Critique my aquascape 2.0

[DRteugelsi]

So I finally got the 29 fairly stocked and scaped. Still more fish and plants to come. As of right now there are...
Fish:
6 fancy guppies
1 Bolivian ram (3 more coming next Friday because the other 3 I ordered died in transit...)
2 asst. Cory cats
10 large ghost shrimp
1 peacock gudgeon
(I feel like I'm forgetting someone but I will be updating)
Plants:
Large mother plant amazon sword
Dwarf hair grass
Unlabeled Anubias
Not knowing and being new to plants I bought dragons tongue and found out it won't grow in water so yay!

Currently on its way or plan to add:
Ludwigia repens
Echinodorus "flame sword"
Bacopa caroliniana
Baby tears (not dwarf)
Celestial danios
Cherry shrimp if my LFS gets them in large enough
Oto cats
And maybe some others here and there

I'm also open to suggestions

The tank currently has 2x24 watt 6700 lumen lights on it

Currently dosing with liquid ferts.

What do you guys think?(sorry about the cloudiness still have some tannins from the driftwood).

 

[DRteugelsi]

Hair grass is doing terrible... any suggestions??

 

[limz_777]

hair grass takes a while to convert to submersed form , if you want speed things up , you might want to add co2 , what soil are you using ?

 

[KabobSoldier]

Lights might not be strong enough for the hairgrass either cause the tank is high. But like limz_777 said it could just be melting and converting.

 

[DRteugelsi]

Lights might not be strong enough for the hairgrass either cause the tank is high. But like limz_777 said it could just be melting and converting.

Really you don't think the lights will be enough. Well I have at least I've been getting some upward growth from them. They're definitely looking healthier.

If they don't start to carpet after the co2 I guess I'm going to have to invest more money into the lights. I've already put about several hundred in scaping... So I might as well put the finishing touches on it.

 

[plantdude]

I like the placement of the amazon mother plant. Hopefully, the plant will hide the accessories that are placed behind it. Since a planted tank should be a natural " thing of beauty", I would move the items that are now smack-dab in the center of the tank to a less conspicuous place. When I look at the picture, the first thing I noticed are the items in the center, and then my eye wanders to the bright white rock on the left side. Only after that I would see the plants. So, may be change things around and look at your tank with fresh eyes again?

IMHO I think that there is not enough gravel for a good plant growth. If you want the hair grass to form a carpet and stay down when the fish "mess" in it a little, like the Bolivian Rams, you need a deeper layer of substrate. I would do that before adding light. Adding substrate moves the plants up a little bit, which might help add to the lighting. Since light falls off (or increases) with the square of the distance, any distance closer to the source will help.

 

[Fat Homer]

^ thats a good point, in my planted tanks there is basically no less than 3"-4" of dirt in lower areas, some areas used to have up to 5"+... basically no matter how deep a substrate you give you plants, they will use it up...