Aquascaping suggestions

[TTKarl]

Ok, so I'm fairly new to this whole aquascaping thing. I'm really just looking for any suggestions.

26 Bow
DIY CO2
65w PC
EI Fertilizing

 

[WaterPond]

i'd say you have figured out how to aquascape all by yourself. Great job!

 

[Mosaic]

I'd agree. Great balance. You just need to let it fill in!

 

[travis simonson]

You've done an excellent job with very few plants. I like the Anacharis in the background and the open space on the right. Your foreground should fill in well with the E. tenellus in time. I can see you have some shorter plants in the right background but they aren't too thick right now. I would recommend letting them grow so that they form a sort of triangle in the background, with the Anacharis high in the left corner and sloping down to the right, leaving an open spot in the upper right corner.

The wood looks good and does a nice job of hiding the base of the stem plants in the background. Just let things fill in and then take another look at it to see if there's anything you'd like to change. Nice work

 

[WaterPond]

oh yeah.... welcome to AA, forgot to include that in my post

 

[travis simonson]

Yes, sorry, I didn't see that this was your first post. Thanks WaterPond Welcome!

 

[rich311k]

Welcome to AA!! I think your tank is off to a fine start.

 

[TTKarl]

Wow thanks everybody. I guess everyone is a little critical of their own tank. I definitely need to work on my photography skills but that's a another conversation in itself.

The shorter plants are wisteria and Ludwigia Repens. I think the Repens should come in thick. The wisteria on the other hand I've never really had good luck growing it to any height. What do you guys think of covering the wood with java fern or riccia?

 

[travis simonson]

You've got a natural eye for layout. I'll be interested to see how this tank develops. Again, nicely done

 

[Purrbox]

If you're looking for a challenge try the Riccia, however if you want some that will grow fairly easily and not require a lot of maintenance go with the Java Fern. There are several mosses that you could try that would be more work than the Java Fern, but still easier than the Riccia. I'd recommend that you leave some areas of the driftwood visible if you go that route, it's a nice piece with some interesting and I'd hate to see lost under a pile of plants.

 

[Mosaic]

Wow thanks everybody. I guess everyone is a little critical of their own tank.

Prepare yourself now to never be satisfied.

I think you should leave the driftwood alone. I really like your hardscape like it is. I'd be a shame to hide it

 

[zenkatydid]

actually, the thiong that bugs me the most is all the equipment that's in view. if there's anyway you can hide it behind things or minimise the stuff that's in there, that would improve it hugely.

 

[TTKarl]

Funny you should say that. I was just looking into a different diffusor. Any suggustions? I'm also not a huge fan of the spraybar that comes with the XP2. Any suggestions on replacements?

 

[travis simonson]

I use one of these on each of my canisters and they are absolutely great. They're like LEGO sets for tank plumbing. They come with so many parts to use that you can put them together in thousands of possible configurations. I will definitely be using them in the future

 

[FMJnaX]

Hard to tell if Java Moss on the wood or a Riccia foreground would be too much. The moss would be the easiest to work with, but I don't know if covering your hardscape would be an appeal or distaste. I, personally, like the look of your wood.

You can use the plastic knitting grid stuff to make Riccia easy, however. Just sandwich the Riccia in between two pieces, sewn or stapled together, and let it grow. You can then move/remove it to suit your needs.

I tend to like letting things grow in a bit before adding new plants. It lets me really see where I need to put my focus. I like to design my 'scape to where I get an even amount of attraction, meaning "where does my eyes focus first". Currently, in your tank, my eyes move to your plumbing first. This may decrease a lot after a little bit of grow-out time.

Bottom line, I would let it grow out a bit. Aside from the plumbing (which you already know about), it looks pretty good to me!

 

[zenkatydid]

can you put the spraybar on the side of the tank instead of the back? that way you would only see a tiny bit of it. and the co2 diffusor could go in the bottom left back corner, behind the hardscape and stem plants, if you can fit it.

 

[TTKarl]

Well unfortunatly the spray bar will not fit on the side of the tank. That's why i was asking about replacements.

Travis. I checked out that link, looks like that could be the answer to my problems. Do you know what the differnce is between the starter system and a expansion kit?

I could probally get the diffusor in the left rear corner. I've found that I get a better bubble rate the higher the diffusor is. I guess the water pressure causes the diy to have to build up more pressure?

As far as the hardscape goes i think i'm just going to leave it for now and see where it goes once everything fills in.

 

[plecoperson]

Holy cripes-that is a gem of a tank. I agree that the hardscape is a very nice feature, and I too would try to leave it exposed as the tank grows in.

From what I have seen here with the plantpeople, no one is ever satisfied with their layout, no matter how jaw-dropping. The closest we get is "I think the tank looked best at this point in time. Five minutes later I ripped out the whole right side and re-did it with....."

It would be interesting to see how planted tanksmiths scored on a personality test....!

 

[kickeralpine]

welcome to A A very nice looking tank. i would leave the driftwood alone looks really good. keep us up to date as it fills in

 

[TTKarl]

Ok, so I figured out the spraybar thing and moved it to vertically sit in the corner. The CO2 reactor is a real pain though. Hopefully I'll be going pressurized in april and i can try something different.