How's my scape look?

[Sara3502]

I just planted some new stuff last night, and I wanted to post to show it! What do y'all think?



This is what it looked like 1 and 1/2 months ago:



Quite an improvement huh?

[defender.TX]

I like the wood. How long has it been in the tank? It looks like it's still leaching some tannin into the water. I would stick with the water changes to get rid of the yellow/brown tint, unless that's the look you're going for.

Here's my constructive criticism:

I think you don't have enough height in the tank, especially on the right side. I would get more driftwood, or a larger stone, to give that side of the tank some height. Second, the floor is a little distracting. I would try and nurture one species into more of a "carpet" and let the others grow tall in the back of the tank (behind the wood?) to give the aquascape some depth. Finally, leaving some bare sand as a focal point between the two "tall" sides of the aquascape gives the viewer's eyes a place to rest. You might be interested in the "Golden Ratio" of 1:1.6 to find where that focal point should be either left or right of center.

All in all, I like where it's headed. I especially like the detail in the wood, I think you've got a great piece there.

[tomfromstlouis]

Improvement yes.

But it still begs for a vertical element. Are some of these new plants going to grow UP?

Oh and please do anyone looking at the tank a favor and fill it to the rim.

[Sara3502]

Its not tannins, its that the wall behind my tank is yellow. I need to add some kind of back to the tank. All the stuff in the back will grow up, right now it is about 4-5 inches. it is needle leaf ludwigia. I also have some R. rotilifunda on the side of the driftwood. I have hydrocotyle sp. Japan that will be my carpet, and I am removing the java moss when that takes root and starts filling in well. So you think I should have some bare in the middle? I was thinking of having it tall where the driftwood is and letting it go down in height until I just have the carpet, and then trim it to where I have the other side just sand. Does that sound good? And sorry about it not being all the way filled, that was my mistake. I didn't have enough ro water last night for the whole way. I'm filling it up all the way tonight.

[defender.TX]

Whether or not you want a bare sand focal point is up to you. It's really just a suggestion. Using Hydrocotyle as a carpet is great. Hopefully it grows out for you.

[stevenjohn21]

I love the black water "amazon" look. The angels will be very happy, love the driftwood too. Nice start !

[Sara3502]

Thanks! I love my driftwood. I got it for 15 dollars at an lfs in my town. It has a huge cave in it and my african dwarf frogs, kribensis cichlid, and algae eaters love it!

Here is a close up

[Kathyy]

It is looking nicely organized into a nice picture now. The mossy rocks look great! They will look more natural growing in than moss floating all over the tank. Tank looks much cleaner too. Maybe the stump needs to be a bit closer to the 1/3 mark of the tank, cannot tell. That way there would be room for a nice large grouping of plants back there. Might see if straightening the line of sand at the front of the tank helps too. The one time I did a good job getting the line straight it looked very nice but that hasn't happened lately.

Try putting a background on the tank. Instantly the water won't look yellow, equipment be less distracting and the plants may pop with a black background. I like something that looks like the wall so put on some frosted window cling film and hid all the equipment on the side of the tank. I experimented with various materials like a cut open plastic bag, black trash bag and even wax paper before spending the big bucks.

How about a few easy photography pointers? I suspect your tank looks much nicer than the photo is showing. A viewer's eye gets caught by distracting reflections and equipment you don't even notice. I am by no means good at it and don't have a nice camera but have found that taking photos at night so there are no reflections on the front of the tank helps. I depend heavily on my photo editing program in my computer to straighten, crop and adjust the color and exposure to what I see. Hiding the heater and other equipment and either having the tank full to the rim or cropping so the water line doesn't show helps as well.

[Sara3502]

Okay, I didn't even think of photo editing! I'm on an iPad but I'm sure I could play around with photoshop. You're right, it is a lot nicer in real life. Out of the backgrounds you experimented with, which one did you find the best? And ill see if I can straighten out that line real quick.

[Sara3502]

How's this? It's really hard to straighten that line!

[CoffeeLove]

Looking good.

Get some purigen! It'll make your water crystal clear within 48 hours.

---
I give my fish coffee

[Sara3502]

I am actually doing a DIY canister filter to replace my HOB's. I'm going to have a 25 micron polishing pad in there and I am doing 2 25% water changes a week. I would love some purigen, so ill probably get some in a few weeks, but for now I can probably kill out tannins by water changes.

[tomfromstlouis]

I have found that it is best to take pictures at night with only tank lights on. This avoids the reflections off the front glass. But at least now we can see that this tank has great promise!