Did some rearranging. Suggestions for Improvement? How's it look?

[trustemedia]

Hey guys and gals. Did some major cleaning and rearranging. Have a new light coming in. Slowly adding some plants. Would like thoughts on how it looks. Any input on what I could do to improve it.

Have a couple Peacock Cichlids, Swordtails, and Gobies right now. Almost everyone is a baby and it's a peaceful tank. A Powerhead for flow over left side rocks (gobies like) and Keeping one end dark for hiding around and under tree. Open to all suggestions. Got some great plant keeping information on my last post.

Been struggling to get "the look" right for awhile. My fish probably scream "She's at it again!" every time I take the lid off. LOL Just want to get it right and leave it. Thanks in advance.

 

[Ian086]

I completely get where your coming from with the 'i'm just trying to get it right for a while' statement. I think most or all the members here think like that. I'm going to be completely honest with you.....leave it alone!!!. It looks great. I love the layout and all the little nucks and crannies. The dark area to the right is a great idea and i'm sure the fish love it. I think you might have a slight case of OCD, which is not always a bad thing....haha. Seriously though, I think it looks great. The only thing I would suggest and it's a very minor thing but a personal thing, is raising the water level???

 

[Ian086]

Sorry, just another minor thing!!. What about moving the airlines over to the right behind the tree stump, to hide them???

 

[jwh0818]

Wow amazing. I love the look of your tank. It looks like something you would actually see going diving

 

[Ian086]

Wow amazing. I love the look of your tank. It looks like something you would actually see going diving

I agree.....

 

[jwh0818]

Im actually jealous. I want your tank

 

[trustemedia]

Well, those brought a smile. Maybe I finally got it! If you could see the 10 tank redos I have "literally" - photos taken and lined up in Word staring at them trying to figure out which one looked the best a long time ago til now (long time ago meaning a month ago LOL)... Thank you for the kind words. I won't mess with it anymore.

Good eye on the tubes. Tubes are a pain in the butt. Someone has to invent a better suction cup holder thing or they probably have and I just don't have it. They frustrate me.

As for the water level - I have a Marineland Emperor 400 in there and where the water is now it is literally almost touching the angled part where the flow comes out. Maybe 1/8" or less... It's not 1/2 inch below and I think you really should be 1 inch below the filter? Is that right? It hangs low. Not sure if there is a work around for that.

The fish sure do love the dark area. I had the twisted tree in the middle for awhile. Ended up moving it over a week or so ago. Makes for a nice cave under the long root looking part and nice hiding spot/dark area in the back and they do love it. I blocked the under side on the left in with rocks so it's sort of secluded to hide under there if they wanted to. There are a couple small entrances at the bottom they dug out.

 

[Ian086]

Yeah those suction cups can be a pain alright. There are black suction cups and black airline available on Ebay. As I said, that's only a minor thing. It really does look great. It's the type of tank layout that every time you look at it, you notice something different in there. I mean good different, not bad different....haha.
I have a very similar filter on my 15g and I have the water level above the two water 'flaps'. I notice no difference in the filtration and never had an issue with it. The flaps are about an inch below the water line, if that makes sense??.

 

[Tony30gal]

Do you have any cichlid stones or no? They absolutely love those things and so do other fish.

 

[trustemedia]

I don't. I actually got these from my LFS when I traded in 9 baby mollies. He didn't know exactly what they were, but that they would be "pretty". Said tank raised from someone in the nearby area and he was letting them go and dropped them off. He didn't even have a label on the tank.

I took them and looked them up and then figured out what they were. I don't usually do that as I usually go look, research, and come back, but that day for some reason I did.

All of them seem to just swim around in the light except the biggest, most colorful one right now seems to like to be in the dark or behind a rock which I read they do in the wild. There is a fake rock cave in the dark which is similar to a cichlid stone from what I can tell. It's on the right and you can just see the top of it behind the orange flame rock (cool find in the yard by the way) near the tree stump on the right side. Looks white and bumpy - that's it.

I've had some caves out of rock in there at one point, too, and mostly he seems to just want to hang out behind something and that's just been within the last week or so, too. Otherwise, he was swimming around with the rest. But, I also know they are babies and will probably change alot as they grow.

Not sure how big these guys get still as I don't even really know what they are yet, too. I can only still guess. Closest guess is a sunshine peacock. The LFS said they would have "orange heads". I don't even know if they will end up getting too big for the tank and I'll have to let them go to a bigger better home. Figured that's what I'll do if that happens. I can at least raise them healthy and happy for now. I do like them. They have a lot of personality and come right to the glass when I look like they want to be my favorite.

 

[trustemedia]

Ian - thanks for the info on the filter. I'll raise the water then. I like it higher too and it has been driving me nuts.

 

[ProxyBlue]

Very nice setup. I'm in agreement with everyone else, love the dark section. Sounds like your fish do too! It's an inspired choice that works really well.