46 Gallon Planted Journal(updated pics finally! 8/3 :)

[cah925]

Originally Posted by organic sideburns

now that ive thinned out some of the stems and rearranged the ferns i feel like its missing some kind of plant. maybe some reds? i might get some crypts, or some anubias to add a diff. leaf to the scape. thoughts??

One of my favorite crypts is the Wendtii 'green gecko'. Mine has always put out some nice reds and yellows on the leaves. Here's a pic I took of a shrimp on the crypt. It's not the best pic, but you can see the leaf color.

You could also try L. repens or a red lotus. For anubias, I have always enjoyed the look of Anubias coffefolia with the wrinkled leaves.

[sewingalot]

What a difference. Are you planning on leaving the middle empty? I kind of like it without anything in the center. It gives your eye a rest.

[organic sideburns]

Originally Posted by sewingalot

What a difference. Are you planning on leaving the middle empty? I kind of like it without anything in the center. It gives your eye a rest.

im hoping for the chain swords to spread over time and cover all the open gravel. idk tho, i might add some stems in the middle towards the back, and trim them so the stems go from shortest to all the way to the surface.

update pics in 2 days when i get my RCS and add a background.

on a side note, ive noticed that ever since my filter stopped working, my tank has never been clearer. it looks like im running a UV light and i love it. im guessing the HOB filter kept stirring up debris making the tank slightly cloudy. i want to add a new filter, but dont want cloudy water

[organic sideburns]

well heres an update of my tank. i spent over 3 hours last night doing complete rescape. basically i moved the rocks and wood and ferns about 7 inches to the right. its a lil off center, which looks more natural to me. i moved the hygro to the back right and moved the rest of the stems to the left side of the tank.

i covered the perimeter of the rock/wood scape with river rocks and stacked some large river rocks near teh back of the "island". i removed all the java moss from the wood and covered the entire foreground on the left side with it. i left the right sides foreground empty for the time being. im getting some riccia from someone from here. it should be here by monday. anyways, here is a FTS:

heres the center of the tank. i like this rock/wood scape a lot more than the old!:

heres a neat pic of my wood shrimp hanging upside down on a branch.:

the growth of the sunset hygro. it grows a few inches a week! fast for a tank with no o2, medium light, and no ferts! it also looks a lot greener and healthier/cleaner ever since my filter broke a week or 2 ago. i havent fixed the filter yet and for some reason my tank looks cleaner than ever and my plants never have any debris/brown dust on them. why is that??:


just a pic of my pruned hands and a tiny crypt i found. i tried uprooting it and the root traveled across the entire tank! it was unbelievable! i ended up snapping the root after i dug up 6 or so inches of it. that crypt must have been there for years!:


my 12 gallon JB nano that just finished cycling and is no just sitting there until i think of what to do with it!(any ideas?):


as always comments, tips, suggestions, or any input is appreciated! thanks!

[organic sideburns]

bump.....

[oldpunk78]

i like the re-scape, it looks good. are you thinking about adding any reds in there? oh, wait i minute, lol, there are some...( after looking again) it that your camera or the bulbs that you are using that make everything look so green?

[sewingalot]

Wow it looks so different. I really like it. I like most of your scapes, though. How do you feel about this one in particular? I wonder if I will ever get used to the idea that your tank looks better than mine.

[FrostyNYC]

I love how green it is. I think it looks great. It still looks like a jungle, and definitely not like a brand new fresh rescape. It's going to be an impenetrable green wall in a month or two. The only thing Im not a big fan of are the moss rocks in the front. I'd just let the tenellus run across the whole tank, myself.

[organic sideburns]

Originally Posted by oldpunk78

i like the re-scape, it looks good. are you thinking about adding any reds in there? oh, wait i minute, lol, there are some...( after looking again) it that your camera or the bulbs that you are using that make everything look so green?

i want to add some more red plants but my tank is low tech so im not sure i can keep many. and yes my camera gives my tank that greenish tint. i need to mess with the settings some more. my next set of pics will be how my tank looks in real life!

Originally Posted by sewingalot

Wow it looks so different. I really like it. I like most of your scapes, though. How do you feel about this one in particular? I wonder if I will ever get used to the idea that your tank looks better than mine.

im not satisfied with the new scape. i like it, but i need to tweak certain things like move a few branches, move the narrow leave ferns around better, and work on filling in the left and right sides of the tank with those hygro stems etc. i might be getting my press. co2 set up fixed so i may turn this tank into a high tech in a bit.

Originally Posted by FrostyNYC

I love how green it is. I think it looks great. It still looks like a jungle, and definitely not like a brand new fresh rescape. It's going to be an impenetrable green wall in a month or two. The only thing Im not a big fan of are the moss rocks in the front. I'd just let the tenellus run across the whole tank, myself.

yea the tank is over 5 years old so its always a jungle to me. i want to work on my trimming techniques and make a thick bush of my sunset hygro on the right side.

thanks for the comments!

[sewingalot]

When you learn how to trim, tell me! I suck at it.

[organic sideburns]

well its been a few months and i havent done much to the tank. i went atleast 2.5 months w/out touching the tank cuz i kinda lost interest and got lazy but i have some new pics to show what it looks like currently.

heres what the tank looked like a few days ago. the water evaporation is embarassing lol but here ya go:


i used the flash to show how the wisteria started growing out of the water. i thought it looked cool

closer view:

another:


and heres the most recent pic, i filled the tank up with water and i also found a ton of these lotus plants that i had no idea were in my tank cuz they were hidden under the mass of ferns etc. i pulled them out and placed them on the right side and now its becoming a lotus jungle. i think its neat tho kinda messy:


sry for bad quality pics, i took them in a hurry and just wanted to show u guys how my tank is doing!