[Blackheart]

Could anybody help me out here...? I'm kinda new to this.. I need help on what to do with my 56 gallon column aquarium.... I wanted to do a simple setup with 3, 4, 5 different kinds of plants, or somewhere in there. well, this is my first scape.... with regular gravel, which I had really liked.

here is the second.... this is after I took out everything, and placed in floramax substrate, and then a whole bunch of eco complete on top. All the crypts melted, but unlike when I had the regular plain aquarium gravel, they are actually growing back.

here is the third idea... if thats what you even wanna call it lol I picked up some jungle val tonight.... at least that's what I think it is, but I honestly love it. seems like it does a great job filling in the back.

Well, I'm kinda lost on what to do... :icon_conf Especially with that sword lol which appears to be in not so great shape. the leaves are turning transparent. Should I get a whole bunch of more Jungle Vals and fill in the back, some more crypts in the front, or should I put back in the driftwood (which also appeared to have leaked quite a bit of more tannins into the water), and move those jungle vals to the side, what...? anybody..?

 

[Betta132]

If you boil the driftwood, that'll get a lot of the tannins out. I personally like the look of tannin-y water, and fish seem to enjoy it. If it was me, I'd get a nice branchy piece of wood, place it against the back wall, and fill it with Java moss and Java ferns.
Both of those plants will pretty much grow in a glass of water, and they also make great hiding places for baby or shy fish, as well as clinging nicely to wood. What fish are you planning on keeping?

 

[plantedtankfan]

I would put like a jungle of val in the back behind the large piece of driftwood. On the driftwood put some java fern/moss or any type of moss. In the front of that A carpet of Crypt. The sword should be off center and fill in the rest of the space with a species of stem plant to contrast against the board leaves of the sword (Rotala, ludwigia, ect... ) and then in front of those, I would do a carpet of dwarf sag. The leaves size, shape and color would look great against the sword and stem plants.

 

[Blackheart]

I don't plan on doing Java fern, or moss, or anything like that. Just root and stem plants. And I was thinking fishwise to do White Could Mountain Minnows. or maybe just cherry shrimp.

I was thinking of trying a carpet forground of dwarf sag, some crypts in the middle, and jungle vals in the back

 

[Chaoslord]

I have the same tank. Check my link out in my signature.
I've filled this tank multiple times with different scapes.
So far my favorite was with the red ozelot when it was filled in.