# I need some decorating advice ASAP!



## lilstephii143 (Feb 19, 2009)

Hi everyone, im new to this website so hopefully i do this all correctly. 
I have a 55 gallon cichlid tank. I think this is the plainest *** had my tank but i dont know what i can do to it to make it like WOW and cheap. I was thinking of changing to sand but what can i do for decoration? I have a 3 inch jack dempsey, 3 inch firemouth and a 1.5 inch jaguar. and catfish that i thought was an upside down one but i think thats not correct. hes currently 6 inches. I been trying to look online for american setups but im unsuccessful. :-? . i also looked in the threads here . hope you can help me out . :fish:


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## dspranger (Feb 17, 2009)

http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/man ... index.html


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## iceblue (Apr 27, 2004)

Lose the gravel and go with with a more naturally colored sand substrate. 1 or 2 large pieces of driftwood and rocks that match each other would be nice too. Not a fan of plastic/silk plants but if arranged properly can look nice.

One of the nicer South American tanks I've seen here on the Forum used leaf litter along the bottom of their aquarium. I believe it was a "tank of the month" not to long ago.

Here it is. October 2008.
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/tanks/


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## lilstephii143 (Feb 19, 2009)

thank you will look at those links. now.. black sand or the regular sand? :-? 
i was gonna get black but it seems to be pricey, and i saw play sand at Lowes 20 pounds for 5 bucks. was thinking of getting that


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## RyanR (Apr 29, 2008)

You'll probably need a much larger tank for the jaguar in the not too distant future. They get big and aggressive.

For New World cichlids, you can decorate nicely and cheaply with terracotta pots (especially strawberry pots!), big chunks of driftwood (soak them elsewhere first!), and a few big plastic sword plants. I usually like natural colored gravel.... but last time around I used black gravel, and I kinda like it. 

-Ryan


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## VT4Me (Mar 23, 2008)

I vote for the Lowes play sand. I picked a torn 50lb bag up for 50 cents a few weeks back!


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## iceblue (Apr 27, 2004)

I used the Lowes washed plaster sand available in my area. Very happy with the way it looks.


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## lilstephii143 (Feb 19, 2009)

thanks for the photo iceblue! the fish look great and huge! . im gonna pick up the Lowes sand. have someone gonna get it for me tomorrow. :thumb:
now thinking what a project its gonna be when i have to redo this tank lol but will be worth it . just gotta get stuff to put in the tank. its hard to find a nice piece of driftwood though there all over price and shipping on the web is insane :? . there are so many nice tanks/ i wanna get real plants but i heard you cant when you have cichlids.


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## ka2zesmi786 (Feb 14, 2009)

well, what i did was that i went to the beach and a few other places to find my driftwood. I was fortunate enough to also find some nice rocks/tiles in the same places just left there to be thrown away.  but i did buy my plants at the LFS. and i got my gravel from craigslist 120 lbs for 40 bucks. Actually i got my tank and stand for 50 bucks and 2 filters there too: a magnum350 and a penguin 200 for 75. Craigslist is mosdef an aquarist's best fren. I dont have any fish in as of right now but i'm making this 75 gallon tank a Central American cichlid tank. :fish:

So if i were you i'd check your local beach or any place close to a body of water thats open to the public. you can find both nice rocks and wood without spending a dime. i dont think its illegal to take them. with my tiles that i found i broke them up into several small pieces and stacked them up. its better than going to the LFS and spending 1.99/lb of rocks where each piece is not even 6 inches big and weighs about 30 lbs each. and if you do decide to do this make sure you clean each piece well. :thumb:

Heres how it looks:


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## VT4Me (Mar 23, 2008)

Search on Google for manzanita wood. I just got a piece that is actually a parrot perch but fits my 20L perfectly and looks like a root system underwater. It's a lot harder than regular aquarium wood and is totally safe. You can get some really interesting pieces and it's not that expensive when you compare it to what they sell in a LFS.


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## lilstephii143 (Feb 19, 2009)

:dancing: i had gotten my first collection of rocks from the beach as well lol. gonna try and do that agian hopefully ill find some. there never is a nice piece of driftwood. i collected 2 last time i was there but there really skinny, long plain pieces. as for the plants.. i know *** tried live ones once and it ended up being a mess and they died. what do i need for live plants to survive when im using sand? and as well being kept with cichlid. i like your setup btw with the rocks stacked looks really good! :thumb: 
now let me google that piece of wood manzanita and see if i become successful


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## eddy (Jan 16, 2009)

One picture is the sand from home depot that comes in burlap bags 50lbs cost about 3$. It is very dirty and a pain to clean but more coarse than the play sand and shouldn't get gas pockets.

The other picture is white playsand from lowes also 3-4$ per bag.(try to ignore the cricked heater)

Both will need a good washing.

I got about 20$ in both tanks as far as rocks,plants,etc.


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## lilstephii143 (Feb 19, 2009)

thats how i want my tank to look like ! lol.but i wanna try hiding the heaters and filter. gonna have to think. dont wanna pile my rocks toooo high. everyone seems to have africans. i tried africans but they never grew at all. and there color was never bright. plus they seems to attack eat other none stop. when i bought a sick fish (didnt know it was sick yellow labs) my whole tank died. so i decided to do american. i feel bad giving the fish back to the LFS and anyways there babies once they grow (the americans) im sure id be happy i didnt. opcorn: ill try posting new pics of the fish. im gettingt the Lowes sand today though .. soon ill start my project =D>


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## eddy (Jan 16, 2009)

Yeah if I dad it to do over I would put a DIY background in to hide the equipt. but I don't really want to tear it all down until I move which will be soon. Then I will be putting a DIY background in.


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## lilstephii143 (Feb 19, 2009)

DYI background? never heard of it. well i wasnt sure if one bag of 50lb sound would cover the bottom of the 55 gallon so i got another bag. a total off 100lbs. should i worry if 50lbs of sand is gonna break the bottom of my tank?


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## eddy (Jan 16, 2009)

no it won't break your tank. Did you go white or natural?

DIY=Do it yourself. You make the background out of styrofoam and coat it with epoxy.


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## iceblue (Apr 27, 2004)

You can check out other members DIY backgrounds here. http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/view ... hp?t=99515


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## TheLaxPlayer (Dec 21, 2003)

No, your tank will be fine with as much sand as you can fit in it. I think 50lbs should be fine for a 55 gallon, it should give you a sand bed about 1.5" deep.


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