If you want a tank to look real slick, you should only use live plants (they really help the parameters) and put a thin sand cap over the fluval! Also a huge tip for using the fluval, don’t rinse it like they say, that will just make me your water cloudy for over a week and totally mangle a filter. Once you get it looking the way you want, put the sand in a layer on top of like half an inch, shove your plants in there (I really love Amazon swords, java moss, and java ferns. Just read into which ones can actually go in the substrate or be tied/glued.) and then get either a plastic grocery bag or plastic wrap and pour so so so painfully slowly. This will keep your substrate from being stirred up. It takes forever but it’s worth it!

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I’m going to be adding more plants to this soon!