I’ve finished the first leg of my extensive fish tank re-design, and I’m kind of proud of it. I tore the tank apart, replace the plants, got rick of all the rock formations.

We scoured the pasture (Maria did most of the scouring) for the right shape and width of rocks (all our decorations are natural).

I went onto wetsmart.com, by far the best aquatic plant source I’ve ever used. (A shipment got lost in the mail, and they sent me another immediately, no charge, even though it wasn’t their fault and I tried to pay.)

They have a great range of natural plants in many categories and their customer service is flawless. I ordered some Vallisneriajungle plants as an aquarium backdrop, you can see them in the photo.

I cleaned out the stone pebbles and added some new ones. I got some slate rocks.

We went through a hundred before I found the ones I wanted.

I made an arch sculpture with (the fish love to swim through arches) and bought a blue ceramic bowl, put some plants in it and put it on the bottom of the tank.

It adds color and character to the tank. Maria, the true artist, and designer, loves my design – this makes me proud.  She’s the real deal.

The fish and snails are happy too, they love the Vallisneria.

I like the simplicity of the design and the fact that everything is natural.

The ceramic bowl adds a surprising but still natural element and the rich blue color stands out. Thanks to wetplants.com, I finally found the rich thick and tall backdrop I wanted. So this is my tank design. I must admit I loved doing it.

I should also say it was much harder than I thought and took much longer than I thought it would. And it was a lot more fun than I imagined.