SergioTheFishDude

I started getting into making a planted tank about 3 months ago and while my plants are all growing fine, I'm just not really happy with the way it looks. Here are my current specs:


125gph HOB Marineland Canister Filter
40 watt stock Aqueon Flourescent Tube Light (Which I'm going to replace at some point)
Hagen Co2 Unit (Can't really specify much more than that, I'll include pics)
Flourish Plant Food
1.5" of Flourite covered by an inch of gravel


Fauna:

2 Juvie Discus (Will eventually buy a bigger home and more discus for them)
An Armada of Ghost Shrimp
1 Red Crystal Shrimp

Flora:

Several Hyogrophilia Difformis
2 "Broad Leaf" Ludwigia Repens
1 Vallisneria Spiralis
1 Java Fern
1 Green Myrio
Several Mystery plants sold to me as a Rotala Indica


Some Pics (Taken with my 5mp phone camera so bear with me):



^Mystery plants are on the far left and far right. If someone could ID them that'd be wonderful, since I do rather like them.




^ I hate this [profanity] Myrio. It's attracted to the flow put by the output of my filter and in the process, almost completely covers the wisteria next to it. I barely got it about a week ago and I'm about ready to pull it out.




^ Poor guys, I spooked them when I turned the tank light on after "lights out"




^ This thing keeps my water perfect but it has so much flow I'm debating whether or not I should put the original stock Aqueon Mechanical filter back on.


So yeah, in essence, I was hoping someone could kinda help my fix some of the aquascaping errors I might have done (as far as focal points, depth, and all that good stuff) and recommend some fuller background plants that would work in my set-up. I had a Riccia Fluitans carpet starting to grow through the mesh I had in the foreground, however, today when I tried putting some floating riccia back under the mesh, wads and wads just flew out. Long story short, I got so frusterated trying to "fix it" that I took my entire foreground out, tossed it in my QT and vowed to never work with that plant again. So yeah, I think I might try my hand at Echinodorus tenellus soon.

davemonkey

With the low light you have, a great plant assortment would include many Java Ferns and Anubias. As your plants fill in they will absorb much of the flow energy, so I would not reduce filtration. The plant you received as R. indica is likely mis-ID'd. The most common plant sold under that name is actually Rotala rotundifolia. But I can not tell from the photo what those plants are. Are they the same as in your next-to-the-last pic with the Discus? If so, that's neither R. indica nor R. rotundifolia.

SergioTheFishDude

After realizing that instead of having 40watts, the hood I had actually only had a 17 watt flourescent bulb. So I saved up a bit and 2 weeks ago, bought myself a 36" T5 HO dual flo bulb light over my tank =D. I'm basically going from 0.9wpg to 2.7wpg.

I now have two 39w bulbs, one 34" ZooMed 6500k Daylight bulb and one 34" ZooMed 5000k "Plantgro" bulb. I've got a lot of blue in both and some pretty good reds in the 5000k bulb so I'm pretty satisfied. I also:

1. Removed the Java Fern on the driftwood and moved it to another tank, replaced it with a little rock cave.
2. Bought some Sagittaria Sublata for the foreground, although they haven't really grown too much.
3. Sold my 2 juvie Discus (Loved the little guys but I can't get a bigger tank by saving up my unemployment checks ={) and got some Cardinals.
4. Added some more Hygrophilia Difformis that were kinda growing horizontally before so I think they create a bit of a contrast in my background.
5. Removed my background, it was pissing me off. Anyways, pictures!

• A FTS:

• Another FTS, hopefully a little clearer:

• The right side of my tank, with my driftwood kinda on the right side where I'm hoping it'll kinda create a focal point. I plan on growing Fissidens Fontanus on it once I make a pilgramage to Aqua Forest Aquarium (in SF) over the weekend.

• Not sure Val. Spiralis was a great choice, I wanted to move the Repens I had by the filter intake to something that's not gonna get sucked into it but it's pretty much been slowly dying over the last month. Hopefully with my new light fixture I'll some fuller growth from this section of the tank, where I was kinda hoping for a really bushy effect.

• I saw this rock at a LFS n I decided it might make a good rock cave for my German Blue Rams. I'm gonna take some cuttings from a couple of Java Ferns I have in another tank and tie them all over the rock, so it's eventually fully covered by many different ferns. That way it won't be distract from the driftwood I have next to it. Well, that's the plan at least:

Any ideas or suggestions? I'm still having a little trouble trying to get the basics of Aquascaping down so any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

PS: Davemonkey, by now I've realized it's neither R. Indica or R. Rotundfolia, however, I still have no idea what it is. Either way, I'm probably going to toss it as even though I've upped my lighting/ferts, it's still withering away.

clzb

When I look at the tank, my eye is drawn to the nice piece of driftwood. I would not cover its interesting texture with moss. I suggest covering the rock with the fissidens, and putting a Java fern on the back side of the wood. The shape of the wood draws my eye up and to the left. You'll want to have the left side of the tank draw the eye down and back to the right. This will keep the eye moving around the the tank so that the wood and rock won't seem like the center of a target. A broad-leaf plant would add some nice contrast.
~Just my two cents worth.

Enrique

Congrats on your new lights bro!
Your tank looks great with those new light.

I would like to also add my two cents,
The driftwood looks great right where its at, good focal point.
BUT I would suggest re-arrenging the plants.
I think your plants would look great if all your medium sized plants where arranged behind the drift would.
Like a U. Do you know what I mean? After that, I THINK the taller plants
Would look great if they were placed tallest from the far back right and then place shorter ones
To the left. Like a triangle with the smallest angle to the left and then the bigger side to the right.
And I would suggest moving the grass to the far front left. The drifwood looks to great to be covered.
I do hope you can get an idea of what I mean.

Great fish choice. Both Neon tetras and Bolivian Rams are awesome fish.