First time 3ft planted tank

[DAnCSF]

Thanks for sharing...kinda reminds me of all the house remodeling stories...what started out as one way is nott what things end up us....LOL...

 

[mcordelia]

wow its so detailed!!! I am really impressed!! Those caves are really creative. Will you be having any fish that dig? If so, how do you plan on keeping your caves from falling on the fish? Also I think it's cool that you're making it a joint project On my end, I hauled 150 lbs of black diamond blasting sand home only to have hubby tell me that he felt it was "unnatural" and he wanted a different color sand. This was after him agreeing with me that black sand would be the way to go. "oh I didn't realize it would be THAT black".....

 

[goldfish_is_orange]

wow its so detailed!!! I am really impressed!! Those caves are really creative. Will you be having any fish that dig? If so, how do you plan on keeping your caves from falling on the fish? Also I think it's cool that you're making it a joint project On my end, I hauled 150 lbs of black diamond blasting sand home only to have hubby tell me that he felt it was "unnatural" and he wanted a different color sand. This was after him agreeing with me that black sand would be the way to go. "oh I didn't realize it would be THAT black".....

I have some kuhli loaches. The rocks that form the caves at the bottom are glued together and they are resting on top of a thin layer of aquasoil. They can stand up on their own, even without the substrate/soil around them. The one on top of the hill has some volcanic rock underneath, too--it's not 100% safe, but unless the fish digs really deep, I think it'll stand.

Sorry about your black sand experience! I hope you still got to use at least some of it?? I like black sand, too. Maybe I will use it in our next project

 

[mcordelia]

Ohh, gotcha! Smart move on gluing them! Nah we returned the black sand (but he did the lifting ) and went with tube sand instead. I think it's actually going to look really good with the varying sized grains in the tube sand, it'll definitely look more "authentic". I'll post pictures when I actually get to the part where I can start putting stuff in the tank, my 125 gallon is currently on backorder and they called me on Friday saying it might not be until January, soooo.... Well at least I can get the first fish put into the quarantine tank as soon as I want to, since that should be done by Wednesday. I'll make a journal for that when I have pictures

 

[goldfish_is_orange]

Ohh, gotcha! Smart move on gluing them! Nah we returned the black sand (but he did the lifting ) and went with tube sand instead. I think it's actually going to look really good with the varying sized grains in the tube sand, it'll definitely look more "authentic". I'll post pictures when I actually get to the part where I can start putting stuff in the tank, my 125 gallon is currently on backorder and they called me on Friday saying it might not be until January, soooo.... Well at least I can get the first fish put into the quarantine tank as soon as I want to, since that should be done by Wednesday. I'll make a journal for that when I have pictures

Looking forward to your journal!