# Tall tank aquascape pointers?



## Opare (Sep 9, 2015)

Yes please the sketch would be nice hahaha. But, I agree have the Java Fern as a big mound sort of thing on the driftwood and have stems (would you be adverse to buying some Rotala species?) behind them. Although, I'm not good with visualising spaces from dimensions so I'll need to see the tank. Usually Trinagle scapes take more to shallow long tanks but I gotta see your tank first before we can be sure.


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## pauly (Oct 20, 2015)

if you add some hygrophila difformis to the background.youll have a jungle affect in no time trust me.i have a 45g tall tank and this plant reached the surface in no time and filled out great.for tall tanks you want plants that grow tall and this one will.i have s.repens in the front of the tank they were green and beautiful.but,dont give them to much light i learned this the hard way.i did a big trimming on my hygro that blocked out some of the light on them thinking they needed more.and after that the full light bleached them out.they are starting to grow back slowly now since the hygro is growing back over them after the trimming.lesson learned...if the plants are looking good leave them alone.good luck


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

Tall and narrow (front to back) tanks are not easy to scape but you do have a lot of suitable plants to choose from. My usual favorites for background are Valisneria (Italian / corkscrew) (Angels like them), Limnophila species (Ambulia - aquatica / indica) and water sprite. Star grass is another good choice, but can get messy and leggy under low light. A single red tiger lotus is hard to beat for a centerpiece. A healthy dense clamp of Java Fern (try narrow or needle leaf viriety) can be stunning all by itself.

I personally have mixed results with S. repent but Blyxa Japonica, once established, is my go to plant for fore / mid ground in any tank size.

In tanks like yours, I like to use small sized lava rock (~$7 for a ~25 lb bag at Home Depot) as base against the back glass. It helps to keep back to front slope, keep your driftwood angled to your liking, better substrate circulation, and makes good home for extra bacteria.


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## Moosemoose (Feb 27, 2016)

Thank you all for replies and sorry for not replying sooner! I'd like to if possible work with the plants I have, I might be able to get one more plant, I actually saw a nice looking bunch of a rotala species (might have been bacopa, I didn't get a good look). I am actually hoping for my hygro differormis to get that jungle look and to maybe out it in the back left corner or close behind the dw. I'll look into getting some lava rock as you, OVT mentioned, that'd be a great way to maintain a slope. I lovee the look of blyxa japonica but I had already gotten my dwarf sag by the time I found it. I actually forgot to do the skectch haha XD. Here's some photos though, the plants are all relatively new and still young. I'm still trying to get my hygro corymbosa to fill out. I also added a couple photos of other tanks that got me thinking. I think a better substrate will help all the plants.







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## Moosemoose (Feb 27, 2016)

Hello?


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## Opare (Sep 9, 2015)

Sorry I want to help but the photos won't load on my phone, so I'll have to wait till I can get back to my laptop a bit later!


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## Moosemoose (Feb 27, 2016)

Im not sure why they won't load, they do load on a computer though! I uploaded them on MyAquariumClub in a random question I asked not too long ago, just scroll all the way down. Should work on a phone! First is my tank, second two are other people's tanks that I like the looks of http://www.myaquariumclub.com/hygrophila-corymbosa-questions-822080.html#841822


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## Opare (Sep 9, 2015)

The colour of the eco-complete would be better in my opinion. As for scaping, you need some hardscape (you mentioned driftwood) to dominate one of the sides I would choose left, then attach the Java Fern to it so you can get that mound. Also, place the stems behind and then have the smaller plants coming out in a radial way. So from the back it's tallest to shortest. The driftwood needs to be large enough to fill 2/3's of the height of your tank and if it sprawls out onto the rest of the tank that would be nice. To help achieve height you can bank up substrate where you want the driftwood to be, and I would place more substrate at the back anyway to create depth. You can also place rocks at the base of the driftwood if you wish. Placing the sword at the back would look fine by the way. You can also add some smaller Anubias species to accent the driftwood piece.
Not sure why the photos wouldn't load on my phone, it happens quite a bit, not just in this thread. I think it's something to do with Tapatalk.


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## Moosemoose (Feb 27, 2016)

Thank you so much, this really helped! I spent today completing it all. It's very cloudy so I'll wait to upload some photos. I really like the way it looks, may end up tweaking it some eventually. Thank you all for the help. I'll upload photos tomorrow when it's not cloudy.


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## pauly (Oct 20, 2015)

i use eco complete and its worked out great.the dark substrate really looks nice and makes the green of the plants pop in my opinion.the biggest problem i have with my planted tanks is being patient.the plants take a while to get going and once they do you`ll love it.i agree with opare you need some hardscape.driftwood would look great i have some lace rock in my tank it stacks nice and you can attach mosses to it.keep us updated.heres a picture of my 45g tall.


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## Moosemoose (Feb 27, 2016)

Wow what a great lush tank pauly! All the black definitely makes the colors pop! Having patience has been a challenge lol, that's one of the reasons I got co2. Things have still been moving slowly since I started this tank but I've changed a lot of stuff around. Well here's the tank! I apologize for the photo quality or if any of you have issues viewing them. Hopefully the plants will fill out nicely. Also, since I took these at night, my angels are all hiding haha. Thank you all for the help!


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## Opare (Sep 9, 2015)

Would you be opposed to buying more Dwarf Saggitaria? It will speed up the filling up much more.


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## pauly (Oct 20, 2015)

great start.your photos look good.the co2 will help alot.i also dose pps pro dry ferts i think it helps alot with the plants.opare is right some more saggitaria would be nice or some blyxa japonica looks nice too.some crypts would go great.the brown plant in the middle of my tank at the bottom is a crypt.its double that size now.those are crypts on the left and right front corners too.your driftwood looks great.maybe on the right side back some jungle val would work nice.it gets tall and looks good swaying in the flow from your powerhead.the harlequin rasboras look nice.might want to add some more they look great in a group of 12 or more.i have micro rasboras in my tank chilli and strawberry they stay very small.i went with all tiny fish.i also have endlers, emerald eye rasboras, gold mountain minnows (beautiful fish), emerald dwarf rasboras, otocinclus, pygmy catfish, ember tetras, micro crabs and assasin snails.i have at least a 100 fish in the tank plus shrimp! they all love the heavily planted tank.once your plants take off your tank is going to look great.keep us updated


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## Moosemoose (Feb 27, 2016)

Pauly what a stocking list! That's awesome having all those pretty fish and all those pretty plants, I love it! I'll definitly order some more sag I would really love to have a lawn of it, would it benefit from root tabs? Also I've been looking for more harlequins! I can't seem to find more, I will keep an eye out though at the stores, maybe 5 or 6 more. All three of my angels are approaching 4 inches so they're gettin pretty big. I do dose ferts though, I do Seachem's NPK and flourish twice a week, sometimes I also add in excel or extra potassium depending on deficiency signs. Thanks for the replies btw, I'll keep you all updated!


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## Opare (Sep 9, 2015)

Root tabs are mostly negligible with most plants if water column dosing is adequate. So, just play it by ear see how the plants are doing and adjust accordingly.


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## Moosemoose (Feb 27, 2016)

Thank you opare! I'll play it by ear, add more ferts if I need and what not. I did put root tabs under my swords and corymbosa a. So far no deficiency or melting has appeared on any plants so that's good! My new driftwood does have the white fuzz, we'll see how long it takes for it to go away on its own!


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## Opare (Sep 9, 2015)

Yeah it should leave by itself it's pretty normal to get it.


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## pauly (Oct 20, 2015)

i use the diy osmocote root tabs bought them off [Ebay Link Removed] think they help they last 6 months or so.i also dose seachems excel every day and seachems pottasium and iron twice a week and i run co2.i dont know if you have ever ordered fish on line but i have gotten all my fish online.you can find some great deals on aquabids web site and some other web sites too.hope the tanks doing good.:smile2:


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## MikeP_123 (Aug 31, 2008)

Hardscape the H3LL out of it! W00t!

All that extra height and depth can allow you different "shelves" of the water column. This is why it is my favorite dimensions for a tank!


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## Moosemoose (Feb 27, 2016)

Thanks for all the replies everyone! Sorry I'm getting back a little late. These photos are of week 3, again not the best quality photos I just quickly snapped them. More dwarf sag is on its way. I did a first water change this week. Still dosing twice a week. Starting to get what looks like diatoms on some higher leaves, photo period has only been 6 hours with a 4 hour break! White fuzz is still there, giving the tank a very moldy smell unfortunately. @Mike_P Taller tanks definitely have interesting dimensions to work with! This being my first tank, it was a little tricky at first. Would love to try my hand some day a longer tank.


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## MikeP_123 (Aug 31, 2008)

This was an old tank I had. No recent pics, but might give you some idea. That was like many many pounds of rock

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/12-tank-journals/143323-56g~back-oper-modification-~.html

PS: That was a very risky hardscape  But you can get rocks from a local "stone" store very cheap and then break them to the desired size and shape.


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## Moosemoose (Feb 27, 2016)

Wow Mike, what an incredible rock formation, it looks really good! I would love to see an updated picture! And on that thread I realize it was awhile ago but the white worms, maybe planaria? 

So just a quick question about my tank, I mentioned diatoms forming on the upper leaves, well I "dimmed" the light some by window screen but now it seems the repens are getting diatoms?? Just a little confused, should I raise the light level or lower the light level in your opinions? Currently it sits about 8 inches from the water surface with a window screen, 6 hours on 4 hour break. Thank you all


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## Opare (Sep 9, 2015)

I would just keep the light where it is with the dimmer and see how it goes. Diatoms sort of come and go in a lot of tanks. Just keep regular maintainance and maybe get a clean-up crew.


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## Nazdaq (Mar 25, 2015)

how many inches of water is that? how far down to substrate?


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## Smooch (May 14, 2016)

Moosemoose said:


> So just a quick question about my tank, I mentioned diatoms forming on the upper leaves, well I "dimmed" the light some by window screen but now it seems the repens are getting diatoms?? Just a little confused, should I raise the light level or lower the light level in your opinions? Currently it sits about 8 inches from the water surface with a window screen, 6 hours on 4 hour break. Thank you all


How long has the tank been set up? If the tank is new, the diatoms are normal. Up your water changes which will remove the excess nutrients out of the water. This will starve off the diatoms and they will go away on their own. All new tanks go through this, there is no real way to 'cheat' this cycle, but the effects can be reduced. 

Water sprite is a fast grower that acts like a nutrient sponge as does floating plants such as Frog Bit. Frog bit is not messy like duckweed, so if you opt to use it and don't like the look of floating plants, they can be easily removed once your tank matures. Water sprite can also be used as a floating plant. 

There is no saying exactly how long it takes for a tank to settle down as there are too many variables, but a rough estimate is about 5 -7 weeks. I would keep your photo period on the lower. If it needs to be adjusted later post the diatom phase, that is simple enough to do.


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## MikeP_123 (Aug 31, 2008)

Agreed with the above post. I travel during the week for work, and remember I left with a nice clean tank with some tiny little brown hair looking things... came back with the entire tank covered in brown hairs stretching from the substrate all the way to the surface!!! Went and bought a HUGE cleaning crew and did water changes. Kept growing for maybe another 2 weeks and then vanished. Turned out to be diatoms as tested with the finger rubbing test.

Haven't seen any since.
@Moosemoose
I wonder if I can buy those! All the worms you buy and culture are too big for me... I like those little ones


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## MtAnimals (May 17, 2015)

on thing that is quick,though somewhat temporary,is if you have some long strands on hornwort,you can weigh them down with a small rock and use them to fill space in the background. until you get some long stems to grow in.I did that on our old 35 hex,it's 36 tall.

sorry about the sideways pic,not sure what to do.I have to keep the colored gravel and UG filter cause it's my wife's old tank,and she likes the bright colors.

stupid suction cup thermometer...


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## Moosemoose (Feb 27, 2016)

Thanks everyone for the replies! Just to answer some of your alls questions:
The filter media has been set up for 7 months going through many changes in the tank. When I first set up the tank I went through a diatom bloom that led me to floating anacharis and raising the light which all seemed to help. After I changed to Eco complete I removed a lot of diatoms. The light now sits 9in from the waters surface, 28in from substrate and has black window screen on it. I'm really trying to have light the limiting factor, I don't mind the slow growth

I'm not opposed to floating plants but would like to not get any if I can. My main confusion comes from the diatoms on the repens, it's not on any of the lower leaves of the other plants (the lower leaves on my corymbosas look really healthy and the algae algae that came on the Java fern is disappearing). As long as it doesn't get out of hand like the last bloom I'm happy to wait it out As for a clean up crew, I'm not sure there's enough "waste" to sustain say ottos so I'd definitely have to provide food for them. Thank you all, let me know if you have any more questions.


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## Moosemoose (Feb 27, 2016)

@Smooch


How long has the tank been set up? 

With the Eco complete it has been 4 weeks, but before I switched substrate, it was up for 6 months (the filter media and some of the plants I started with).


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## Moosemoose (Feb 27, 2016)

MtAnimals said:


> on thing that is quick,though somewhat temporary,is if you have some long strands on hornwort,you can weigh them down with a small rock and use them to fill space in the background. until you get some long stems to grow in.I did that on our old 35 hex,it's 36 tall.
> 
> sorry about the sideways pic,not sure what to do.I have to keep the colored gravel and UG filter cause it's my wife's old tank,and she likes the bright colors.
> 
> stupid suction cup thermometer...


That tank looks really good! Very colorful and vivid and I can see how hornwort would benefit in a taller tank!!


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## MtAnimals (May 17, 2015)

thankyou for the compliment,I also have some ludwigia repens I bought from that online auction site,the strands they sent were really long! I put them in the gravel and they're now reaching for the top of the tank as well,and it's only been a couple weeks.


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## Avianwing (Dec 15, 2009)

Wonderful Tank Pauly!! Love that Lush dense look.


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