SnookusFish's new aquascape thread

I think its time for me to make this thread.
Its not exactly what the title says, its a long story, I will summarise.
14 long years ago when I was still only saying my first words my dad got a fish tank for his birthday. When he was younger his dad had a planted tank with guppies and angels and a red tailed shark and a few other common fish and my dad looked after the tank so he always wanted his own and finally got one at the age of 40. Well, i recently got into the hobby almost a year ago now and have my own planted tank and realise that my dads tank just isn't up to scratch, any visitors to the house will see it so its got to look good! Anyway, my grandfathers tank was planted with plants like cabomba and hornwort so my dad thinks plants like that are a nuisance, he likes low maintenance. He has tried many plants over the years but the only ones that have survived have been java moss and an anubias, he always planted java ferns in the substrate and buried the crowns of swords. Anyway! After a lot of perseverance I have convinced him to rescape!
Here is what the tank looks like now


As you can see, very bare, no hardscape, except the fake coral which has to go (my mum got that) but! The fish are nice and anubias does well in the tank so I know plants can survive in there. Some of you may know I make youtube videos and I would like to film some of the fish in this tank but its not nice filming when the tank looks like this...
So! Here is my plan


That is just a rough sketch, it won't be exactly like that but thats an idea of the layout.
So far we have bought a piece of wood that I will use in that little wall. I'm just waiting for the rain to stop so I can go out and look for the rest of the hardscape, smooth dark river rocks. For plants we can get 4 for £12 at a lfs. Im going to do an amazon sword, a large anubias and java ferns, maybe vals, its very low light, any other recommendations are welcome. I also have a planted tank so I can give him a few of my plants too.
I will update this as soon as i get the rocks and ask you for help on the hardscape layout.
Thanks for reading!

 

What about growing moss on the tube?

 

I would leave it the way it is. I think it looks great. Don't fix it if it isn't broken!! If you've seen my aquascape thread then you know exactly what I mean

 

What about growing moss on the tube?

Have to keep it easy to clean, no plants round infront of or on the tubes

 

I agree with the other posters, the PVC pipe on the right really retracts from the scape. Some branches positioned in front could really add something, or even a taller plant or two (like valls) would help hide it a little and still be really easy to clean IMO.

 

Have to keep it easy to clean, no plants round infront of or on the tubes

What the... ok, ON the tubes I can see make sense, but in front of is not a problem. Just leave a line of view from at least two sides.

 

What the... ok, ON the tubes I can see make sense, but in front of is not a problem. Just leave a line of view from at least two sides.

Ok fair enough. I'll try and let the plants grow into that shape, if I get new LED lighting on it then I have more options aswell.

 

 

 

Very good amount of floaters, but still a lot of open space.
I'm a bit torn, because what's there is really nice, but the part that's missing is really missing.

 

Well I am too. I dont really want to put anything big infront of the pipe as that is technically the foreground... the anubias and crypt will start to carpet out soon so I'll se how that looks and decide what to do. Honestly, in person I never even notice the pipe since I can view the tank from so many angles

 

No, to me it's not about the pipe. It's really just the extent of the empty spaces.