29g SA tributary biotope - Assess my plan

[MartyMA]

I am planning on setting up a South American tributary biotope tank. The center piece fish will be apistos of some kind either one pair or a single male. The other fish will be dwarf cories and a small group of tetras. I am going back and forth about substrate. Most of the pics of SA biotope tanks I have seen have had light colored sand. I would prefer using black diamond blasting sand to maintain the overall darkness of the environment. As for lighting, a double T5 NO fixture. The decor will be mopani and manzanita driftwood and lot's of oak leaves. The only plants will be amazon frogbit to keep the amount of light to the substrate minimal. Overall, it won't be pretty but hopefully realistic. What do you think? Suggestions welcome. Thanks.

 

[HUKIT]

I like the biotope idea but would personally use light sand and ditch the mopani, as this is drifting away from the original concept. Looking forward to pictures, pretty to some is ugly to others and vice versa as I prefer natural looking set ups.

 

[Mogurako]

I would go lighter sand like Hukit suggested, add a few round river rocks and a nice manzanita branch or two ( just a branch not the whole rootball).

 

[5x5]

I am planning on setting up a South American tributary biotope tank. The center piece fish will be apistos of some kind either one pair or a single male. The other fish will be dwarf cories and a small group of tetras. I am going back and forth about substrate. Most of the pics of SA biotope tanks I have seen have had light colored sand. I would prefer using black diamond blasting sand to maintain the overall darkness of the environment. As for lighting, a double T5 NO fixture. The decor will be mopani and manzanita driftwood and lot's of oak leaves. The only plants will be amazon frogbit to keep the amount of light to the substrate minimal. Overall, it won't be pretty but hopefully realistic. What do you think? Suggestions welcome. Thanks.

I like the idea and have a partial amazon biotope in my 180 gallon. After researching the murky amazon black water environment, I made some compromises to make it look nicer. I have a mix of real and fake driftwood.

Sounds like it will be nice with the tetras. Are you think Buenos aires?

I have to agree with the others about the light sand and I wish I had done a hanging branch.

 

[MartyMA]

Thanks for the comments everyone. Based on the feedback, I bought a bag of pool filter sand to use instead of the black diamond. PFS is kind of tan rather than white it seems. I think it will look more natural than either black or white. I do like the look of your tank 5x5. Definitely sand but what kind? It is dazzling.

 

[Borderlesscott]

Get a few dried almond leaves, Apisto's love using leaf litter as cover around the bottom of the tank, the other benefits are also beneficial. I would also stick to bogwood rather than mopani, if you can get a piece with a hollowed out section they will love it, or they do like root sections in a tank so a piece of redmoor root works well.

 

[5x5]

Thanks for the comments everyone. Based on the feedback, I bought a bag of pool filter sand to use instead of the black diamond. PFS is kind of tan rather than white it seems. I think it will look more natural than either black or white. I do like the look of your tank 5x5. Definitely sand but what kind? It is dazzling.

Thanks. I use the caribsea sand they sell at petsmart. It's about $20 for 30 pounds.