A mid-size aquarium layout featuring Rainbow shiners and a rainbow of plant colors, 151L, by Jacob Thompson. No hardscape set the depth lines of the frame.
Read the stone and wood (No hardscape) as visual pathways before judging the plant mass. The plant list (Hygrophilia corymbosa, rotala rotundifolia h’ra, ludwigia glandulosa, bylaxa aubertii roban) favors background stem plants; packing the foreground too dense can make the tank feel heavy. Black plastidip background substrate helps stabilize root-zone nutrition in the early weeks.
Fluval 3.0 planted plus to the max lighting sits at a approachable technical level for this mid-size aquarium. Fluval 407 canister filter filtration needs enough turnovers without blasting the hardscape; browse matching filters. Low-tech tip: favor slow growers and avoid dense planting if filtration is modest.
Livestock (14 rainbow shiners and a group of painted fire shrimp) fits this mid-size aquarium — prefer species that will not dig up the substrate and wreck hardscape lines.
Setup notes: Fertilizer is niloug’s ei method dry packets, substrate is black diamond blasting sand
Scroll to the specs table to match each equipment line; more inspiration in 80–162L.
