I'd have to see a picture of a tank with both tall vals and tall swords, cause in my mind they don't mix together well. But yeah, that's definitely the easiest solution.
Maybe I could shift away from the central clump to a wider look with the swords covering the back on one side and the vals on the other. I'd probably need to inject the CO2 to go that route though, to ensure that I got half a tank's worth of tall enough swords.
I have always loved the look of
this. If not for the stupid centered overflow I could totally see myself making the 5 foot long version of that. I like how it still leaves plenty of open sandy space in front.
Last night I decided to turn on one 65w 10000k bulb and it really makes the plants look a lot brighter and healthier (the 150w I run are all 9325k - the fish look best in that). It's half of a 2x65 with one end burnt out, so it's only running on the right side, over the tall swords. I wonder if that extra 65w will lead to any problems with algae, or a significantly greater demand for ferts. (The problem with just experimenting is that if I do end up with algae all over them, I eventually have to trim them, and then I'll be out of tall leaves because the slow growth won't have the new ones caught up.) Now I'm starting to lean back towards setting this all up...