So, my fiance bought me a 4x2x2 120 for my birthday, and I am in the process of setting the tank up as a planted Congo biotope. Well, that's what we're shooting for. We got to the house at around 1am and got home with the tank at 3am, which may possibly be the seediest hours of the day for craigslist pickups, but we went with it. The top brace was melted from metal halides, but it came with the stand and the Nexx filters with all of the extensions that had never even been turned on. The guy even threw in a protein skimmer that we can flip. Anyway, the stand was the standard brown pine, so we stained it ebony to give it a touch of class. I also went to Ace and got a 22"x2" piece of acrylic to silicone all the way across the brace. The went smoothly and I think it will hold up, considering the guy had originally fixed it with shipping tape.
After we had the basics covered, we decided to make a diy styro background, and tried our best to make it look as natural as possible. For the substrate we are just using play sand, but if anyone can chime in with a better biotope alternative, feel free! So, this is where it stands now-
The hanging fixture is just a diamond plate shop light that we spray painted with a bronze hammered finish. This will be our second shot at a planted tank. Our 55 we had planted was a mess. We used Flourite under pool filter sand, but every time you would put a plant in, the tank would be cloudy for hours. I have heard really mixed things about sand planted tanks, so if anyone has any input, I'd love to here it.
Possible stocklist- African Brown Knife, 4 species of polys, possibly leaf fish, and I've always wanted an elephant nose. (I understand that this may not be a "true" biotope, but as long as they're from the same continent, I'm content
)
After we had the basics covered, we decided to make a diy styro background, and tried our best to make it look as natural as possible. For the substrate we are just using play sand, but if anyone can chime in with a better biotope alternative, feel free! So, this is where it stands now-
The hanging fixture is just a diamond plate shop light that we spray painted with a bronze hammered finish. This will be our second shot at a planted tank. Our 55 we had planted was a mess. We used Flourite under pool filter sand, but every time you would put a plant in, the tank would be cloudy for hours. I have heard really mixed things about sand planted tanks, so if anyone has any input, I'd love to here it.
Possible stocklist- African Brown Knife, 4 species of polys, possibly leaf fish, and I've always wanted an elephant nose. (I understand that this may not be a "true" biotope, but as long as they're from the same continent, I'm content
)
