Decorating my tank.. need some advice.

[Wolf]

Hey all. I need some help decorating my tank.. I'm curious how should I lay out this lava rock.. Should I use more? Or less? Should I attempt to stack it?

Also, what kind of plants can I add for cichlids.. I'm assuming they'd have to be fake, since ciclihds dig so much.. Should I use tall plants? Small plants? What are some silk plants that would look nice wiht this setup? Any advice is welcome... since I'm terrible at decorating..

 

[bunjiweb]

I think it looks very nice, don't add anymore large rocks unless they fit nicely on top of the ones you have already.

As far as plants go i'd probably go for fake ones. Plastic or Silk would be fine. I think some nice tall plants at the back behind the rocks and a couple of very small ones amongst the rocks would look great

Ben

 

[guppygirl]

actually, I'd go with live. maybe but a vallisneria bunch in the back corner or something. Or you could put anubias and/or java fern in the front, those are great plants to have with cichlids.
The tank looks great!! Keep it up
Robin

 

[jams.alaskan]

Those lava rock are great, take great care that they don't rub or touch your tank walls - they will leave large scratches in the glass.

ALASKA

 

[Zenn]

Kool, whats that orange fish, it looks kool...

I go for the coral type look, a few shells and i have a few flint rockery in there, with caves and smooth surfaces and the fish love it, they rubs themselves over the smooth surfaces as well as run through the bubbles since they like the feel of that too, and they seems to love going through caves, and somehow, i dont know they burrowed down the back of the cave and made a small exit on the other side and it quite funny watch them go around in circle just to go through the cave..



What size tank it that Wolf?

 

[Wolf]

Kool, whats that orange fish, it looks kool...

I go for the coral type look, a few shells and i have a few flint rockery in there, with caves and smooth surfaces and the fish love it, they rubs themselves over the smooth surfaces as well as run through the bubbles since they like the feel of that too, and they seems to love going through caves, and somehow, i dont know they burrowed down the back of the cave and made a small exit on the other side and it quite funny watch them go around in circle just to go through the cave..



What size tank it that Wolf?

Hey.. The tank is 39 gallons.. and all 4 fish that are in there now are longfin danios. Yea, I was considering the coral look, but decided against it. coral seemed too expensive for what you got. the only thing i don't like about this lava rock is it seems like it would be really hard to clean.. but it does have tons of little caves, which is cool.. Zenn, you should post some pics of your tank. I'm having trouble deciding if i should add a few plants or not. and if i do. should i get silk plants or real ones. decisions... decisions...

 

[Gill]

I Really Like the tank the way it is.

Kind Reminds me of Mars, cause' of the rocks. Why not use a Mars Landscape Poster as a Background??

If you want to add plants, I wouldn't add too many as the rocks make it looh good as it is.

PS where did you get your avatar from, its funky.

 

[Zenn]

I have tried to get some pics of my tank, but its in too dark spot of my room to get it detailed, but once i have sorted out my room and moved the tank, i should be able to get better pic and you will be able to see... i did try posting up some pic of my tank on my topic i made, which i nearly to the last page on this section, because the pics aint of good quality, so i might get a better cam, or borrow my mates



Danios huh, i will check them out, they look kool...

 

[DOLORES]

hey wolf!,

well im starting my second tank wich is a 29 us gallon, and i'll star cycling the next week (when my mom comes back) or this weekend i mah brother doesnt work, becuz nobody is able to get me to walmart to buy the ammonia so i'll have to wait in the meantime im just running the filter with the water on it and doing water changes to clear up da cloudiness caused by the sand .

well my suggestions are the same i'll do with mine (i only have the sand and a decorative guy ) what i'll do is put some live plants easy to take care of and low medium light needs, and then mix it with silk plants why not put all live? becuz the colorful ones are the hard to take care of ones . why im recommendin you silk? becuz they are a lot more nice lookin , they give you the sense that they are real , and they move along as the water flows

i added a pic for you to see hows my tank .... hope that helped and good luck!!!!

p.s: a list that i liked of live plants

NAME~~~~~~~~~~PLACEMENT~~~~~~~LIGHT~~~~~~DIFFICULTY
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
anubias nana *******backdrop************low *********very easy
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
petite nana *********foreground**********low **********very easy
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brazilian penny ******floats and**********medium *******
wort ***************middleground********low **********easy
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
water sprite *********backdrop**********med-low *******easy
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
asian ambulia ********foreground********med-low *******easy
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
java moss ***********not specific**********low *********very easy
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
dwarf saggitaria ******foreground*********medium *******easy
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

then the color i leave it for the silk plants hope this helped

 

[vantgE]

all bad advice In my own opinion of course, definately more rocks stack them if you can, and no plant's, if you absoluteely want plants try java fern there are very few that the mbuna won't eat or dig up

 

[DOLORES]

all bad advice In my own opinion of course, definately more rocks stack them if you can, and no plant's, if you absoluteely want plants try java fern there are very few that the mbuna won't eat or dig up

oops i didnt read the part about the cichlids well then go with silk ones

 

[friendlyfish]

Hey Wolf
I think it's great just the way it is!