what to do with my 150gal for "looks"

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Ash

Ash

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Jul 27, 2005
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Ok so next month I should be getting my 150gal tank up to Tampa finally.. (a year later). I will be moving it with me to my new apt. in october and it will be one of two large tanks that will be in our main rooms. With it being on display when people come over I want it to look nice. I never been good with scaping out my tanks... so I need ideas...

This is what it looked like:

l_ce19874092b899ec0fd1fcc198e21d0a.jpg

The second to last rock ont he left is the only one I have left that is usable. Those rocks were extremely heavy, also the rocks were not always very sturdy when the fronts would start digging the sand out from under them.. which they seem to really enjoy doing. I just didnt like them as much after a while. I thought the tank looked very plain and dull this way.

All the rocks but one are gone and not usable anymore. I have one large rock left. I will be using sand as the substrate. I have no clue what to do. I dont mind the large river rocks, but I dont want the entire tank to be river rock. I find it hard to find slate rock around here for cheap... its usually to expensive.. I am on a pretty tight budget. I dont want to use pots or cermaic anything... I want it to look more natural. Any ideas or help pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Feel free to post pics... but if you have a suggestion please let me know where you find the rocks and stuff that you are suggesting and pictures would be nice. The fish that will be in the tank are 1 syno cat and a bunch of frontosa.
 
First thing I would do is either paint the back black or attach a black background.
 
Free/cheap rocks are unfortunately hard to find here. I did see some at Home Depot. You might want to try there. Any LFS around here is gonna rip you off.
 
Bderick67;4297061; said:
First thing I would do is either paint the back black or attach a black background.
Click to expand...
Yep! If you were to do that, it would make a major difference, because everything else looks good.
 
Definitely paint the back black! Will make the biggest difference! Have you ever thought about plants? Just some grass or something that doesn't take a lot of care coming from in and behind the rocks? I think that would look awesome!
 
ash i have a couple nice big lace rocks and a big peice of driftwood if u want, just let me know. and for ideas just google malawi reefs thru images
 
Go with a black background. I used a piece of fake black leather cut to the dimensions of the tank for mine. I wouldn't personally go with painting the back of the tank because when it fades it will look bad. Also, I got a sweet bubble wall for the back of my cichlid tank, with a Maxim 60 pump. It looks cool and it adds oxygen for the fish.

Nice tank by the way, looks great already!
 
More rocks, u can get them cheap at landscaping places I had bought lace and lava rocks for under 10 bucks get'em cheap and paint the back
 
Like everyone else said paint the back black or put up some sort of black background. Not only will it look better but it'll help bring out the color of your fronts and also make them feel more safe because they won't have to worry about anything "sneaking up behind them." Also, I know your on a tight budget but a dark/black substrate will really bring out the black in your frontosa bars. I'd highly recommend that for a display tank. As far as rocks go be very careful with ur selections and don't pick up any sharp rocks that ur fronts can hurt themselves on. Last thing u want is a 3 year old fish losing an eye or severely cutting themselves cause anyone who has ever had frontosa before know that they get startled and dart across the tank as fast as they can and they slam into whatever is in their way. I'd be a bit concerned with this as it's going in your main room and there is bound to be a lot of foot traffic and movement.

I just moved my 240 with my pmibwe frontosa colony not that long ago and the above is basically everything that I did and what I took into consideration for the "remodel" hope this helps and happy front keeping :)

Oh one last thing, not even a week after I getting the tank all set up and what not I noticed a few of my females were holding and I'm still growing out some fry in a basket floating at the top of the tank ;)
 
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