who wants to help me redo my planted tank?

[jacblades]

i love this tank to death but it is very...natural looking. dead plant leaves left on the tank floor, rooted plants floating at the top, not much...err...any type of structure at all.
i blame the bristlenose
i would like to rearrange the whole tank.

i have a banjo cat and some cories so i would like to make a small section of the tank's floor sand. i'm not sure if i should use black or natural sand though. the substrate now is all ecocomplete.

i was also considering covering some plastic craft canvas, (yes, the betta divider kind) with the java moss and using it as a background. would this work?
right now all of the java moss is just heaped on the bottom of the left half of the tank and is ever-growing. i am a bit reluctant about moving it though, as all of the fish love playing and hiding in it...
i was also considering using the craft canvas and java moss to make a bridge or hut that the bristlenose could chill under.

current plants:
swords (one large, one medium and about 5 small that are hiding behind the java moss)
hairgrass (currently floating at the top)
some sort of ludwigia (all over and floating)
4 leaf clover on the right side of the tank (about a foot worth of runners all clumped together)
java fern (behind the moss and all over, not really anchored to anything so they are always in different places) i'd love some bogwood or something i could attach them to but i can't spare any money to buy something.
i also have some microsword i could put in there but i don't have enough light at the moment. (only 1 generic fluorescent tube for the whole tank and surprisingly, most everything is doing pretty well. i used to have an additional plant tube but i had so much algae that i removed the extra light.)
i do have some strips i can add on if i choose to go with microsword or other higher-light plants.
other plants i can add:
milfoil
wisteria
riccia
cabomba (don't want to but maybe you can convince me if need be)

i would like to leave the large sword where it is because it is right below the filter intake. (it is too big to get sucked up and the shrimp like to sit under the filter's return flow.

so any suggestions are welcome!

sorry about the terrible pics and dirty glass!

 

[jacblades]

left side

 

[jacblades]

middle

 

[jacblades]

another

 

[jacblades]

right side
(this is the only angle i could avoid a huge flash in the reflection)

 

[glolite]

My first impression is that if you added a background it would bring out the colours of your plants. Don't think the plants are at fault because they look good to me. I'm slowly getting into live plants and would like to get some ground cover to enhance taller plants such as swordferns which I've found the easiest to grow. Others on the forums have suggested height at the back of the tank with medium plants inthe centre and ground cover at the front. Just an idea.