Planted tank - rearranged again!

I've completely rearranged my tank today.

I did get the under gravel heater cable and I've got (hopefully) a more suitable light. I also got some free Java Moss from my LFS!!

I know it's not looking exactly brilliant at the moment...it needs time to fill out.

The filter on the left is to be taken out in a few weeks as it is currently running along side my new external filter.

I'm probably going to order some riccia to make a false carpet somewhere. I really want to keep the left hand front corner as plain sand.

The sand looks awful though, there's so much debris and stuff and also my laterite is coming to the surface

The Lily on the left will probably go. It's leaves are far too huge to fit with my miniture theme.

//edit
the tank is still really cloudy.

How do people stick their backgrounds to the tank? As you might be able to see I've used blu-tak!! Need to sort this now that I have the back showing!

and another shot...

Looking lovely
I have a thread in the DIY section about backgrounds

Hey it looks excellent for day one, it looks really natural looking, the removal of the filter will make a big difference (and will really bug you for the next couple of weeks...... only joking )

I bought a load of plants for my setup today as well, but they are still sitting in the pots they came in........aw yes the lazyness has set in allready and im only starting planted tanks !!!! Naw had some work to do on the hood, so ive finished that and will plant them tomorrow.

But yeah it looks great, i like it.............

How big is the tank btw?

Hey it looks excellent for day one, it looks really natural looking, the removal of the filter will make a big difference (and will really bug you for the next couple of weeks...... only joking )

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The filter has bugged me already!!! I so want to get rid of it. It's so big and ugly. So glad I finally got an external one.

The tank is 19UK gallons (30 inchx12x15). Does it look bigger or smaller than that?? I've been aiming for an illusion that the tank looks bigger in pictures than it is.

Thanks bloozoo for the backgrounds link. I've decided to paint I think. Only as an afterthought i might not be easy to pain Maybe I'll have to try the cardboard afterall.

I like the lotus!

If you keep just small fish in the tank, tetras or something small, it gives the illusion of the tank being bigger in photos, or mess around with the angles of your camera viewpoint to find the optimum position for photos, another thing that works is if you try and conceal the silicon seals on the back panel of your tank ( the 2 upright seals at the back panel, holding the side panels ) try and cover them with plants, and that way you can include the 2 side panels in your photos and it makes the tank look longer, but this might upset your overall design for the tank having plants growing up both sides.

But yeah ive seen some amazing photos of small tanks that had me totally fooled until i read the tank specs.

I like the lotus

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Is that the red-ish plant on the left??

Zig: well my tank is fully stocked now. I don't know if you can see sigs, but I have 5 cory metae, 3 botia striata, 2 dwarf gourami, 3 guppies and 3 amano shrimp.

I don't think they are very big fish. It's hard to find small fish really. I wanted to get cardinals, but I also wanted corys and botia, and I felt I couldn't get a decent enough cardinals to make it worth while, so I chose guppies and gourami instead.

I like the idea of hiding the joins. I might think about that, but yeah it'd ruin my triangle plan. I'll see how may triangle pans out, and if I change it again I'll go for a U shape so I can hide the joins both sides.

new pic

Looks nice. The left needs filling up to complete the picture. More foreground plants would look good too.

Good work Sam!

The lotus is the big red one on the left, and it appears you have another smaller one near the center. Those Amazon sowrds look nice and healthy. Why not add some moneywort to the left side background to give the tank another texture and to fill out the space? Add some foreground plants and it will be spectacular!

nice tank

I've got some hair grass and riccia floating in my tank at the mo for foreground. I have some small pieces of slate from my old tank that I'm going to try and wrap the riccia around.

Whats moneywort like? I looked on google and came up with loads of things. Greenline dont seem to do it unless its under the latin name.

The swords aren't so healthy up close. They have holes and the newer leaves seem to have their edges fading. I've printed off a website that describes plant deficiencies but I'm still not sure which deficiency it is. I know I have no Iron so I have just got Kent Botanica Fe today. Going to try one drop a day and keep testing to see if that helps and increase if need be.

Looks nice. The left needs filling up to complete the picture. More foreground plants would look good too.

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Well my plan in my head was to have hair grass at the back left, with a kind of corner of sand at the front. I wanted to get a triangle shape. And before I've always done my tank so that the entire background is hidden with a wall of plants I want to try showing some. If my triangle shape fails, I'll try a U shape.

But at the mo I'm trying to concentrate on getting my parameters right so I can see my plants pearling again. And then hopefully my hairgrass might do better.

nice tank i love the look