Tank Layout Suggestions

[Revision17]

I've got growing plants quickly with very little algae down pat (or so I think... algaezilla might attack tomorrow). However I'm thinking my current tank layout kinda sucks compared to lots of the tanks I see on the internet. My cell phone camera also sucks . However it should give you guys a decent idea as to how it's currently laid out:

Tank:
20 gallon long
DIY yeast CO2 hooked up to a Marineland C-360 canister filter. Which in turn is hooked up to a 25 watt UV sterilizer. Said sterilizer is only run after new fish are introduced just in case they're diseased and to reduce the amount of flow through the canister filter (360 gal/hr is no fun for fish in a 20 long).
2x 24 watt T5s
Substrate is shultz aquatic plant soil with silica sand on top. I think the layered substrate was a mistake, since the gravely shultz comes up when I uproot and plant plants, and ends up looking messy. Substrate is 3-3.5" deep.

Plants:
Rotala Magenta on the left. It was kinda redish, then I started EI dosing and it turned green.
Dwarf Saggitaria also on the left. My tank was dominated by these up until last weekend. They'll be back shortly, however, and in greater numbers than before . I'm thinking of designate this to a corner somewhere and just use it as an anti algae device until the 'nicer' plants grow in more.
Hemianthus callitrichoides attached to the log. I don't have a tank to grow these emmersed, plus I think they'll look nice on the log. Still growing in.
Some sort of Cryptocorne to the right. About a month since purchase, and is still going through the crypt melt thing (I think that might be finishing soon though).

The current plan:
I'm thinking of replacing the substrate with a thinner layer of only silica sand (since I have the remainder of a 50LB bag). 3" of substrate is quite a bit of vertical tank real estate in a 20 long. I was thinking of getting ADA aqua soil instead... but it's kinda pricey. I'll see how my feb/march fish budget ends up before making this call. I could also just mix up the existing silica sand and shultz aqua soil, but I'm worried about my cories scraping their barbels on it... but then so much shultz is exposed anyway, I'm not sure that an even mix would be worse for the cories. If I redo the substrate, I think I'm also gonna bury the log a bit so the top doesn't stick out of the water.

I'd like your opinions on plants. I do have a few ideas, but I'd like a tabula rasa for you guys to suggest things. I want to keep all of my existing plants.

 

[mibson]

I recommend less drift wood and more room for plants. I had a huge nice peice of driftwood in my 90g and when I took it out I really enjoyed the extra planting space.

You might know this but try tall think plants in the back and small plants as you move to the front.

For substrate I love black florite! It is great stuff.

Also, your lighting is a bit light on the sides of the tank, I would move the lighting up a 2-3 inches; i use nice looking think wires.

 

[aaronnorth]

it would make it easier for suggestions if you would say what layout you want, like dutch, jungle, iwagumi... you may get a more exact answer, but for me i would move that large foreground plant to the back then try hairgrass or blyxa japonica surrounding the wood

 

[garuf]

ok, keeping the wood and working from there, I would add a wall of thick stems behind it and running into the corner 3rd of the way along the tank, just off centre add some red stems still behind the wood, on and long the front of the wood add some anubias and areas of moss, weeping or flame would be nice, add some small crypts prava maybe and have these punctuating the anubias. Add some sharply contrasting rocks along the front of the wood, not like a wall, more like the kind you see where sand meets rocks at the beach and add some carpeting plants, maybe some e tennelus or Hc or marcelia something of that vain.
If I get time I'll post up a picture.