25 Gallon Planted Community Tank Journal (With Pics)

Hey all,
Going to start a journal for my community tank, starting from day 1 (a very dirty, in poor condition tank) to finished product (hopefully something a bit better than day 1 )
 
By the end I'd love to have a really cool looking before/after pic, but along the way I'll try to put as many pictures up as possible.
 
As this is my first planted tank, and really first community tank, all advice/criticism/feedback is strongly desired!
 
Anyway, here is the first pic, day 1. (This was about 3 weeks ago)
 

 
Needless to say, many hard working hours later I found myself with this \/
 

 
Today I am 2 and a half weeks into the cycle, and visited the local fish store to pick up some plants, returned with a spectacular piece of 'gold vine' driftwood, as well as 3 'clumps' of a plant I cannot remember the name of for the life of me Help ID ing please anyone? I also snagged a little potted amazon sword, not sure which strain, but hopefully I can grow it out into something a little more special than it is right now. Currently, tank looks as follows. (Driftwood still soaking)
 
(Sorry, made a mistake, see attached thumbnails)
 
Driftwood

 
I'm not really happy with the plant set up in all honesty, It certainly won't stay like this when I add the drift wood tomorrow (soaking overnight is fine, right?) but I wanted to go for a fairly heavily planted tank, and would love some advice from more experienced readers. Any suggestions on species/arrangements would be amazing.
 
Side note: Should I leave the light on overnight to allow the plants to grow towards it? Or will this just cause algea... thanks, wish me luck!

You should take the band off the bunched plants and bury them into the substrate - they should put out roots to hold them in place.  You may need to replant from time to time early on, but with no fish to dig around them, they should stay pretty well.
 
 
Also, some dwarf hairgrass for the foreground and some cryptocoryne wendtii for the mid depth would add extra dimension to the layout... both should be readily available at most LFS.

Lfs did have some hairgrass, but it certainly wasn't dwarf haha about 4 inches tall and in pots. Will be back in a few days to collect alot more stuff though so might even pick it up. The bunched plants at the back on the left, none of them had roots? It was honestly just like shoving a stick into the substrate... weird.. I will them now though and play around with it a bit (add the driftwood!) 
unbunch
Picture update coming in an hour or so

They cut them to propagate them.  They will grow roots themselves, IF submerged.
 
 
dwarf hairgrass is "eleocharis parvula".  

Cheers, just added the driftwood, although it doesn't want to sink at all.... tips???
 
And how far down the stem should I trim my plants???
 
+ Should I keep the amazon sword in its pot potted?...

Tie a small rock to it with sewing thread or fishing line if you have some. After a while it will water log and stay down on its own.


Not sure what you mean about trimming the plants. No need to trim them yet, if you ask me.


Definitely remove the sword from the pot... These are heavy root feeders, so keeping it root bound will not allow it to grow well. You may need to add some root tabs for the amazon sword, depending on the substrate. If the substrate is a plant substrate then the tabs aren't necessary. If its just sand, you will probably need tabs.



Also, the photoperiod for the plants should be about 6-8 hours. More than that and algae is going to happen. Investing in a timer is a good idea, saves lots of worries. You can have the lights come on and off at your own discretion. Personally I have my lights on during the evening hours that I'm around to see it. No sense having the lights on the tank while at work.

Yeah, I have a timer somewhere I will set that up. Only just realised how terrible those photos were... it's not my phone as it takes very high quality pics (iPhone 5) but the file sizes were like 900kb per pic... any tips on bringing the file size down without having a useless quality photo? 
 
Tempted to start a new thread in all honesty, so I can re upload those pics so that they are actually visible..

If you have found this topic, please go here to continue reading, I started the thread again with MUCH better pictures