need help aquascaping new 120g

[Deltad]

I current have a 75g that i'm upgrading to a 120g

I don't know what to use as foreground... and I really need help on where I should put the big piece of driftwood. I also have another large piece that I can use but I think it'll be overcrowded.

I also have no idea on how to pair plants together... I love mosses but stupid hair algae is taking over my tank!

footprint is 48"x2'x2'

Specs:

tank: 75g
gravel: inert flourite and eco complete (they're old)
No CO2 running full time (I have it hook up but decided not to run it)
Fertz: I fertilize last week but I have tests coming up and don't have time to maintain
50% weekly water change
filtration: 2x Eheim 2213, 1x Eheim Professional II
light: 2x 54w 6700k T5HO GLO retrofit

so basically... it's pretty low tech

New tank:
Light: will add additional 54w of light and a 10k bulb for color
Gravel: 80% ADA (a year old), and old gravel from the tank
other than that, everything will be transferred over
will hook up the CO2 and try to keep up w/ the fertz



this is what I have now. Sorry about the sorry @ss pic since I don't have a camera.



Right side:


Left side:


Center:


Inhabitants: except the yellow one lost him last week

[neumahrs]

Wow your discus look amazing. Looking forward to seeing how everything will look in your 120.

[DevonCloud]

Very beautiful setup. Especially the discus.

[Deltad]

thank you! how about some insight on how to rescape it?? what would you do if this was YOUR tank

[Piranha]

Looks great, Need a FTS,

[switcharoo]

Originally Posted by neumahrs

\discus look amazing. \.

[Deltad]

Originally Posted by switcharoo

why the face?

and the first pic is the FTS

the tank just arrived today! the dog of the previous owner chewed on the corner of the tank so I'll need to fix it up... sigh*

anyone got any ideas? wood filler?

[littlefish]

very beautiful tank and fish

[justinq]

Wow, really nice tank and fish. I just got a used 75 from a friend and this is definitely going to provide some inspiration. As to help scaping the new tank, I'm guessing the primary difference is that the new tank is an extra 6 inches wider, right? If so, that gives you a little more depth to work with. One thing I did notice about your current tank, if I had to pick something to nitpick, would be that it looks like your plants go from really short to very tall without a whole lot of layering in some areas. If this is true, then maybe in the new tank you could add some more midsize plants in between the forground and background. ALso, the background seems to be tall everywhere, you might try allowing some open areas. If you're just looking for a new and different look, one fairly easy way to do it is just change the positioning of your focal point and rescape around that. So, if the driftwood is the focal point in this case, you could experiment with moving it around or even just turning it to different positions and see where that takes you. Since it looks like you only have one piece of driftwood, if it's too big to really go anywhere but the middle, you could also try buying two seperate, slightly smaller pieces of driftwood and positioning them on the sides, with an opening in the middle (the "path through the woods" look). Or, one piece and positioning it on one side for the triangular look.

Here's a pretty good article someone pointed out to me that gave me some ideas for figuring out good scapes, especially part 4:

http://www.freshwateraquariumplants....caping101.html

[Deltad]

thanks for your input justing!

I've never trim or did anything to my tank since I set it up over 6 months ago! lol... I've been lazy but since I'm moving everything over, I'll just let it grow and trim it when I redo everything. My tank has scratches everywhere (stupid magnet cleaner) so I lost the will to do anything to it other than water change.

that big piece of driftwood is something and I don't think I can afford two smaller one so it'll have to stay.

I'll look into the triangle look, I think that will be the best option I have now. thanks for the link!

can anyone else chime in?

[efface]

I had the same issue Deltad.....stupid magnet cleaner scratched the hell out of my tank so now I'm not going to do much with it until I get a new one.

Question for the OP.....kinda off beat question....in the pictures I see a filter in the water attached to a pipe. Whats that for? Return? Powerhead?

[Deltad]

are you talking about the sponge on the tube?

the tube is outlet, I just put it on there to decrease the current. i was afraid that it was too much for the discus to handle

plus, I need it to seed the QT tank

i'm not sure what kind of plants to use as I want to keep the leaf size small... any suggestions?

[supervdl]

love the discus

[ReefkprZ]

Originally Posted by Deltad

anyone got any ideas? wood filler?

wood filler may not bond well with the plastic. though some of the minwax color fill may work. you can try an epoxy like pc 11 which is paintable to fill in the tooth marks from the dog. if you had a picture of the damage I may be able to give a little more constructive advice. depending on how big the damage is you may want to use kitty hair or tiger hair sand ti down then repaint it (it beiong the damaged band)

[SNAKEMANVET]

I really like your tank and discus,I am in the process of seting up a 120 now.You gave me some new ideas.