210G 7ft aquascape critique / help

[canlax]

This tank has been running about a month now and most of the plants are starting to show decent growth after their acclimation period.

Plants currently in the tank are:

Water Wisteria
Vals
Aromatica
Cabomba
Bacopa monnieri
Crypts (forget which kind)
Dwarf Sag
Hygro (2 kinds, forget the names)
Rotala
Java fern
Anubias gigantea
Floating pennywort
Cardamine Lyrata
Ludwigia (not sure the type)
A little bit of Rotala (unsure of the type again)

I would like some feedback on my aquascape so far. This is my first planted tank attempt so I would like to get a good start before I have too much growth. I am also using soil substrate so don't want to be rescaping later.

Awkwardly placed rocks are on driftwood until it sinks on it's own (hopefully)

If you have any additional plants you recommend to help the tank 'pop' by all means please make your suggestion

Thanks for looking Sorry for the poor picture quality once it starts looking good I will go for high res photos to show it off!

Full Front

Left side

Right side

[l8nite]

That long piece of driftwood is going to get lost in your plants pretty quickly. Also, are your plants on the far left corner getting enough light? They seem pretty dark in the picture.

[canlax]

The vals on the left side are shooting runners so I assume the lighting is adequate (maybe not optimum but as long as I have healthy growth I am happy).

I spent a good couple hours searching for a piece of driftwood I liked and that long was the only one I could find worthy of the tank. I like the middle knot for growing java fern but am aware it will disappear - it looks like most people lose sight of rocks/driftwood if they let things grow out.

What are the effects of switching out driftwood in an established tank if I choose to change it later?

[thelub]

no real effect except new tannins might appear depending on if its new wood or previously used.

[scapegoat]

rocks don't look natural. I'd put them under the drift wood.

[thelub]

Originally Posted by scapegoat

rocks don't look natural. I'd put them under the drift wood.

Originally Posted by canlax

Awkwardly placed rocks are on driftwood until it sinks on it's own (hopefully)

[scapegoat]

Originally Posted by thelub

whoops!

[canlax]

haha yes the rocks will be moved hopefully sooner than later. I made the mistake of leaving the driftwood in the garage when I bought the tank. I should have resubmeged them in a rubbermaid container but oh well.

I haven't gotten much negative feedback yet so is it safe to say this is a good start? I see so many amazing aquascapes within this forum but sometimes it is hard to understand how it was created until you start doing it for yourself.

[ETK]

Looks like a fun challenge. I can only imagine how hard it is to aquascape a large tank.

I think you need battle the symmetry a little. Having one long piece of wood, even at an angle, will probably look too symmetrical to appear natural. I like the Amano school of thought where a lot of tanks have focal points at about 2/3 from one side of the tank.

I think the trick is to battle our tendency to space things out evenly and create order. I like tanks that look more natural and include some contrast between density and space.

Another interesting approach is to create one high side and one low side. Cut, break, or bury about 1/3 or the log, and then create a beach with gound cover and/some open space on one side of the tank, and more densely planted, taller plants on the other side. This is a random online image of an assymetrical tank: