decorate this tank

[magpie]

It has an anchor already built in? Interesting!

Yeah, rinse well. I soak in dechlorinated water for a bit sometimes to make myself feel better and help it sink better. . It may go through an initial phase of growing white fuzzy stuff on it. That's normal. Just brush it off at water changes and it'll eventually stop.

Exciting stuff! What are you leaning towards with the substrate? Others can speak to the colors of the bichirs on white.

 

[Polyaddict86]

It has an anchor already built in? Interesting!

Yeah, rinse well. I soak in dechlorinated water for a bit sometimes to make myself feel better and help it sink better. . It may go through an initial phase of growing white fuzzy stuff on it. That's normal. Just brush it off at water changes and it'll eventually stop.

Exciting stuff! What are you leaning towards with the substrate? Others can speak to the colors of the bichirs on white.

I use to have white sand and the bichirs pattern faded, even my ornate turn pale almost lost its black and yellow color, upper jaws i like black sand or tan/brown sand.

 

[jaws7777]

Wouldnt do white sand. If you have a garbage pal or rubber maid bin you could soak the dw. It will probably leach some tanins which is harmless to the fish but will make your water look tea colored. If you soak the wood change out the water until it stops leaching.

 

[clm08k]

Washed it with hot water, is it plastic? If so do warm water. Or you can soak it in warm water in a tub just to remove any chemical or bacteria in it.

thanks! It is real driftwood this time lol. ILet it soak over night in the tub! Just some dirt and sand and stuff, no tannins suprisingly. Put it in the tank yesterday.

 

[clm08k]

It has an anchor already built in? Interesting!

Yeah, rinse well. I soak in dechlorinated water for a bit sometimes to make myself feel better and help it sink better. . It may go through an initial phase of growing white fuzzy stuff on it. That's normal. Just brush it off at water changes and it'll eventually stop.

Exciting stuff! What are you leaning towards with the substrate? Others can speak to the colors of the bichirs on white.

thank you! I didn't know that about the driftwood growing things on it. That would have surely freaked me out.

Thinking about either white or black sand, would do red....but I am having trouble finding. Or peace river. After reading what Polyaddict86 and J jaws7777 wrote, white sand is out. Don't want my ornate to look washed out. So black, red, or peace river.

Would the bichirs blend in with the black? I like a lot of contrast with my substrate and the fish, so not 100% sold for having bichirs with black sand. Even though black sand is my favorite.

 

[Polyaddict86]

thank you! I didn't know that about the driftwood growing things on it. That would have surely freaked me out.

Thinking about either white or black sand, would do red....but I am having trouble finding. Or peace river. After reading what Polyaddict86 and J jaws7777 wrote, white sand is out. Don't want my ornate to look washed out. So black, red, or peace river.

Would the bichirs blend in with the black? I like a lot of contrast with my substrate and the fish, so not 100% sold for having bichirs with black sand. Even though black sand is my favorite.

I like black sand for ornate,gold dust,delhezi and senegal, for ornate they become jet black with gold dots on them, gold dust becomes green and yellow with brown dots, delhezi become grey with black pattern and in the pattern you will see some green, and senegal will become gray with black dots on their heads.

 

[clm08k]

I like black sand for ornate,gold dust,delhezi and senegal, for ornate they become jet black with gold dots on them, gold dust becomes green and yellow with brown dots, delhezi become grey with black pattern and in the pattern you will see some green, and senegal will become gray with black dots on their heads.

okay. That is good to know. Black is my favorite, so we will see. I was kinda wanting to go lighter with this tank though. After seeing magpie 's tank I want to do live plants. The driftwood was screwed into two pieces of slate to anchor it down.

What about with gold? The other option is that sunset gold Super Naturals sand. I don't know if that would look tacky though. Would gold also wash them out like the white?

 

[jaws7777]

I would try different sands. Not a big deal to remove and add new. Have fun with it.

Also take a look at some of the stickies you'll allot of different substrates

 

[DMD123]

Problem with many of the sands out there is that it is too fine and easily gets stirred up and sucked into filters. This is the main reason I use peace river. It is more like a fine gravel than sand. With mine I also mixed in a little black, this stuff:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005TNF74W/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The African Cichlid Substrate is also a bit larger grain like the peace river. My ratio is 20lbs black to about 135 pounds of peace river. This gives the peace river just that little missing element, though Im tempted to add one more 20lb bag of black.

Here is what it looks like, dont mind the fish just look at the substrate

 

[clm08k]

I would try different sands. Not a big deal to remove and add new. Have fun with it.

Also take a look at some of the stickies you'll allot of different substrates

thank you! I will do that. Appreciate the help everyone. Here is an update so far. Slowly but surely.....Just turned the background around in the meantime until I get another one....