Fortunately, something like that can be drawn.

I'm currently working on Ceratophyllum demersum.

Do you guys use the Google image searcher? That's about all I use when I need to find a picture of something.

Jim, would you drawn a plant like that on your own? It seems to me that you would work from the photograph...

Yes, I have the real plants, and I'm photographing them. The time-consuming part is deciding which pixels to keep, which to turn transparent, and what alpha-value to assign to the rest. Morgan and others have offered to help in this task, but it's a very personal hands-on process. I might choose 75% alpha for a certain pixel, and someone else might choose 60%. From then on, it would always look wrong to me but I might never know exactly why.

Nice pic of the Lace plant Tiny. What I had in mind though was a large mature specimen. When they start to age they spread out more horizontally than in that pic. - I dug out a very old B&W print of my earliest tank, it's poor quality, but if you use your imagination, you should get the effect! (Didn't take colour prints in those days, - 1962ish! - sorry.)

http://www.cjmaddy.co.uk/camera/File0002_web2_200.jpg

I had a very nice big plant, with more large leaves, when I built my tank into the fireplace, but I can't find any pics of that one. - but this is the fireplace, with tank, about 1964 - soon after being built.

http://www.cjmaddy.co.uk/camera/File0003fp_web_200.jpg

....... and it's still there today, 2002, - but no fish! :(

http://www.cjmaddy.co.uk/camera/Dsc00060_web1_200.jpg

Now how about putting a plasma screen in that alcove, with Jim's tank on it !!!! - (Just kidding! :))

Looks nice Cliff, what you need to do is put a real tank on one side and a plasma on the other side and then guage the 2 against each other. :)

Brilliant drfish, I'm a big Google fan, I use it all the time. But I'd never used the image searcher before! - I don't know how I've missed it! ................ but I shall use it in future! :) :)

****WARNING!*****SPOILER!!!****

Anyone interested in seeing the basic layout of the Freshwater Tank can take a look at:
http://www.fish-byte.com/images/freshwater1.jpg

There will be changes, but this is the real tank I have set up on my desk. The shot shows the left 2/3 of the tank -- the widescreen would show more.

OOOOooohhhhh. :) AAAaaahhh :)

Nice! That'll look great as a screen saver! :) I think I'll be turning off the treasure chest though... ...maybe, I do kinda like it now that I see it... :) The little grassy plant in the front is perfect! The filter intake in the back won't be there of course... Right?

Thanks so much for the picture Jim!

Looks great . I can't wait to test this baby . That's if I can . Anyway Great job .

Yes, the intake tube would be hidden. There will also be some "ground cover" type of plants on the right side, in between the rocks. Having a hard time finding this at any of the aquarium shops in Southern California.

Do you mean like java moss? Or something more leafy? I had java moss in a tank of mine before, it was very good looking and quite hardy, unfortunately it didn't spread at all. The ghost shrimp I had in the tank loved it, it was so neat to watch them crawl around in it and pick at it with their little pinchers... :)

Speaking of shrimp reminds me, are you going to have any kind of creature in the freshwater aquarium that's equivalent to the starfish in the saltwater one? Like a snail or something? I know you said frogs and crabs were (understandably) out until a creature pack, but a nice big apple snail would be cool and comparatively easy.

cool
 

That is so cool.
I cann't wait...

It's great to have a look of the future fresh water tank.
May I have a request, Don't put the treasure box in the S.S. I prefer the tank has a natural look. If you insist to have, please set it like the bubble column to have an On/Off switch.

Thanks

Steve

The treasure chest is a checkbox in the Settings window.

I like plastic do dads in freshwater tanks.

I had a sunken ship in mine way back when. I also had a mix of 1/2 inch black and dark blue shiy gravel!!!

Ditto!! ...thanks for the teaser Mr. Sachs! :)

As I've said before, the user can turn the treasure chest on or off. If off, it will be replaced by a rock. I doubt if 1 in 100 users will turn it off, because it will be the neatest thing in the tank. I'm sparing no expense in making the bubble bursts as realistic as possible, as well as the lid/shadow movement.