advice please...

[crazycat]

my 125g has been up for about 6 months. i think it's doing pretty well--but i feel like i've hit an aquascaping plateau. i have a fair variety of plants, but mostly tall ones. i've been trying to get a carpet to grow, but have been having some trouble with an inch of gravel over 2.5 inches of eco-complete. that, and i feel like i'm lacking some color--some variation would be nice. the ludwigia gets nice and red at the top and that's cool, but i have to prune the darn stuff SO often--thes pics are right after as MAJOR pruning (read a 3 gallon bucket full of ludwigia!) i think i need more stuff happening in the foreground. and more density in the lower half--i have enough floating stuff happening...

so i'm asking the aquascaping experts...what do i do from here? how do i make a REAL aquatic garden? keep in mind though--i'm one of those people who like my fish JUST as much as the plants--i spend a lot of time choosing my fish based on personality and aesthetic issues. for instance, i just added some gold dward gouramis b/c i felt that i need more yellow in the tank. i also want some north new guinea blue rainbows or lacustris rainbows for some more blue...or at least some cardinals if i could find them.

so this is my longwinded plea for comments...be forthright, be honest. i have thick skin!

tanks dimensions are 6'L x 2'D x 17"H.
4wpg
injected co2
the rest is in my profile

the whole shebang


left


midleft


midright


right

[crazycat]

ok--how do i get the thumnails to be clickable?

[Hara]

They are automatically clickable when the file is a certain size or more..they clicked for me.

As far as the tank goes, I think it is beautiful, but I can understand how you might want to change it up a bit if it has looked the same for awhile. It looks quite healthy and pretty [acronym:1bc44eb919="In my opinion"]IMO[/acronym:1bc44eb919].

[crazycat]

thanks hara!

maybe the non-clickability is a mac thing! i just see the bb code, the thumnail, but it's not clickable. but you were able to click to get a larger image?

[Hara]

yes I was, and pretty images they were too!

[crazycat]

so you must be on a [acronym:36fe6781fe="Power compact fluorescent"]pc[/acronym:36fe6781fe] darn macs!

[BrianNY]

Me too Cat. No problem with clicking the thumbnails on Windows XP.

One of the things about a planted tank is it's always a work in progress. It's never finally finished. Now to be brutal, your tank has more of a jungle look than an aquascaped look. To avoid this I would reduce the number of background plants.

[Jchillin]

I actually see nothing wrong with the 'scaping Cat. Nice and level as far as I can see. Having a school of fish swimming by makes it even more sweeter.

PS - What did you do with those "buckets" of ludwigia trimmings

[crazycat]

jchillin--i chucked them. want some? i got a few stalks from madasafish and they've just taken over. you're totally welcome to any cuttings from my tank--including some of the crazy stuff that travis sent that's gowing like nuts!

brian--which plants would you get rid of? ooh i just had a thought--there is one--name unknown--midleft tall stalky one--that i could move further back. i've already gotten rid of all the jungle vals... hmmm....

[crazycat]

do i need a background? right now i have nothing and have always like it. but...

whaddaya all y'all think?