Buying plants is one of my addictions...that being the case I really am getting bummed that I am running out of room in my tank for new additions. I started out with hygro, an amazon sword, and some java moss. The hygro takes off quickly and helps with the initial algae bloom by using up excess nutrients. Now I am getting into more hard to grow plants such as glosso, diplidis diandra, etc. I like a tank to have many different textures and colors side by side. I also like a few big plants but mainly go with smaller ones so I can pack lots of different ones in and get a more visually appealing end product. I like carpets in the foreground. I put echinodorus tenellus, lillaeopsis, crypt wendtii, and dwarf sag in clumps in the front of my tank and let them grow together. It really looks nice and natural now. On the sides I put in some large stem plants (sunset hygro, bacopa carolinia, rotalla, etc) and let them go wild. This makes a nice jungle which really frames in the tank. I put a large amazon sword in the back of the tank off centered and am glad that I only used one. Its really big now! I have some rocks and wood piled in the middle for caves that my cats and pleco like to hide in during the day. I let the java moss cover them and it looks really nice now. My shrimp are always on top of it preening anything they find that dosent belong....
Here is a pic of what it looked like about a month ago...
Here is a pic of what it looked like about a month ago...