OK....it's been a while since I've updated this thread. I've been really busy this summer so I haven't done much with the tank but I've had some ideas floating around in my head. So finally last night I tore everything out and completely redid the tank. It definitely needs to grow in a little but I think in a couple of weeks it will start to look good. I made a concerted effort this time to keep a significant open area in the foreground, which I hope will soon be covered in a variety of foreground plants (I was missing this in the last scape). Right now I have 1 Pogostemon helferi, a patch of Elatine triandra, various small crypts, a bit of dwarf hairgrass left, and some M micranthemoides, so once they get going it should fill in nicely. I found the large piece of driftwood on the left in a lake in NH earlier this summer, it dried out and hasn't quite re-sunk yet, hence the rocks holding it down. I hope to get some moss growing on it once the rocks leave. The only plant that I did not pull out and move is the large ozelot sword in the center.
OK, pictures: the tank before....the overgrown jungle look:
Step 1: remove the plants on the left, add new driftwood (it looks way bigger in the tank!)
Starting to add plants back in on the left and center. Haven't touched the right side (the fish appreciated having a place to hide). Added some granite, also from NH....looks a lot whiter than I expected. Oh well.
Tank complete! Whole tank shot. Water is still a little cloudy.
Left side: H zosterifolia, L repens, tiger lily, Bacopa caroliniana, Crinum calamistratum, Crypt becketii (to the right of DW), Aponogeton crispus, Rotala wallichi hiding in back. P helferi and Elatine triandra in the front. Ozelot to the right.
Center: Ozelot, Limnophila aromatica, a bit of H polysperma ceylon, Crypt wendtii "green gecko", M micranthemoides in front (looks a bit pale)
Right: Myrio mattogrossense, narrow leaf java fern (who says JF is low light???), Ludwigia arcuata, Hygro salicifolia, another tiger lotus, Crypt parva, Bacopa monnieri, Hygro tropic sunset
Tank view from couch!