I'm going to be upgrading to a 150-180 soon from a 90 and am thinking that as long as I'm going through the effort I'd like to switch to sand. I'm wondering what the best option is for me though, in terms of bringing out the fish's colors. Right now I've got the generic cheap pea gravel from home depot in their tank.
I really like the look of a nice bright white-ish sand but I have white aragonite in my cichlid tank and sometimes I feel like it is too bright and washes out their colors. But I just put a black background on that tank as an experiment and I am finding that it dulls them so I wonder if my thinking that black would be better is incorrect.
My stock will be one silver aro, some datnoids (mostly IT, and an AT), a big distichodus lussoso, a juvenile distichodus sexfaciatus, a green terror (for now, till he gets his own tank), a ctenapoma, a big bala shark, and some pictus cats. I guess what I'm really looking for is opinions on what will bring out the colors on my distichodus, dats, and aro. Should I just go with the very light pool filter sand, or spend more on the black moon sand? Which will make the colors pop better? And should I use a background? The tank will be in the bedroom set a few feet out in front of the closet, so it'd be viewable from the back if I didn't use a background. But I'm willing to put the background on if it will help with their colors and appearance from the front. Would a black background make a huge difference?
I really like the look of a nice bright white-ish sand but I have white aragonite in my cichlid tank and sometimes I feel like it is too bright and washes out their colors. But I just put a black background on that tank as an experiment and I am finding that it dulls them so I wonder if my thinking that black would be better is incorrect.
My stock will be one silver aro, some datnoids (mostly IT, and an AT), a big distichodus lussoso, a juvenile distichodus sexfaciatus, a green terror (for now, till he gets his own tank), a ctenapoma, a big bala shark, and some pictus cats. I guess what I'm really looking for is opinions on what will bring out the colors on my distichodus, dats, and aro. Should I just go with the very light pool filter sand, or spend more on the black moon sand? Which will make the colors pop better? And should I use a background? The tank will be in the bedroom set a few feet out in front of the closet, so it'd be viewable from the back if I didn't use a background. But I'm willing to put the background on if it will help with their colors and appearance from the front. Would a black background make a huge difference?
