A little inspiration needed....

[Miss Pennyapple]

Hi guys, I'm looking for a wee bit of help please with my planted tank.

I've always wanted to have a healthy, low maintenance and attractive aquascaped tank. It all started out along the right lines when I set up the tank and fishless cycled it about 9 months ago. But over the past months the tank has had several algae issues, and I'm still struggling to control green hair algae and BBA.

Algae aside, I've added various new plants over the past couple of months but I'm not happy with how the tank now looks. I'm now thinking I have too many plants and I'm considering ditching some of them! Plant list is;

4 x Amazon Sword Bleheri
3 x Amazon Sword Ozelot
3 x Ceratopteris Thalictroides
1 x Hygrophila Siamensis
3 x Cabomba

I'm thinking about ditching the Bleheri's as I would like to add a Crinum Calamistratum. I've tried to plant things where they will get enough light but I'm worried the tank is a little over crowded for this and as a result the tank looks a bit random now! I'm kinda at a loss as to how to improve the look of things now as no matter how much I move plants around it still ends up looking disorganised! Any advice and inspiration would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

 

[Andy Thurston]

and I'm still struggling to control green hair algae and BBA.

Perhaps reducing your lighting and/or adding co2 will help
Regarding inspiration try searching "lowtech ukaps" with google will get some answers

 

[imak]

Changing to external filter would be a massive improvement . Perhaps getting some driftwood too. (regarding to looks)

 

[Aqua360]

I'd put the two eheim on the left hand glass side, possibly the heater too; or move it to the far right.

Then I'd move some plants to the left to hide the filters, same with the right hand side for the heater.

This gives you a frame, with space in the middle to draw attention to; perhaps some stone built from the left, or driftwood as mentioned above

 

[chrismiller12341]

Maybe drift wood would help. Something to give it more height. Not so one layer. Maybe some plants not all the same size. Just a suggestion. I like what you got though. Please don't take anything I say as negative criticism. What's good to one might not be good to another. I just tryed to help answer your question.

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[Wisey]

I can only agree with previous posters about adding some more structure with wood or larger stone maybe. You could also try banking your substrate a little more so its a bit higher at the back, it adds to the sense of depth. Have a think about how you arrange your small stones as well, they feel a bit like they are just spread out too evenly over the whole tank, try grouping them together, rock would naturally end up in piles rather than spaced out like that.

You could also consider grouping plants that are the same together in groups of at least 3 for a more natural look.

 

[Miss Pennyapple]

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

Regarding the algae issues (see my ongoing post in the Algae section!) I add liquid carbon twice a week and the lights are on for 5 1/2 hours a day. I'm going to try reducing the lighting to 5 hours and see if light reduction has any impact on the algae. What is the minimum recommended lighting period? All of the plants I have are considered low lighting plants I think?

I don't want to have to go down the external filter route really. I have ran them in the past on other tanks, out of necessity due to stocking, but I don't need an external on this lightly stocked tank. But I do wish the plants would grow and hide the filters a bit!

I would like to add some small bits of hardscape - I used to have some rocks in there at the beginning but they turned out to be pushing the pH up and I don't want that to happen again. The tank water is naturally very soft and acidic and I want it to stay that way. Are there any types of rocks you could recommend that are truly inert?

I would love to add some driftwood, but I know it too can cause pH to drop and with my pH already naturally at 5.5 I don't want it to drop any lower really. Plus, I don't like the idea of tannins leaking from the wood for months.

I like the idea of grouping the plants a bit more perhaps and yes, the small rocks/pebbles I have in there are completely randomly placed!

What do you guys think of the idea of removing some of the Bleheri swords and creating a bit more space?

 

[Wisey]

I wouldn't remove any plants, I would just re-plant them in more compact groups which will create more open space and I feel create a more interesting scape. If you also bank the substrate as I suggested earlier, you will create some more height in the plants at the back. I feel you could do with creating more of a gradient, rather than lots of plants of similar height in front of each other.

 

[Miss Pennyapple]

I wouldn't remove any plants, I would just re-plant them in more compact groups which will create more open space and I feel create a more interesting scape. If you also bank the substrate as I suggested earlier, you will create some more height in the plants at the back. I feel you could do with creating more of a gradient, rather than lots of plants of similar height in front of each other.

Thanks Wisey. I'm concerned though that planting in more compact groups will affect growth as plants might not get enough light if they are planted more densely - is this something I should be concerned about do you think? Or will the plants still get enough light?

I'm thinking about moving one of the filters onto the left side of the tank and moving the other one further along into the left hand back corner. Then also moving the heater along to the left more. Would that create any problems as far as flow / circulation is concerned do you think?

 

[Jakes]

I wouldn't worry about the plants to much, crowning plants will sort themselves out In my limited experience i have found that the plants will take what space they need and spread to get the light they need.

Have you thought about ditching the pictured background? Maybe have a solid colour black or dark blue or even the frosted glass look (get it from B&Q)

Id spread the filters apart and ensure you have a circular flow this will ensure the heated water gets spread about.


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[Wisey]

You only have to look how densely planted some of the best Jungle or Dutch style aquariums are to see how plants will fight it out for their own space. Can't hurt to give it a try if you are not happy the way things are now.

 

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

Aesthetically, I think the mistake you've made is not that you have too many different plants - but you have dotted the plants around too much. In fact, you have pretty much alternated between the two different types of Amazon sword, with the result that it looks a little unnatural and also it makes each individual plant look rather unimpressive.

If I were you, I'd reposition the Amazon swords into fairly tight groups with all the bleheris together and all the ozelots together. This will make a larger clump of each species, and they'll look a lot more impressive that way. In other words, I'd make larger 'statements'. I would do the same with the Cabomba - put it all together in one big 'stand'.

Also, your layout seems as if you're afraid of having open space. I would leave a space in the middle, or perhaps slightly off-centre, to create depth and lead the eye into the tank. This is what I've tried to do with my layout by creating a break between the two foreground carpet plants (HC on the left, Glossostigma on the right). I actually need to continue that space by cutting away one or two stems of the Pogostemon erectus and the hornwort at the back to leave a slight break, so that the eye has a route that it can follow to reach "infinity". But at the moment I'm still being very cautious and leaving the tank rather more densely planted so that the chilli rasboras remain calm and confident in the middle of the tank.

Edited to add: I would also group your stones together into more of a pile, for exactly the same reasons that I would group the plants together. They'll look more impressive!

 

[Miss Pennyapple]

Right, it was water change day today so I took the opportunity to do some re-scaping! You guys were right! I put the plants into larger groups of the same type and did the same with the small rocks and left an open area in the middle of the tank. I think it looks much better! Just need the new plants to settle in now and start growing some height. Looks like I have too much space now!

In your experience, is Water Sprite quite a resilient plant? When I got the new plants I put them in a spare empty tank for a few days but the heater wasn't switched on and the room gets quite cold. When I went to put them in the main tank after about 4 days in QT they looked quite unhappy! Lots of leaves going transparent etc. The Water Sprite has been in the main tank about 10 days now and I had to remove some leaves today which weren't doing very well. Do you think it will just take some time for it to adjust and recover??

 

[Wisey]

That's looking better already