lets see if if get an invalid post with ie?!

I had a heck of a time getting words to show up on this so I just copy and pasted from my journal on another site. 

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=229467

I have been on this site for probably two years but I went thru a deployment. and I no longer have my 90 gal reef.  though I will have it again someday.  For now hope I can get some local input and see if there are other fellow planted aquarium folk here in toledo. 

Tank specs. 37 gallon used aquarium bought off craigslist.
Started as a community tank.
Lighting 4x24w (6500k and 1000k) Catalina....amazing light...highly recomended
Filtration c-220 marineland cannister filter. does its job and is growing on me.
co2. diy co2
substrate eco-complete plant substrate black. as this is my first planted couldnt tell you if this stuff is the best or not. But it did raise my kh from 3 to 7. It is supposed to go neutral after 3-6 weeks.

plants.
2 anubias nana on driftwood
1 anubias congenis (becoming a favorite)
3 seperate bunches of ludwigia repens ( gone nuts with the new lighting)
2 seperate bunches of ludwigia narrow leaf ( they grow bba on their leaves...that about it)
1 amazon sword (started with 2 leafs and quickly becoming a strong plant)
7 dwarf onion plants ( not sure about these bad boys)
2 bulbs apongeton crispis (had a week and notice quick growth)
1 bunch moneywart? unsure of what exactly this is but a very quick grower
2 pots micro sword ( ummm nothing yet)
2 pots hc....pearling like mad..but not much growth


Starting today i will be doing the ei dosing method with ferts. My ferts just came in today so we shall see how this goes.

You can see the progression of my tank over the course of 3 months. As you can see the obsession with plants hit me with hard...and I am now addicted! There are only 2 bn plecos in the tank now with 15 baby rcs and 2 zebra nerita snail...and some dang pond snails lol

Focus on the last picture. This is my current setup and basically what I want to stick with. The plant in the back right corner the tall one...what is that? moneywart? How would you improve this tank. I am up to suggestions.
What I dont like...the ludwigia narrow leaf. Next to the supposed moneywart. It doesnt want to grow anything but bba on it...and it is the only plant that is doing it. Also How about the layout? The ludwigia repens has grown like a weed this week after the addition of the t-5 lighting....I LOVE IT!!!! I think it will quickly overtake the driftwood and will be my cash crop at the lfs This sat when I do my water change I will be pulling the driftwood with the 2 nana attached to it. I want to boil some hydra off of it and better attach the nanas with some cotton string

Also I do diy co2. And the first time i did it I had no problems with anything getting in the tank. The last 2 times for the first couple days I get a coat of something on the top of he tank...like a yeast film. I have the setup going from my 2liter solution bottle to a 1 liter bottle that acts as a bubble counter and what I would have thought kept the yeast out of my tank. it doesnt. Then it goes to an air stone where it gets sucked up into the intake of the cannister filter. I dont think this is the best thing for my cannister filter impeller since it is always getting a collection of co2 bubbles then spitting it out. Id like to get one of those green leaf ceramic glass diffusers then let my powerhead spread those bubbles in my tank...but I hate the look of bublles in the aquarium. BUt I wonder if the bubbles would be tiny enough that I wouldnt notice it? How about the output diffuser that connects to the output of a cannister filter by grean leaf that is like 120 bucks???anyone use one of those?
Well hopefully I can get some help and comments on this and everyone will like the read.
Thanks guys

Earlier this week I tried changeing my tank around..got a little frustrated and decided to start fresh and hopefully more of a balanced theme.  So here is the new layout. as of july 10.

simpler may sometimes be better.... well i havent given up yet. guess I just needed time to think....ponder and decide what i really want. the first pictbure I post was right before I cleaned this morning and right before the tear out. As you can the plants are growing...and growing very well. But I have an odd shaped aquarium. I started out with sloping the gravel. Its hard to see it in the picture but I think it really adds the the aquarium. I then started with my drift wood. I tied my anubias congensis to it and am using that as the focal point. Before I never had a focal point...probably leading to me feeling like the aquarium was in a state of confusion. I then laid rocks down and away from the slope of the substrate. this will be the open field. where I have used hc(dwarf baby tears as the lowest part of the aquarium which then leads up to my micro swords thatll be the grass that leads to the higher part of the aquarium. The micro sword had to be trimmed so that the bba could be cut off. I then planted what was left of my italian vals in the back left corner. Hard to see. from the driftwood left is still in a state of uncertainty. I planted the creeping jenny....broad leaf ludwigia...and some egeria densa for only one reason...to suck up nutrients. I planted in a fasion that is tasteful to the eye but they will be coming out. This is what I need help with. What should i plant in the left side of the aquarium? I want to keep the vals in the back left corner and have them take up some space as the get taller and shoot out runners. I also will keep my lotus plant...but not sure if it will stay in that spot. I also have an amazon sword in there...but the leaves were badly damaged in the tear out...so it will have to grow. Not sure if I will keep the sword in there.

So please help me. Keeping the lotus and vals...what would you put in there? rotala of some sort?
also i know hc need lots of light but I cut off half of my lights so that I dont have an algae out break until my plants start to take off again, will they be fine or should I just bang on all the lights and risk the algae to get the hc to grow?

well here are the pictures...old tank new tank.

Nice tank!  I've been using the eco-complete because I like the black.  I just put together a tank with a layer of topsoil and a layer of eco-complete, then I topped it off with a thin layer of black sand.  It looks great.  It's serving as a grow out tank for my grass and redfin pickerel. 

I like to put a big piece of wood in my planted tanks, too, the biggest I can afford.  As for plants, I usually try different ones to see what grows well. 

When I did DIY CO2, I used an aquarium check valve in case of backflow, and I think it helped keep any junk from getting in the tank.  I always have an airstone or something going in my tanks, though.  I've gone the low-tech route to planted tanks.  I'm mostly interested in making a beautiful environment for the fish. 

Thanks! Glad you like it.  I would really like to do a 90g discuss tank, and I may try the whole topsoil, eco, then sand trick. 

As for the diy co2. I have both a check vavle and a gunk bottle....still always getting scum on the top.  Im thinking it may not be the diy co2 anymore, but because I have very little surface agitation.   Guess Ill find out when I get my pressurised co2!

It's too soon to see if the topsoil/eco-complete/sand tank is a success, but I have high hopes for it.

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=229467&page=4

I am too lazy right now to try and repost this from another forum.  I recieved a bunch of nice collectorish plants yesterday.  If you go to the link you can see a better picture of my tank and the new plants.  post 35 has the new plant by each plant but you may have to be a member to actually view those pictures.  The tank is looking amazing! Time for a bigger tank! Im thinking 90gallon should work well in my apartment!  I stopped by petsmart today. they had OTO's! SO I got 5 of them!  Looks like they are enjoying the tank.  Let me know if you guys want me to post the pictures on this sight.

Just sitting here enjoying my aquarium.  Nothing more relaxing! Especially enjoying the 5 oto's playing leap frog on the glass swimming in a school and the occasion panda cory swimming right thru them.  I reaquascaped and hold your breath, I think I landed on something I will keep for a while to come!!!  Minor changes if anything! (knock on wood!)   Cleaned out my cannister filter, what do I find, 3 red cherry shrimp...alive.  Guess I need to cover my filter intake.  Here are some pictures hope you enjoy.

ok how do I add pictures that dont look like crap?!

Fastlight81 said :

ok how do I add pictures that dont look like crap?!

Easiest way I know would be to copy and past from photo-bucket.

Thanks rjs. Darn camera washes out the photos.  Looks so much better in person.

Much better!

Right half close up

Left half close up

BN Pleco, Panda cory and oto sitting in the vals.

Looks like your off to a great start. Just wait till your trimming plants every other week.

Growing in well! 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/52390589@N06/4891987864/

Your planted aquarium is looking real nice.  Keep up the good work.

That is a lot of growth!  The tank looks really super.  I'm looking at my tank now and feeling inadequate.