Aquarium Design Ideas

My first tall planted aquarium was a 20-gallon extra-high tank. It measures about 20 x 10 x 24 inches, the same as two standard 10-gallon tanks stacked on top of each other. I bought the tank because it was the largest one that would fit in the space I had available.

Tall Planted Aquarium

The next really tall tank I acquired was a 30-gallon. For this tank, I decided to use a large piece of wood to try to fill the space. When using real wood, remember that dry wood swells once it gets wet. I learned this the hard way about 18 years ago, when I used a piece of wood to make a front-to-back border that went from side to side of a 10-gallon tank.

Not long after the tank was filled and the wood started to swell, I heard a crack and the water started pouring. Fortunately, having already had that experience, I didn't repeat it with this aquarium. Though I did find a piece of wood that filled a large portion of the tank, I made sure there was space on all sides for it to expand when it began to soak up water.

In this aquarium I planted jungle val, which is a wide and very long-growing Vallisneria. While it is a cool plant, it is not appropriate in most aquariums because of its incredibly long leaves. The piece of wood was covered with Christmas tree moss to make up the bulk of the vegetation in the tank. Mosses aren't usually too fussy about lighting, though they will grow even more slowly with less light.

Between the depth of the tank and shading of the jungle val leaves, many other plants might not do well with the lack of lighting. This aquarium did quite well and still houses a group of Xiphophorus nezahualcoyotl. I did eventually change the piece of wood to a smaller, fake piece. The original just looked too big for the aquarium.

Aquarium Design Ideas