"Evening Sun"

[Leopardess]

Great work! The rocks threw me off too until I read why they're there. The right side of the tank is really working. You're totally on the right track. Here's what I think:

As of now, your layout is split right down the center of the tank. You may want to shift the negative space over to the left a bit (the reason for moving to the left and not the right would be to make the right side the "heavier" side, which would justify why your wood is so much bigger on the right than the left).

Agreed the bright green is too much for this scape.

The left side of the tank, as well as the farthest left part of the right side, needs some tidying up.

The green crypt on the left is a great accent to all the fine, needle-like leaves. I'd maybe work with that instead of anubias.

When you get the center's negative space opened up and settled upon, consider adding some more substrate to raise the height in that one spot to give dimensionality.

Nice work I have so much to say because I think this is a scape that, with a little tweaking, has some great aquascaping contest potential.

[Avalon]

Thanks guys! Leopardess, I totally agree with what you are saying. The left side is the "weaker one." The R. vietnam is looking rough, as I had it floating for a couple of days--it was in the mail for 6 days! I think the corners need some filling, but I'm not sure with what yet; Blyxa might be neat on either side, but I'm not sure I can grow it. I think I'll let it grow in a bit, get the rocks out of the way, then decide.

[pwrmacG4]

awesome tank.. inspiring!

[FreshwaterJeff]

Sheesh. It's threads like this one that show me just how far I have to go

Lookin' great, Av.

[skratikans]

wow, your tank is amazing, what kind of filtration are you using? do you think, personally, that a filter (like fluval fx5) could be used for a tank of your size?

[MikeS]

The thread is almost 2 yrs old, so how does the tank look now?


btw, BEAUTIFUL!

[skratikans]

LOL! thats awesome...i didnt even think to look at the date

[catfishbum]

what kind of grass is in the foreground and what does it require? Your tank looks amazing by the way, i would never even attemp to do that.....its art.

[Avalon]

The foreground plant is "dwarf hairgrass." It's an easy to grow plant but it takes forever to start growing well, but once it does, it goes crazy! I would recommend growing it in ADA's Aquasoil substrate with Powersand for the fastest results. Now to grow it like you see in the pic, it requires medium to high lighting and a lot of CO2 and iron. The plant is very iron sensitive and will turn darker green with high levels of iron. You see how it's really thick on the right side? That's where CO2 mist was directed in the tank via a powerhead. There wasn't much circulation (and not much CO2) on the left corner.

And thanks for your comments!

[brooklynfish]

Originally Posted by MikeS

The thread is almost 2 yrs old, so how does the tank look now?

Didnt think to look at the date! It looks great! I love the dwarf hair grass! How fast does that grow?

Its funny how threads can be 'dug up' over a long period of time.