around the base of the rock.

After another few days, I thought the background needed some taller grass sloping up to the large rock, so I added some Blyxa japonica. Then, I went too far, and planted some Myriophyllum mattogrossense to the right of the rock. I’m going to pull out this plant, as I think the aquascape will be more striking with clean rock lines there. I may stick a little bit of Blyxa japonica there so that just a few grassy tips are visible, but I will need to experiment with how that looks.

Now, I’m just waiting for all of the plants to fill in and bush out. I really like the dimensions (25″x18″x18″) of this particular aquarium, as it’s basically like aquascaping half of a 75G. I have always complained how it’s easy to get one side of a larger tank looking great, but it’s hard to design an equally awesome second half to complement the first. Well, with this tank, I can simply worry about one side. What do you think of the aquascape so far? Comments/critiques welcome!