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Phil Edwards · 10-22-2008, 12:17 PM

Chuppy,

Looking pretty good there! I like the way you've grouped your plants, the effect is well balanced.

A few things I noticed:
1) Your stems look malnurished and stunted. Try increasing your nitrogen and calcium supplimentation. The N will help them beef up a bit more and the calcium is good for the new growth.

2) The A. nana 'petite' directly to the left of the B. japonica needs to be moved or it'll get overpowered. Shifting it to the other side of the wood will help with that, will make a nice visual demarcation between the Blyxa and Elatine, and will create a continuous grouping of that lovely little plant. I think you said you had moved it, but your most recent photo doesn't show it.

3) Moving the Valisneria two inches to the right will make for a more effective visual focus. Right now it's pretty much dominating the tank. Its central placement isn't as visually effective as it could be, especially with the right to left diagonal line created by your wood. Placing it behind your H. polysperma and then trimming the poly to slope up toward the right rear corner will make a nice layering effect that will add even more depth of view to your aquascape.

4) To create even more layering, moving the L. aromatica back into the left rear corner and placing the Crypts where the Limnophila is now will create even more layering once you get the Limnophila in a solid bush. This will also hide the sparse lower portions of the Limnophila stems and effectively use the shade created by the stems.

Bushing out your stems in the corners will hide your hardware too.

10-22-2008, 12:17 PM	#42 (permalink)
Phil Edwards Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Smyrna, GA Posts: 1,366 iTrader Ratings: 2 iTrader Positive Rating: 100% Plant Points: 19300	Re: 28 gal Bow Chuppy, Looking pretty good there! I like the way you've grouped your plants, the effect is well balanced. A few things I noticed: 1) Your stems look malnurished and stunted. Try increasing your nitrogen and calcium supplimentation. The N will help them beef up a bit more and the calcium is good for the new growth. 2) The A. nana 'petite' directly to the left of the B. japonica needs to be moved or it'll get overpowered. Shifting it to the other side of the wood will help with that, will make a nice visual demarcation between the Blyxa and Elatine, and will create a continuous grouping of that lovely little plant. I think you said you had moved it, but your most recent photo doesn't show it. 3) Moving the Valisneria two inches to the right will make for a more effective visual focus. Right now it's pretty much dominating the tank. Its central placement isn't as visually effective as it could be, especially with the right to left diagonal line created by your wood. Placing it behind your H. polysperma and then trimming the poly to slope up toward the right rear corner will make a nice layering effect that will add even more depth of view to your aquascape. 4) To create even more layering, moving the L. aromatica back into the left rear corner and placing the Crypts where the Limnophila is now will create even more layering once you get the Limnophila in a solid bush. This will also hide the sparse lower portions of the Limnophila stems and effectively use the shade created by the stems. Bushing out your stems in the corners will hide your hardware too.