adding to what romi had just said:Romi wrote:Here goes bro..
1. nick, the floating stems are blocking out light. please plant them like the other plants.
2. The coloured stones are artificially coloured and really have no place in a serious aquascape. take them out and replace with natural stones, when u get what u like. till then, gravel is fine.
3. Since u are not going to use C02, u must make sure no other limiting factor comes into play. For instance, u could use a micronutrient powder. u should also read about Tom Barr's Estimative Index method. Read now, for a few weeks, then u can start to apply what you learn about it. You can keep simple plants like Vallisneria if u dont want to bother with dosing fertilizer, but if u keep different plants, it will be very difficult to keep them healthy for a beginner without fertilizer of some sort.
My two cents!
plants need relocation/replanting depending on the size. tall plants on the back and smaller in front. based on the current stocking i can see that you don't have any foreground plants. the plants you think to b sagittaria is actually a val and should be at the back. baby tears/HM can be planted in the middle. for the foreground i can give you some sagittaria . you don't want to go for CO2 setup but then you can use liquid carbon as an alternative and get equally good result with a wider choice of plants.