# Killies Import > Planted Tanks >  Help Needed --> Re-decorating my 3ft

## stormhawk

Ok people here's my plans so far as drawn by MSPaint. Have just gotten two stalks of Cryptocoryne usteriana from a good friend of mine.  :Very Happy:  Please take a look at the illustration and do give me some pointers before I embark on this big renovation project of mine.

Floating plants should be some frogbits and salvinia held in place by floating straws joined with some sillicon, little bit of hornwort and maybe some young water wisteria.

Recently obtained a large piece of driftwood (the one to the left of the pic) and will be re-tying some normal java fern and some narrow-leaf java fern on it. Should be making a mix of java fern variants, java moss and some nanas that are growing quite well in the tank.

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## whuntley

As an artist, I'm a pretty good engineer. OK?  :Very Happy:  

My second wife, who _was_ an artist, always seemed to think all my taste was in my mouth, too.  :Smile: 

That said, the drawing looks awfully symmetrical about the center, which most artists avoid for the best aesthetic effect. In art, it is known as the "Salt and Pepper" look. Of course your driftwood and other factors may tend to break that up a bit, and I cannot really visualize them.

A 3/5 to 2/5 imbalance can make it look more natural, IMHO. I'm no great fan of Amano, but he does use many such rules to very good effect.

I guess it depends a bit on whether you lean toward the formal English Tea Garden look, or Amano's totally wild world. The most memorable tanks, to me, have usually been in between those extremes, somewhere.

Free advice that's possibly worth every penny...  :Very Happy:  

Wright

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## stormhawk

Wright, what do you mean by an English tea garden look? I've got no clue on that because I've never seen one in my life.

I may change the position of the driftwood more towards the centre but not exactly meeting in the centre. Maybe place them closer together with a gap in between. Or should I get another driftwood?? hmm.. some food for thought.

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## whuntley

> Wright, what do you mean by an English tea garden look? I've got no clue on that because I've never seen one in my life.
> 
> I may change the position of the driftwood more towards the centre but not exactly meeting in the centre. Maybe place them closer together with a gap in between. Or should I get another driftwood?? hmm.. some food for thought.


Rectangularly trimmed hedges, and walkways in precise geometrical patterns, usually 100% symmetrical. No random intrusion by nature in any way. That's my view of the typical formal tea garden. There have been lots of them in movies, but probably few in tropical countries where privet is hard to grow. :wink: 

The thing I found disturbing was the right-left symmetry in your sketch, not distances from center. It is visually boring and leads the eyes to drift away quickly.

Move *one* driftwood closer to center, but not both, to break up the simplistic pattern and give life to the scene. That's all I was suggesting. Likewise avoid any abrupt centerline division between the plant species.

[Despite my earlier disclaimers, one of my father's careers was as a top-notch commercial artist. I did tend to learn a few things from him. I also spent last summer as a layout artist doing ads and page composing for the local newspaper.  :Smile: ]

Wright

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## stormhawk

Wright, I'll take your suggestions into consideration. Seems like a good idea to move one driftwood more to the centre. Just one other thing, the right end of the tank will be much visible to everyone in the house. The left side of the tank is facing a wall. I was thinking of using black Oyama paper to cover the backglass but decided not to. 

I was actually planning to plant my plants in different species groups. Maybe I should go select some stem plants for the centre. My Rubin sword isn't doing too well right now. By the way, what plants would grow in a sand-based substrate? One part of the substrate is actually riversand. Was intended for my corys to dig in. Told by someone that hairgrass actually loves growing in sand beds? Might just give this a try.

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## budak

Dwarf sagitarria are very hard to control once they get established..... they are very invasive (will overpower the tennelus) and can convert into non-dwarf forms without warning.... but they will give the tank a 'wild, uncontrolled' look, which may or may not work. I would stick to just one foreground species. 

I would prefer to use a single piece of wood off centre - perhaps the two pieces could be interspersed with each other? 

The plant selection is rather symmetrical, but if you are willing to let the back wall of vals grow relatively unhindered, their random spread could be good in breaking up the delineartions emphasised by the crypts and E. rubin.

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## FC

Jian Yang,

I am not a good aquascaper but I suggest you to remove the right corner drift wood. Then plant in such a way (from top view) that you ground and layer the plants in rings, taking the left corner wood as centre of the ring. 

The taller plants nearer to the wood, the short ones (foregrounds) towards the right side of the tank. Place the Echin sp Red Rubin about 1 ft away from the tank's left as a focal point.

Of course, do not be too precise with the rings, make it oval in shape would look more natural.

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## stormhawk

Hello all, decided to shift the left driftwood towards the centre and the right driftwood closer towards the centre slightly. The setup's not fully complete but further from what I had actually envisaged. In fact I'm looking for more bushy plants to cover up the centre to the left of the main driftwood. My Mum is pretty happy with the outlook of the new setup.  :Very Happy:  Here's two views of the current setup. Any comments are welcome. :wink: 

Front View


Left: Crypt wendtii "Green", wendtii "Brown", usteriana and a row of corkscrew Val to the back.
Centre : Main driftwood tied with Bolbitis heudelotii, regular Java fern, narrow leaf Java Fern and Java moss. Echinodorus "Rubin" to the left of the driftwood, Red Barclaya to the front of the driftwood.
Foreground : Dwarf Sagittaria

Right View


Left: Regular Java Fern on driftwood.
Centre: Driftwood tied with Singapore Moss, regular Java Fern, Anubias nana.
Foreground: Echinodorus tenellus.

Floaters: Small frogbits, a little duckweed, Salvinia and some Hygrophila difformis.

Current inhabitants : 23 x Corydoras hastatus, 6 x Corydoras pygmaeus, 2 x Corydoras habrosus, 2 x Corydoras xinguensis, 1 x Corydoras adolfoi, 1 x Corydoras surinamensis, 10 x Boraras urophthalmoides, 4 x Boraras micros, 2 x Indostomus paradoxus, 4 Otocinclus sp. , 3 Otocinclus sp. "Zebra II", Malayan shrimps.

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## RonWill

Jian Yang, here's my 2cents' worth... briefly (still working!  :Rolling Eyes: )

If you want to hide the filter intake pipe, swap the driftwoods. Taller to right and shorter, in middle (with the tallest branch at right, ie. flip it around if you have to).

Your curtain of vals at left looks isolated and you might wish to group it with the shorter driftwood. In that case, shift the tall one slightly left of midline. That will leave the entire right side almost bare but IMHO, plant count is too low for visual impact... shopping at Teo's this weekend? :wink:

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## stormhawk

Wouldn't mind raiding the farm for plants but as usual I don't have the wheels.  :Laughing: 

Not intending to hide the filter intake just in case one of my little rascals get sucked for getting too close. The stickleback really loves to go near the intake.  :Exclamation:

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## hwchoy

Botanically speaking it would be so "clashy" to have crypts and echinodorus together.

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## RonWill

> Botanically speaking it would be so "clashy" to have crypts and echinodorus together.


Choy, please expand on why you think it is so.

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## hwchoy

Echi's are from South America, crypts are from South and South-east Asia!

Q.E.D. :wink:

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## stormhawk

Choy, I like the clashy look.  :Laughing:  Makes the tank look wild. I'm not doing a biotope/plant-group tank so I suppose I'm less guilty of the clash.  :Twisted Evil:  Anyway, I decided on plants that I'm happy with, main emphasis would be on my crypts.  :Smile:

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## zmzfam

> Your curtain of vals at left looks isolated .....


I'll let the vals grow-out but you could add them in now to achieve the curtain effect fast.

Following Ron's suggestion on swapping the driftwood, you'll achieve the triangulation effect on the right-hand side - aquascape rule no ???  :Laughing:  

For me, I'll extend the crypts in more to the right (other species perhaps?). If you want to achieve a short grass effect, I'll exchange the dwarf sags with tenellus. Like what budak said, certain conditions can trigger the dwarf sags to grow tall - that's what happen to mine, but it'll give your tank some wild look.

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## elmike

> As an artist, I'm a pretty good engineer. OK?  
> 
> My second wife, who _was_ an artist, always seemed to think all my taste was in my mouth, too. 
> 
> That said, the drawing looks awfully symmetrical about the center, which most artists avoid for the best aesthetic effect. In art, it is known as the "Salt and Pepper" look. Of course your driftwood and other factors may tend to break that up a bit, and I cannot really visualize them.


Hmm then I must be a greater artist, for someone whos not actually one by profession  :Laughing:  I was for a good many years, a member of the Association of Medical Illustrators thats headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, until I quit in 1999.  :Cool:  I was paying hefty yearly membership dues (after currency conversion) without ever participating in their annual meetings, which is too far and costly to attend for a lone member from this part of the world.

I agree totally with Wright that a perfect symmetry would render a contrived appearance to the aquascape. It is as much an artist point of view as is a naturalist. Which was why I made it a point to plant my red tiger lotus (in my 2 mths old tank) adequately off-centre, so as to break away from this artificial mould.

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## RonWill

> Wouldn't mind raiding the farm for plants but as usual I don't have the wheels.


 Tentatively, let's make it Sunday noon. A 'country-side' ride should be refreshing (if the weather holds up) and you can shop to your heart's content. I'm thinking of adding more _Blyxa japonica_...  :Rolling Eyes:  (Anyone else game? We can carpool and visit a couple of other farm/nursery while we're in that area)

Zul, it was a rough guesstimate but you're right. A triangulated area from right to left, with short crypts on the left, would look rather nice I think.

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## RonWill

> Wouldn't mind raiding the farm for plants but as usual I don't have the wheels.


 Tentatively, let's make it Sunday noon. A 'country-side' ride should be refreshing (if the weather holds up) and you can shop to your heart's content. I'm thinking of adding more _Blyxa japonica_...  :Rolling Eyes: 
(Anyone else game? We can carpool and visit a couple of other farm/nursery while we're in that area)

Zul, it was a rough guesstimate but you're right. A triangulated area from right to left, with short crypts on the left, would look rather nice I think.

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## stormhawk

By the way, you posted twice  :Laughing: .

Ok Sunday it is then.  :Very Happy:  Had been planning to add in some Blyxa myself. Maybe get somemore vals to cover the back end and some other plants just to fill in the blanks.

Talking about the other farms, there's Toh's apisto farm and Gan's. Heard they got some really nice fish in this time round  :Twisted Evil: . *schemes*..

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