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Need some advice with scape

9K views 54 replies 23 participants last post by  three105 
#1 ·
Hey everyone and thanks for taking a look at my scape!

Let me give the basics real quick:
- 72 gallon bowfront
- 108watt 6700K T5HO lighting for 10 hours
- Milwaukee SMS pH controller set to 6.8 which runs at about 2.5 bps
- Eheim 2026 on the right side
- Eheim Ecco 2234 with inline Aqua Medic 1000 Co2 reactor
- Aquariumplants.com own substrate
- No fert dosing other than Excel from time to time


I took this picture on monday after moving the driftwood to the left (had it in the middle) and moving all the plants around and trimming quite a bit.



Did I perhaps put the driftwood too far to the left? It seems to me that the left side is more red and the right side is more green and there is a clear dividing line between the two colors. Someone suggested that I try Wisteria as a foreground plant but I am finding that they come loose pretty easily so I need another recommendation for a foreground plant.

I will get more recent pictures up when its dark out so that I don't have too many reflections.

But please let me know what you guys think of it, am I on the right track..anything? This is my first "official" scape I would say, before this I just threw in plants and watched them grow in.

Thanks!
 
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#28 ·
You need to move that one wire that runs right down the middle. You either need some sort of background on the back glass or tape the wire to the side of the tank.
 
#30 ·
I have enjoyed seeing this tank evolve. Thank you very much. Your photography is also very excellent.

The only thing left that unbalances your layout is the subtle lack of unity. The best solution would be to let the hairgrass grow completely across the front.

And I must second the opinion that some sort of background is needed. A dark one would bring out the many, many red colors and a white one would limit thier impact (which I suggest).

Keep up the great work and I hope to see more pictures from you.
 
#31 ·
Trying to figure out what wires you are talking about that run down the middle? I have a reflection of our back door in the somewhat middle of the tank which might be what you think is a cable? I do want to hide all the cables though. I had a background but I didn't like it and took it off...I can change the light that is being reflected on the back wall by raising or lowering the light so I can have a much darker background next time. The black background looks unnatural to me unless I paint it perhaps.
 
#33 ·
Thanks for the compliments...still trying to figure out which cables I am missing that I need to move. I will be building a new canopy so that I will not have any light reflected on the back wall so that it will be darker but still avoiding a background.

I am having a problem with some filamentous algae and it relaly likes to cling onto my rotalas...anyone have any advice on how to deal with this? Must have gotten it when I traded some plants...wonderful. Quick pictures.




Any reason why one angel is always less colorfull than the other?

Bright red espei

Male and female kilis

And ofcourse the one fish I will never be able to catch to get him out of the tank...CAE. Anyone have any suggestions on how to catch him in a planted tank? Every time I come near the tank he hides, even when I leave a net in there for an hour he will still be hiding.
 
#34 ·
My tank's finally balanced... I guess when I got the current fixed, you really understand how important current is in the tank...

The current in my tank is 100% better at the very least...

I mean obviously it brings oxygen to roots, plants, fertilizer to them, etc...

so let the 72 battle begin!

To the best aquascaper!
 
#36 ·
I'm never really sure how to apply all these aquascaping rules. I'll just comment on how the tank hits me. While you are hoping that the driftwood is the focal point. The eye automatically goes to the open space and then there sits all your filter equipment.

I think a focal point isn't made just by adding one piece according to the golden rule. The rest of the tank has to help point to that and steer your vision to that focal point. The arrangement you have doesn't do that for my eye. I can't get my own tank right, but I know what looks good when I see it.
 
#37 ·
Oh I agree, my tank is not very soothing to the eye and my eyes wonder all over the tank and after moving things around for a while I get frustrated so I just leave it somewhat done. I would like to get rid of some plants and go for the more simplistic look and dwarf hairgrass all across the front to try and tie it all together. For these update pictures I am not taking the equipment out until I really am happy with the setup because taking it all out and putting it back in would be too much of a hassle on a weekly/daily basis (depending on when I feel like taking pictures). I also took the kilifish out because they were both attacking my hands whenever I would move something around...those little guys can bite hard! I tried to keep them in 'time-out' in a net...but ofcourse they jumped out of the net which would have been about a 4" jump in about 1.5" of water.

After moving a few things around and trimming...again, this is what I was left with. Still not what I want.
 
#38 ·
To me, the equipment is part of the tank, not to be removed for pictures. If it doesn't look good in a picture, then you need to do a better job blending it in with the aquascaping.

For your tank, I would spread it out, use what you have to mask the filter return, move some grass along the front and open up some holes on that left side and maybe move the driftwood to the right of center.
 
#41 ·
They are red because...not sure, perhaps the iron or the light.

But anyways, I am going to be re-scaping in spring so I am holding off on any changes but I will be selling off all of my plants except for the DHG come spring time. Now that I am back to work full-time again I don't want to do a lot of maintenance and would like a new piece of DW and not rush it this time. I will keep my fish out of my tank for about a month and doing a little bit at a time but until then looking to buy some mosses and manzanita.

Preliminary design for just hard scape with DHG. The rectangular thing in the back left will by my filtration...getting rid of canister filters and having a GIANT 4" deep piece of foam and a pump behind it to create a current.
 
#43 ·
Haha thanks. Now all I have in it is the driftwood and tiger lotuses. Sold allll of the other plants...getting ready to drain it and put in new filtration system hopefully this weekend. The most annoying part is that I have to wait for the silicone to cure completely aka 48 hours.


I will be ordering manzanita and DHG (again) and hopefully this is what it will look like eventually. Might not have the rocks till spring but thats ok.


Let me know what you guys think.
 
#44 ·
I think that looks like a great plan. I'd go for thicker manzanita though, both because I think it would give a stronger, kind of older, more peaceful look (if that makes sense), and because the wood will then last longer in the tank. Manzanita is pretty rot resistant, but it will slowly disintegrate in the tank over time.

Also, what are your plans for the back right corner? More java fern to tie it all together? And do you plan on growing anything on the wood? Maybe a bit of moss or some anubias nana "petite"? I think the petite would look nice, but that's just me.
 
#45 ·
hey does your ecco fit the co2 reactor just right? My XP4 is fitting kinda loose and I don't want to risk it so I think I"m gonna go buy the ecco 2234 tonight and hook it up to the reactor... do I need more line or anything while I'm buying the ecco 2234? do you think any of the smaller ecco filters would be enough for the reactor? Please let me asap... trying to get this diffuser hooked up right away.
 
#46 ·
bought it... now I have the 2234 or whatever and an XP4... so much filtration for a 72 bow hahaha... probably eventually get like an 80 or 90 tho so it should work out...

gonna hook the reactor up tomorrow... how many BPS do you run into your reactor 1000? I'm gonna have the exact same setup same reactor, same filter... same pressurized CO2... minus the pH probe...

I also have 265W CF so I'll probably run a little more CO2...

and dose EI heavyyyyy....
 
#49 ·
snoop do your plants pearl all the way down below... I can't get mine to and my Baby Tears are growing but still the old leaves look kinda poopy...

I dose heavy EI, Flourish for trace, and Flourish Iron

I have the same reactor as you through the same filter 2234 and I have it going about 1 bps right now...

I have 265W CF I even put a 95 W CF light on the top too add to it for a few days and still no pearling on the bottom...

I also have an XP4 on it and a couple power heads on each side...

I have a lighter fish load right now... Stuff pearls up top really well stuff towards very bottom doesn't really pearl..

I use half flourite/half medium gravel (could my carbonate hardness be too high from this)

Water from the tap is very soft where I lift (corvallis, OR)

10-11 photo period...

weekly 35-50% water changes...

very little algae at this point.

What is the problem... why will my stuff not pearl at the bottom...

very small surface agitation

ugh... bout to give up on my 72 pearling wise... pretty pissed off after I bought a 2234 not seeing any improvement on 1st day

bought that damn reactor

was a hasle to hook it up after I realized the xp4 line was too big and then just bought the ecco eheim 2234...

really dissapointed...

is a 72 bow JUST TOO DEEP!?
 
#50 ·
Three...You don't want your tank to change instantly to what you want because if it can do that...it can easily turn into something you don't want. My DHG pearled when I had it with my 108 watts of light and I increased the surface agitation. I did a 25% water change maybe every 2 weeks and my photo period was 10 hours. I did have my Co2 running at around 3 bps. Try putting the solenoid on a timer that comes on about 30-60 minutes before the lights do and then turn off about an hour before your lights do. That way the aquarium will be saturated with Co2 so that the plants can use it right from the start as the lights turn on. I didn't do any ferts just substrate from aquariumplants.com and that seemed to work just fine. An aquarium can be frustrating but just don't pay attention to it for a bit and see what the results are then.

I did sell all of my plants so now I have a new filtration system along with my old until the bacteria gets build up nicely in the new filtration. Using a block of poret foam with a pump behind it and thats about it...a lot less maintenance from what I have read/heard so we will see how that goes. Now I have some pretty beat up java fern, anubias and tiger lotus in there. Waiting for my manzanita to arrive today (woohoo) then I can continue the scape. Ordered DHG from someone on this forum, paid them but no response regarding shipping or anything...hopefully I didn't get screwed.

I will post some pictures soon.
 
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