Officially awful at aquascaping - plese help me!

[zoon]

I have a juwel vision 450 and have made a right hash of the scape. I desperately need your expert help. Have read the aquascaping articles and been looking at other peoples tanks for inspiration. I've sat sketching and everything looks awful. Here is a pic when it was first planted. Was on a budget so planted mainly with runners and cuttings kindly donated from friends!

Apologies for terrible photography - I blame it on cheap and nasty camera! Plants are much larger now and being a total plant novice I lack the ability to see how scape will look when they grow. So now looks ridiculous. I do have some fab plants though inc a 2ft amazon sword! So the plan is to pull it all out and start again. And I am hoping for your expert help! here is a list fo the contents so you know what I have to work with...
- 3x tall "roots"
- 1x knarled twisted root with a cave - needs to be half berried in gravel to support it or it'll fall over.
- 3/4 of tank is sand, other is fine gravel
- masses of smooth pebbles ranging from 1" to over 6" diameter
- XL amazon sword
- medium amazon sword
- approx 6 or 7 smaller swords
- lots of radicans sword
- chain swords
- pygmy chain swords
- rose swords
- an unknown sword (we think they are swords - seen on far left of pic)
- XL Hygrophila corymbosa
- XL java fern
- vast amounts of vallis - both straight and twisted
- another type of grass, total mystery as to what it is. It's a rosette plant with leaves as wide as a vallis but currenly about 6 inches high
- couple of anubias (currently not attached to anything)
- 2 rocks with subwassertang netted to them
- also have 2 pieces of bogwood in a bucket at the moment with riccia tied to them. looks superb, but couldn't find anywhere to put them so was goign to sell them.

Any suggestions at all will be greatly appreciated as this is obviouxly not my calling in life!

 

[Dan Walter]

My main focus on your current scape is on the piece of wood in the centre of the tank...I cant help but look at it. Which ultimately takes away the beauty of the plants in your tank, if that makes sense?!? Im no expert but try using the golden ratio to help with positioning the wood. Perhaps if the smaller pieces of wood were placed forward with the main piece placed at the back of the tank it may create some sense of depth. Maybe???
There are lots of guides regarding hardscape positioning if you dig around on the net, including a great write up by George from this forum regarding aquascaping. It's worth while reading as much as you can including Takashi's early books. Not that im any kind of expert but research is key in my opinion, as that's how we learn!
Anyway, It's Friday, it's late and im rambling so i'll go now.

Best of luck!

 

[yoda]

My main focus on your current scape is on the piece of wood in the centre of the tank...I cant help but look at it.:

totaly agree with dan on the position of the wood, its to much of a tank divider sitting smack dab in the middle of the tank like that, almost give the impression of two seperate tanks, could you try positioning the centre piece around 1/3rd of the way across either to the left or right hand side of the tank & then try lying a few of the other bits on there side to give the impression of a tree trunk under the water with its roots spreading out & being partially burried with at least there tips in the substrate, even if they were too big for that they could be trimmed to fit.

just an idea.

 

[yoda]

i also think in looking at it some more that it needs moved back as well as to either the left or right, it would shed some light on the trunk section making it abit lighter in colour & more pleaseing to look at, its just to dark at present.

 

[George Farmer]

You have the basis of a good layout.

Move the center piece of wood to the left by a few inches to achieve a better balance, plant a curtain of Vallis all the way along the background, crypts and ferns around the midground and wood, and a sand foreground with graded gravel and you'll be on to a winner.