Updated Pics...

[beviking]

Just wanted to share. Thanks to Len for some awesome plants and to everyone for awesome info!!!
http://community.webshots.com/photo/66733948/382461552OLsilq

http://community.webshots.com/photo/66733948/382462829inxSRV

Click on the "View Full Size" for...a full size view :duh: :D

Bill

[nursie]

Wow..that is awesome!! Verrryyy nice!

[reiverix]

That's a classic. I love it.

[Harlock]

Dear beviking,

The user Harlock is informing you that he has placed you on ignore for having a much prettier tank than he does. He is crying in the corner as we speak. Hope you're happy with your beautful, well-planted, good looking and overall superior aquarium. Have a nice day. Normally, a parting shot would be used. Something like, "Take a long walk off a short pier," but we are certain you would only plant the pier and make it as equally beautiful as your tank so we are not saying that. Good day.

[beviking]

:laugh: Thanks. I feel like I might be onto something but it isn't quite "there" yet. Maybe too many species??? I'm working on it.

[Civicman86]

what is the plants called that are all on the bottom? Your tank looks really nice! A+ :)

[beviking]

Thanks. The small stuff is Glosso, Glossostigma elantoides.

[Civicman86]

Do you have to do alot of pruning and such to your tank? I want to do some more plants in one of my tank but seems like the stuff I have no grows like crazy! Now that I have some snails some of the extra that dies off is eaten. Just wondering how often and how long you work to keep it looking so perfect :)

[wickerman]

wow thats a great looking tank.
im looking at mine now and thinking...booo hoo ho

and the thing is.... photos dont do tanks Justice,so it must look even better in real life!

[djlen]

Dad-gum-it!! I believe the lad's got!!

Keep up the good work Bill!!:)

Len

[Bobafish]

This is better than some of the tanks in the Aquascaping CONTESTS!!! Nicely done and keep up the good work. Do ya inject CO2?

[beviking]

Dad-gum-it!! I believe the lad's got!!

Keep up the good work Bill!!:)

Len

At last...Lens approval. I can finally drift into the great beyond... :joke:
Well, it DOES mean alot! Thanks.

A lot of pruning? That's relative! I'd say no. I use floating Riccia to shade my insanely fast growing plants (the sunset hygro) so they don't grow so insanely fast! About every other week I do some heavy pruning (45 minutes) to the stem plants. Occassionally I'll see a leaf (darn crypts!) withering away and pull it. The glosso is not being nice now that it's filled in everywhere it can. The older growth lets it's leaves die off and they're so small that it's a pita to pull them. I think I'll be switching over to the E.tennelus that someone *cough*Len*cough* sent me as a ground cover.

Yes I agree that the pic doesn't do it justice. You can't get in there and see how nice the red tiger lotus is or the cherry shrimp climbing through the glosso. The depth is lost somewhat with a pic. :(

...and yes, I inject CO2 but keep it on the low end since my lighting isn't very high. About 20ppm CO2, lighting is about 2.8wpg. Better than aquascaping contest tanks!?! Wow! Thanks Bobafish!!!

[Emg]

OOOOOOOHHHHHHHH.........AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH !!! :clap: :thm: :cool: :) :D :dance:

[flyfly]

niiiice!

[cohazard]

I'm drooling so badly that I felt the need to put a towel in my mouth.

I love your aquascape.


Serg

[Swimfins]

Lovely tank, I luv the anubias on the driftwood, tres cool. :dance:

[Mooch28]

Very nice tank!

Excellent aquascaping!

Im still learning, but isn't it funny that no matter how many complements you get, it's never quite perfect? :p:

[kveeti]

Absolutely gorgeous!

Two bonuses in one thread! The delight at looking at your beautiful tank and a great laugh from Harlock's response.

[djlen]

Just wanted to add that this is what I mean when I talk about 'heavy plant mass'.
I would scale it like this: Sparse; lightly planted; medium; heavy; and jungle:).
The closer you can get to beviking's mass, the more margin for error you will find with regard to balance, IME.

Len

[Leopardess]

Beviking, everything looks wonderfully healthy:) Great job!!!

To enhance an already good setup, may I suggest thinking about bringing out the V shape layout you have going? Staggering the plants in height towards the back (and maybe making their groupings a little tighter and distict) will help some too. Behind the riccia could use something with a little more height to connect the lower foreground to the background (again, staggering the stargrass down could do that) and then also behind the grass (sag?).

Great job, though, things are coming along nicely:)

Maybe try lowering the exposure on your camera to -1 and take a pic with all the room lights off at night:)

[Slappy*McFish]

The tank is looking absolutely killer, Vik....impressive to say the least.

[beviking]

...The closer you can get to beviking's mass, the more margin for error you will find with regard to balance, IME.

Len

...which translates into "Hey look, if this dummy can do it, so can YOU!" :laugh: Yes, it is sad...even I laugh at me ;)

Again, thank you all for the compliments. It means alot when so many accomplished aquarists say so much!!! Thanks too Leopardess for the constructive criticism, always appreciated! I actually did just as you said prior to you saying it. It looked great but with all the extra growing heads, the stargrass dominated the tank within a week. Still working on it...

Bill

[Biznatch]

Nice tank, your plants look a lot more healthy than mine, although I can't see them through my **** green water :P UV is finally coming today so it should be gone soon.

1 thing though is it lacks definition between foreground and background. I would either lower the back some or add some taller midground plants. Your tank may not have the width to do it (I know mine doesn't) but it does look nice. If you ever have any extra clippings of that stargrass let me know ;) I want to get some of that.

[WinterWind]

WOW!

That is SO cool.

BTW, are the two links the same or different tanks?

[beviking]

The tank is only 18" wide and being 24" tall does make it difficult to cover the entire water column and effectively taper it down front to back.

They are the same tank. Just different apetures/F-stops whatever they are (it's actually a dig. camera and the knob just has different icons so I don't know WHAT it is!), different settings on the camera anyway.