Suggestions? Please & Thank You!

The first thing to evaulate in any layout is where the viewer's eye is led by the design elements.

The two most dominant features in your tank are, first, the driftwood and then, the bold leaves of the anubias. The anubia is fine--the angle of the rocks leading up and over tie in nicely with it drawing the eye upwards. The driftwood, however, grabs the eye and leads it from the center mass of the tank (kinda blah) directly to the right and on OUT the tank.

Without a better idea of how the dw is actually shaped it's pretty tough to say what you might be able to do--but think about how shapes work.


A regular triangle or pyramid draws your eye up to the point and then back down to the base--this is the base for a hill or mounded 'scape. the inverse gives you a canyon---high masses on the far right and left leading down to an open area in the middle.

A right triangle pulls you along the diagonal--lots of tanks are set up on this design. A common variant is to have a heavy mass against one short wall with tendrils of wood or decreasing masses of plants/rocks leading to a negative space on the other. Like the edge of a forest leading out to an open field.

And anytime you have a mass of something--tall stems in the back ground, a massive bold plant with heavy leaves, etc--you should either ensure it's perfectly balanced in of itself, or provide a point of contrast.

Example: that layer of moss around the base of the driftwood is too monotone and too obviously artificial. Either break it up by letting some of the rocks show thru, or break the line by adding another small leafed plant.

Knotyoureality said:

The first thing to evaulate in any layout is where the viewer's eye is led by the design elements.

The two most dominant features in your tank are, first, the driftwood and then, the bold leaves of the anubias. The anubia is fine--the angle of the rocks leading up and over tie in nicely with it drawing the eye upwards. The driftwood, however, grabs the eye and leads it from the center mass of the tank (kinda blah) directly to the right and on OUT the tank.

Without a better idea of how the dw is actually shaped it's pretty tough to say what you might be able to do--but think about how shapes work.


A regular triangle or pyramid draws your eye up to the point and then back down to the base--this is the base for a hill or mounded 'scape. the inverse gives you a canyon---high masses on the far right and left leading down to an open area in the middle.

A right triangle pulls you along the diagonal--lots of tanks are set up on this design. A common variant is to have a heavy mass against one short wall with tendrils of wood or decreasing masses of plants/rocks leading to a negative space on the other. Like the edge of a forest leading out to an open field.

And anytime you have a mass of something--tall stems in the back ground, a massive bold plant with heavy leaves, etc--you should either ensure it's perfectly balanced in of itself, or provide a point of contrast.

Example: that layer of moss around the base of the driftwood is too monotone and too obviously artificial. Either break it up by letting some of the rocks show thru, or break the line by adding another small leafed plant.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice! I spent some time last night planting a few new additions and moving a some things around - there's now four small clumps of Java Fern placed along the seam between the wood & moss, along with a few small Cardamine cuttings & a very, very small Anubias. It looks a lot less awkward, although still not perfect - I'll try to have pictures up later today. I've also placed around half a dozen small clusters of Dwarf Sag around the left & right sides, inbetween the Crypts, and it's created a bit more slope and a little bit less sparseness.

I really should have mentioned that this tank is viewed from two sides - it sits on my desk and is viewed from a right to left angle. The wood doesn't look nearly so fat when viewed from an angle, and there's quite a bit of space behind it that's invisible from the front.

This is more or less the regular view: (And the girlfriend recently pointed that I've accidentally created a bit of an inappropriate shape with the driftwood & moss balls at the base..... leave it to her.... this will be fixed soon :flick


And viewed from the right side:


The wood is a bit too large for the tank - I used it because I already had it on hand, wanted to plant Anubias in the little "scoop" towards the rear, and liked the effect of the "arm" overhanging in the front. I admit it's a bulky, kinda 'meh' piece... Here are some shots of it before being covered in dirt & plants:





With the size of the wood I don't see too many other options in placement, so I'm trying to work on plant arrangements. I'll try to post pictures of the newest arrangement later. Thanks again for your advice, much appreciated!