Ideas and advice on aquascaping...please
 

Ok so I got my aquarium all setup, now I just need some advice on the aquascaping. Please any ideas, let me know.

Plant: Hornwort, Wisteria, plants and floating, Lutea, 4 Swords, Vals, and dwarf hair grass.

Here are some pictures to go off of:

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I'm bad and making things look good so I can't offer any advice, advice you would want that is :lol:


I notice yoru filter intake is all the way down into the sand ... you might suck some up and cause damage to your impeller. If there is a way to raise that up ~4 inches above the sand that would be best.

Is that a joke! Your tanks are amazing. At least I think so...as for the intake, I am aware, but it is not exactly sittin on the sand,and I have a flat river rick under it,so it doesn't take in sand.

But I am not sure how to shorten the intake, unless I take the middle intake, you think I should?
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The filter intake should be about 5 inches off the subsrate, 4 inches at the least, regardless of substrate material.

As for aquascaping, I suggest moving the large centre chunk of wood off-centre, either side, up to you. Anything in the centre immediately draws attention to the tank's length and becomes very obvious; off-centre will expand the space. This applies to wood, rock or large plants. In this situation, with that nice branch o the right, I would move the chunk to the left, almost to the larger sword. You might want to turn it a bit too, counter-clockwise, just a tad. Experiment a bit; might be good turned so the larger end is facing to the right rather than the left.

Ok, I'll work on getting that intake shorter. As for the larger driftwood, I will push that too the left a bit. Also for the Vals, I will bunch those up a little more, to make them look a little fuller. I was also think of placing the swords together as well. They look to thinned out, to me at least. And I think I am going to try this with the dwarf hairgrass, so they can run together, when they hopefully string to gether and start filling out as a small carpet.

I know that the hairgrass will need lots of light to thrive, so I am think in the front right corner, where the floating plants will not distort the light and cover it. Thoughts?

I wouldnot move those larger swords any closer. When they grow, the now largest one will reach the top of the tank and spread out in a fan some 12-15 or more inches across. While they can be closer, at that stage it becomes a tangled mess with weaker plants.

Thanks, but honestly, my tanks are more 'random' than planned hehe. I just throw everything in and leave it be for the most part. I had a grand plan for my 125g, but that fell through as I couldn't come up with a good idea for building a terrace without getting deep sand.

For Hairgrass, yes it will need brighter lighting and possibly even CO2 to really thrive. It might do okay without extra CO2, but it might stay pretty stagnent (not dying, but not growing much either). Time will tell on that.

Do you know your GH? You have some soft water fish, but Vals do not do well in soft water. If you're in medium-hard territory they may do okay. I have soft water, so I use cryptocoryne spiralis which is somewhat similar (more slender leaves I think). It dosen't keep growing several feet across the top of the tank like vals, but it will grow to the surface plus a few extra inches. Mine has sent out several runners and is taking over that corner of the tank.

Yeah I am content with the hairgrass failing, just wanted to try it out more than anything. As for the swords, I will scoot them a little closer to each other, but not to the point where they are smothering each other. As for the vals, I actually got these from 2 different people who had them in their angel tanks, and one person jut gave me a whole bunch of runners, so it must thrive.

Byron, alittle confused as to how you mentioned to place the large driftwood piece. I know you said slide it over to the left, but not sure how you mentioned to rotate it???
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