your opinions please

[porksnorkel]

my second 125g w/ slate backround. set up on acrylic w/ styro spacers. made some design errors, but curious to know ur opinions anyway. this is supposed to be a waterfall backround using a bubble wand between the 2 outer sections of the backround. it is intended as a malawi cichlid tank.






so the questions are...
A-should i remove the large piece that spans the 2 rockpiles
B-should i take all the rock piles out and choose a different type of fish that doesn't need hidey holes
C-swap the white sand for black...even if it will cost 8 or 9 times more money
D-yank the whole thing out and start over
i'm looking for aesthetic opinions folks.

[fijiwigi]

I like the look. Have you thought about using some driftwood? White sand has a nice appeal better than the black with the look your going for IMO/

[CatatonicBug]

I'm no expert, and tend to go with what I think looks cool, but I'm rather impressed! I can imagine that setup with a bunch of moss and other plants growing in/around it. I would be interested to see the waterfall effect too. I really like the natural effect of all the rock.

[roka64]

I think you have an awesome concept. On the 2nd pic, can you make a curved rock facing to hide the styro (on the side)? I'm not sure how much water movement is needed in FW but I think it might be cool if the right side (facing the tank) would have an upside down "v" or "w", to split the water flow. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but the waterfall effect would be pretty cool (gotta stick this in, IMO).

[pitt420dude]

A. NO, its awesome!
B. No, it/they're awesome!
C. Ehh, it's a matter of opinion. B/c you asked I assume you'd prefer black? I have a black substrate and love it. Moreover, it does not have to be more expensive. Check out Tuface MVP or Pro's Choice SoilMaster Select, both come in charcoal and you could get 50lbs for around $15, maybe you'd want 100lbs for your tank size.

Do you anticipate you might want to have live plants? If so, those substrates are great for that too. Might want to check out Black Onyx sand, but it's pricey.

D. Heck NO! You've got a great thing going IMO.

[Karegg]

I love the look of the rock. Freakin' awesome. Personally I think the white sand is a nice contrast to the rock, but if you put in black sand and brightly colored fish, they will really stand out against the rocks and sand. I can see it in my mind already and I think it's totally BA.

[porksnorkel]

ty for the replies guys. i've come up w/ an idea that i think i will like. it will basically be the same thing but have styro stacks in between the horizontal pieces.
[foreground rock stacks] i'll cut some caves into the styro then cover the styro w/ small vertical pieces. this will give me the more natural look i was hoping for. should take a few weeks to do, so hang in there and i'll post pics of the progress and final set up.
i will also be hunting for cheap black sand to bring it all together.

[melosu58]

What kind of lighting will you have?

[porksnorkel]

48"- 32w dual actinics, from zoo-med, in a "Extreme Wet" lighting fixture from home depot.

[porksnorkel]

this weeks progress is going well so far. i bought a roto zip tool w/ a diamond blade to cut the slate. whoa what a mess. talk about dusty. i don't recommend doing this inside,lol. i actually moved my workspace outside for the day, and still made a mess!:wallbash:
so i started the other day by cutting the styro stacks up. i made sure to make plenty of caves, and the caves are big enough to house the fish when they grow, i hope.

here's the left side

the right

and the whole thing dismantled after a good rinse. hopefully i will get to paint the styro tommorrow.