Plant Placement

[Discomafia]

New picture uploaded... The tank has been like this for a couple of weeks. Am thinking of moving some of the Rotala indica to the right wall, kinda like what the val is doing for the left wall. The reason for this is the rasboras frequently crowd over in that area... Might be because they can see their reflection on the glass? I'm also trying to hide all my tank equipment (filter intake, thermometer, CO2 diffusor) so a lot of my plant placement will reflect that...

I'm now running 25 watts of light only, as my 2x30w light fixture is not working atm. Helped reducing the amount of algae I've been noticing recently, and I'm feeding even less so that's contributing too. Would have appreciated the extra 60w of lighting for my lotus, I would have really liked for it to grow vertically.

 

[Jen]

is it just me... or is there no picture??? lol

 

[Boxcar Muzzdogg]

That is a kick ass peice of driftwood

 

[Discomafia]

is it just me... or is there no picture??? lol

Try refreshing the page. Or maybe my image hosting website was down when you were trying...

That is a kick ass peice of driftwood

Thanks, my BN pleco shares your sentiments. I'm still trying to grow more much java fern on it...

 

[Discomafia]

New pic, just updated. Can someone help me ID the new red plant on the left?

Any comments/suggestions with new layout?

 

[George Farmer]

Can someone help me ID the new red plant on the left?

I think it's either Myriophyllum tuberculatum (Red) or Cabomba furcáta (C. piauhyensis). Both quite demanding in terms of light and CO2.

My suggestions - For me there is too much open space in the centre of your tank. The woods look too prominant and central, detracting from the planting. Personally I would spread out your background plants a little more, the right stem plant (Rotala) would look better filling out the right third of the background and your Vallis could be distributed across the left a little more. You may be better moving your new left red stem plant more centrally where it can get more light. Some foreground planting would improve things too. Good luck with the algae.

What's the plant in front of the Vallis?

 

[Discomafia]

Thanks for the ID, will check out tropica's database later to make sure just what I have. I know that red plants demand more light and CO2, so no surprise there I guess.

I removed the stones in the foreground to create an open space in the centre of the tank, it allows me to observe my cories better. I think I'll concentrate on changing my background and the driftwood for now, as I like the open space.

So your suggestion is to place the red stem plant in the middle of the vallis and rotala, which should be spread out across the background more? I'll try it out later when I do my w/c. I'll also move the driftwood more to the right.

Really not too sure what to do about foreground planting though... All I have is some Cryptocoryne wendtii in front of the rotala, and some Cryptocoryne beckettii below the driftwood on the left.

The plant in front of the vallis is Ludwigia repens.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[Discomafia]

I have identified the red plant as Myriophyllum tuberculatum. Thanks for that bit of info gf225!

Added an old piece of driftwood I had, as I felt that after moving the Myriophyllum tuberculatum to the middle, the left looked empty. I know the amazon swords will get too big for my tank, but I got five plants for really cheap, plus I thought it provided a good contrast. I'll try to make sure it doesn't grow too uncontrolable with some help from jimbooo's thread, but if it does, I'll remove a few of them or give them away...

Also thought it'd be a good idea to keep it there because it could provide some shade for my Cryptocoryne wendtii ''brown'', as hair algae grows on it if it's planted in too bright an area.

Waiting for the stem plants, vallis and amazon sword to grow a bit and fill out the tank, and I'm sure this aquascape will look good in a month or two. Also spread out the rotala on the right so it fills out the right third of the tank... Plan to keep the ludwigia repens in the front of the Myriophyllum tuberculatum trimmed, sort of like a bush, sort of like what it is right now.

Also, should I re-incorporate the hairgrass like foreground plant (Echinodorus tenellus? Sagittaria subulata?) that I had in previous pics? And if so, where? I'm also thinking of removing the java fern from the driftwood on the right.

As usual, all critisism appreciated.

 

[Discomafia]

update

 

[lljdma06]

I'm not going to comment much, since my tank leaves much to be desired with regard to composition. Right now, I'm just trying to grow healthy plants without algae. I agree with the prevalence of uniform plant height, and gf's assessment of too much open space.

In addition, if you are going to combat the algae, you might need to have a higher plant density than you currently have.

 

[Discomafia]

where's the pic???

First post, you can look at the progression there...

I'm not going to comment much, since my tank leaves much to be desired with regard to composition. Right now, I'm just trying to grow healthy plants without algae. I agree with the prevalence of uniform plant height, and gf's assessment of too much open space.

In addition, if you are going to combat the algae, you might need to have a higher plant density than you currently have.

Excuse the cloudy pic because I had to take out the equipment.

Can't do any algae combatting since I'm treating for ich right now as a result of my heater which just stopped working last weekend. As a result, I've added some airstones and lowered the water level to get
more surface agitation. So as you know, there's no point injection CO2 right now.

Added egeria densa (background left plant) and removed Myriophyllum tuberculatum (red plant in middle background) as it wasn't going well. No doubt because of insufficent CO2 and nutrients. Lighting also possibly...

It's hard to get stem plants and plant it so it fits in with the aquascape, but that is my aim at the moment, because I want to give the plants the upper hand.

Also trying to work on improving colour contrast in plants and I'm especially looking foward to ideas on that. I am trying to follow the guidelines in this thread which outlines some of Amano's aquascaping pointers...

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showto...110063&hl=amano

Thanks for looking guys!!