My Planted Tank

[Mo_loves_fish]

First off sorry for some of the bad quality photos to get good coloring i cant use the flash because id doesnt show the colors of the tank well, and there for the pic isnt precise.

OK. So hear are some of the first shots from when i first put the plants in the tank:

Here is recent shots. Notice how ug the plant on the right has grown in about a month:

Today i just got these Floraglow lights. they make the water a little darker almost. heres a pic of that:

also this plant below, i wanted to know if i could cut them in half and grow more?

 

[Mo_loves_fish]

What shoul i add/ rearage and do with this tank??

 

[nicklfire]

Well what i would do is find a nice piece of show driftwood, you'll probably pay a good penny for it.. but it's worth it. You gotta figure out exactly what your design plan is aswell because right now it just looks like a bunch of plants stuck in there with no care for design. You have to destinguish your foreground, mid, and background with your plants. Different plants are made for different spots.. Take a look at a bunch of peoples designs that you like and try to copy there ideas, that's the best way to describe it. This is the hardest part about a planted tank i been doing this for years and still dont have it down lol. Keeping plants in bunches of it's own species is a great idea too... I'm sure others will put there input in aswell

 

[Mo_loves_fish]

thank you. very helpful. i agree too. It looks messy. any certain plants you know of that frow fast and make a good backroud? Im looking for like colors in the brighter green instead of darker green.

 

[Themuleous]

Looks good

Sam

 

[Mo_loves_fish]

specific sugestions of types of plants would help.

also good online stores to buy plants from??

 

[Dave Spencer]

First off, it is hard to tell from such small photos, but I think the variegated plant that you moved from the left hand side of the tank to a more central position is non aquatic.

I would level off the substrate line at the front of the tank, as it is a bit distracting whilst it is undulating.

What you need to do is to use plants of varying height to create a fore, mid and back ground. Easy background plants are the likes of Rotala sp and Ludwigia sp.

The mid ground could be made to look more interesting with the use of wood with Anubias sp and Microsorum sp attached to them.

The mid ground is a very important, but often overlooked part of an aquascape. Too many tanks have a low lying fore ground, with a transition straight in to tall stem plants at the back. This is what is known as field in front of wall syndrome, and using hardscape is a good way to avoid it. Your rocks are probably doing this for you already.

Take a look on the site below. It gives a good idea of what plants are easy to grow, and a rough idea of how high they get.

http/www.tropica.com/default.asp

Dave.

P.S. failing all of this, do as nicklfire suggests and copy an aquascape you like. Take a look in the journals section at the top of the planted forum.

 

[nicklfire]

Yea it's definately a tough thing to do. You see all these guys that create awesome things on there first attempt. But to there aid, they have been doing this for a long long time with alot of mistakes.. sometimes costly ones You definately learn over the years, the more you play around with things the more experience you get. I been doing this for about 5-6 years now and been REALLY into it.. i been part of this forum since 04 lol ... you learn with trial and error and guys around you

 

[Mo_loves_fish]

You guy are very help ful!

i thank you a ton. Yeah this is my first truly planted tank.

im gunna do some research on plants, then redo the tank.

Ill post pics here. ( ill make them bigger this time. That was myfirst time posting pics here haha.)