Need second opinion for native colors

[aaron7353]

I have a 125 setup with driftwood and some plants, and soon to be even more plants. However, the problem is that when I kept some bluegill, they were pallid and awful colored. I know bluegill aren't longears and won't look breathtakingly colorful, but they were nice colors when I collected them. I am torn between two ideas to encourage better colors. I need second opinions or alternatives. I want the best coloration from my fish.

Currently I have a pictured background with pool filter sand. I'm thinking of doing:

1.) A black background and a natural colored sand (tan/brown). This would be very inexpensive.
2.) A dark colored plant background from petsmart or any LFS and black sand. Black sand is expensive as hell though, so I would prefer to avoid that.

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

Here is my current setup:

 

[aaron7353]

Another pic with less light:

 

[JasonsPlecosCichlids]

Longears all the way for sure Will def pop out with the way your tank is setup. I'm not sure about the background, I would do some testing on both, to see what you like the best since you will be looking at it every day.

 

[Mr.Catfish]

Black background will help. As would a dark substrate. I get good color with a black background and collected sand from the river.

 

[aaron7353]

Black background will help. As would a dark substrate. I get good color with a black background and collected sand from the river.

Awesome! Thanks! Do you have any issues with the river sand? Any cloudiness or problems with filters?

 

[Mr.Catfish]

You will have to rinse it really good. As it will have a lot of sediment and will cloud up if disturbed. I did not rinse mine for the fact that the clay sediment helps to grow plants. Mine only gets cloudy when a sunfish decides to fan out an area. But that doesn't happen very often (once every two weeks) and only stays that way for a couple hours. I have had no problems with it getting into filters.

 

[warmouth]

Ive used creek sediment on the bottom, and natural kitty litter covered with creek rocks and ive found that for me the natural kittly litter covered with creek rocks worked the best.

 

[Andrew1002]

Wow that tank is stunning! I dream of having a setup like this one day

 

[aaron7353]

I added some plants that I just got in. Next on the agenda is a black background.

 

[aaron7353]

Wow that tank is stunning! I dream of having a setup like this one day

Thank you. It's still a work in progress. I still need better lighting, better background, and natural sand. Also some more fish.
My current Stocklist is:

4 Lepomis marginatus (Dollar Sunfish)
1 Lepomis cyanellus (Green Sunfish)
3 Notorus species (1 Brindled, 2 Speckled Madtom)
1 Florida Bullhead, it's awesome. It is like a black and white peppered look. They keep the coloration through maturity too.

I plan to add some pumpkinseeds, maybe some orange spotted sunfish, maybe a rock bass or shadow bass or mud sunfish (if I could ever find a source for any of them), and a yellow perch or a sacramento perch. Sacramento perch can get big (17" max in aquarium more or less) but when with other sunfish, their growth is slowed down as a result of competition. Also, these fish are all being raised from juveniles, so by the time they start getting larger, I will have the money to upgrade. I'm budgeting now, so I'm not one of those people who gets an arowana when they have a 20 gallon and claims they're going to upgrade as it grows. Lol