Hey guys, I have South American Cichlids (Geo. Tapajos and Super Red Severum) I am trying to get up an SA look. I have white sand as it was the only one at Petco. As well all know that drains fishes color. I did put a black Background to help with that. I've got 4 pieces of spider wood and some ornaments. No plants right now as I don't want to do live but was thinking fake. I want the sand to be darker and I want it to look better. What suggestions do you guys have?
Setting up a SA Themed tank
- Thread starter TheNewSeverum
- Start date
You could probably mix some black sand in with the white to give it an overall darker appearance. A lot of people use black diamond blasting sand from tractor supply co in their tanks, or you can get tahitian moon from many online retailers.
See I was thinking about mixing black in there, but would that still look realistic? I'm kinda hesitant on that. Plus how much would I get? I've got I believe 40-65 pounds of white. I truly don't remember how much I bought
The black diamond is around $9 for a 50lb bag. I would mix some together out of the tank and see if you like the way it looks before using it in the main tank. There may be some other tan substrate types that would work better, but I always just get pool filter sand and call it a day. Here is a picture where someone has mixed white with black.
See originally I was going to do pool filter sand, I talked to the employee at the pool shop who owned fish for several years and said that the pool sand is to large a grain and could cause damage to fish who sift it through the gills so I decided not to use it.
In my personal opinion, if you are going to be mixing different colors of sand, make sure they are roughly the same grain size. I have done this, and can tell you, if the grain sies aren't close, you will get a really sloppy looking result, while if they are you either get a nice marbled look or they will mix so well you won't know there were two types. Here is a thread with some really nice SA tanks.
https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/posts/7749539/
I really liked the "algae tank", low maintenance and real natural beauty.
Thanks for the mention guys.
Here is an example of one of my old s/a tanks.
A set up like this works well with the less destructive or juvenile cichlids.
This tank housed angels and young geos amongst others.
I would stick with the sand but add debris.
By this I mean twigs,stones,leaves and the odd handful of gravel.
This will make your sand look less uniform and a lot more natural.
Another area where tanks fail is not making full use of the height if the tank.
I attach branches to the brace bars and let them hang over the substrate.
I also rarely use uniform lighting.What I mean by that is I leave some areas dark and some parts well lit.
If using fluorescents, I put tin foil under part of the tube to create low light areas.It creates atmosphere and gives the look more interest.
Another tip is avoid symmetry and have an informal feel to the placement of key decor items.
Always hide heaters and intakes.Cover them with a branch or a rock. They always spoil the look if a natural scape if they are right there on show.
Never use plastic plants if you want a natural look.In my opinion better to have no plants at all.They rarely look convincing to me.
The other big thing to get right is scale.
The tank above works fine for medium and smaller fish. Big fish however would not quite fit such an intricate scape.
Bigger fish need bigger decor to look in balance with the scene.
While this tank is still quite well furnished the scene is less busy with smaller decor items than the previous tank.
As the fish in the video below are bigger the scene is less busy and the fish them selves become much more part of the display.
Here is an example of one of my old s/a tanks.
A set up like this works well with the less destructive or juvenile cichlids.
This tank housed angels and young geos amongst others.
I would stick with the sand but add debris.
By this I mean twigs,stones,leaves and the odd handful of gravel.
This will make your sand look less uniform and a lot more natural.
Another area where tanks fail is not making full use of the height if the tank.
I attach branches to the brace bars and let them hang over the substrate.
I also rarely use uniform lighting.What I mean by that is I leave some areas dark and some parts well lit.
If using fluorescents, I put tin foil under part of the tube to create low light areas.It creates atmosphere and gives the look more interest.
Another tip is avoid symmetry and have an informal feel to the placement of key decor items.
Always hide heaters and intakes.Cover them with a branch or a rock. They always spoil the look if a natural scape if they are right there on show.
Never use plastic plants if you want a natural look.In my opinion better to have no plants at all.They rarely look convincing to me.
The other big thing to get right is scale.
The tank above works fine for medium and smaller fish. Big fish however would not quite fit such an intricate scape.
Bigger fish need bigger decor to look in balance with the scene.
While this tank is still quite well furnished the scene is less busy with smaller decor items than the previous tank.
As the fish in the video below are bigger the scene is less busy and the fish them selves become much more part of the display.
Thanks for the advice, would you recommend mixing black and white? Or stick with just white and add things to it?
