Chilcote0328
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2012
- Messages
- 15
Well I just got my first bigger sized tank a couple of months ago and my patience of setting it up got to me and I went ou tto the store bought some deco and fish and threw it all together.
It was pretty cool but my fish died. Thats when I started researching and found out fish hobby is alot more then buying some fish and tossing them in a tank. So I have spent the better part of the last 6 weeks planning and building my 55 gallon wihtout rushing to get fish in it. I have a few questions though if some of you experienced guys can help with.
I have pictures on my cell phone i will add them after i finish typing this all in.
I am building a styrofoam backround been working on it for a few weeks and will be putting it actually into the tank today or tomorrow. I watched just about every video and article on building your own backround and finally once i was comfortable I went ahead and started building. I ran into alot of trouble with the build. Alot of things I didnt factor in even though i had plans drawn up. I am in the army as a engineer and even went to the point of using some of our software to design a virtual build which helped let me make changes thta would have been to late in the construction phase.
Once i got my bugs worked out I started locking myself away in the garage with the assist of the kids we created a decent backround. It however didnt turn out exactly as i had planned but it is pretty close.
I have a few pics of it as it was being built but dont have any finished ones I will get those as soon as I get time to take some more.
My questions however are about Stocking it.
I plan on having at least 2 Dempseys
Also would like some Catfish
not sure what else I should put in there?
Also not sure about plants. I orignally wanted to put some long artificle plants on the left side of the tank above the (catfish Den).
Wondering if i can put live plants up on that shelf and if so can I still stick with my plan of sand around the old ruins and center and build a area on the left which will keep the soil in place to sustain plant life?
And lighting. I have 2 of your standard came in the box lights. I dont like the unatural glow they have. I added a nice moonlight led to my hood which shines through my water filter and gives the tank a bad *** light moonlight type look rippling in the water for in the evenings but what can i use for my normall lighting to help make the fish stand out. I was thinking maybe black lights but not sure i really have no idea which lighting I should use to help make a naturall look inside the tank.
The backround is multi colored earth tones with some higlights of green moss and algea which I dont have a pic of yet the building is dark brown just like the picture but the Pillard are a lighter sand Brown (not in the pics)
The center back piece is a multi brown/green/sand coloring.
Sand color or rock color im not sure of yet. Might go with black sand or a brown gravel bigger then the standard LPS gravel.
Sorry I wrote a book hopefully someone reads it all.
I have other questions about a frew things I will wait to ask those another day.
Thanks
It was pretty cool but my fish died. Thats when I started researching and found out fish hobby is alot more then buying some fish and tossing them in a tank. So I have spent the better part of the last 6 weeks planning and building my 55 gallon wihtout rushing to get fish in it. I have a few questions though if some of you experienced guys can help with.
I have pictures on my cell phone i will add them after i finish typing this all in.
I am building a styrofoam backround been working on it for a few weeks and will be putting it actually into the tank today or tomorrow. I watched just about every video and article on building your own backround and finally once i was comfortable I went ahead and started building. I ran into alot of trouble with the build. Alot of things I didnt factor in even though i had plans drawn up. I am in the army as a engineer and even went to the point of using some of our software to design a virtual build which helped let me make changes thta would have been to late in the construction phase.
Once i got my bugs worked out I started locking myself away in the garage with the assist of the kids we created a decent backround. It however didnt turn out exactly as i had planned but it is pretty close.
I have a few pics of it as it was being built but dont have any finished ones I will get those as soon as I get time to take some more.
My questions however are about Stocking it.
I plan on having at least 2 Dempseys
Also would like some Catfish
not sure what else I should put in there?
Also not sure about plants. I orignally wanted to put some long artificle plants on the left side of the tank above the (catfish Den).
Wondering if i can put live plants up on that shelf and if so can I still stick with my plan of sand around the old ruins and center and build a area on the left which will keep the soil in place to sustain plant life?
And lighting. I have 2 of your standard came in the box lights. I dont like the unatural glow they have. I added a nice moonlight led to my hood which shines through my water filter and gives the tank a bad *** light moonlight type look rippling in the water for in the evenings but what can i use for my normall lighting to help make the fish stand out. I was thinking maybe black lights but not sure i really have no idea which lighting I should use to help make a naturall look inside the tank.
The backround is multi colored earth tones with some higlights of green moss and algea which I dont have a pic of yet the building is dark brown just like the picture but the Pillard are a lighter sand Brown (not in the pics)
The center back piece is a multi brown/green/sand coloring.
Sand color or rock color im not sure of yet. Might go with black sand or a brown gravel bigger then the standard LPS gravel.
Sorry I wrote a book hopefully someone reads it all.
I have other questions about a frew things I will wait to ask those another day.
Thanks
