# 55g Hardscape



## Prognathodon (Mar 31, 2016)

I'm inching closer and closer to fish. Last night I got the last of the hardscaping in:

There wasn't much of a selection of not-small holey rock at the LFS (got the big piece earlier), but they did have this nice piece of driftwood and some slate, and I found mugs on sale for 99 cents at Menard's. Our wate is riftlake hard straight from the tap, so I'm not worried about a little buffering from the wood.

I want to tweak things a little, and still need to get the black background on, but does it look Ok overall for Malawi mbuna (probably yellow labs, rusties, and yellow tail acei)?


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

I'd triple the rocks for mbuna...the advice is to fill the tank to the waterline with rocks. I've only made it halfway up the height of the tank and I do leave one "python-width" between the rock piles and the glass for ease of maintenance.


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## Prognathodon (Mar 31, 2016)

Hmm...I've got a slab of slate about the size of an LP, a couple softball-sized basalt cobbles, and some more coffee mugs. The problem is getting height. But I may be able to brace the slate between the end and the driftwood (which has a slate base).


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Slate isn't all that helpful and the fish can injure themselves on it. You want just small fish-sized crevices between rocks. Maybe another dozen cichlid stones if you don't want real rocks. Landscape suppliers have cheap rocks.


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## Prognathodon (Mar 31, 2016)

I found some artificial holey rock at PetCo that doesn't look too bad, so I added that a small artificial branch that I stole from the snake decor bin. Once payday rolls around again I'll probably see what else I can find to clutter things up. But so far there seem to be enough hiding spots for the half-dozen yellow labs that I got on Saturday. If nothing else, another couple pieces of the holey rock to tuck behind the pieces that are there - either on top of or in place of the coffee mugs.

I don't have a preference for real or artificial, it's more a case of finding what I like and what I think will work (without feeling like I'm imperiling the tank bottom with pointy bits). 



The artificial branch is hidden behind the rocks on the left-hand side. And we finally got the background put on yesterday. We used the Marina goop, husband has decided if/when he eventually drains his tank completely he's re-doing his background with it. And the comment in another thread about using olive oil makes sense now.


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## Prognathodon (Mar 31, 2016)

I stopped at the store and they had decent-sized pieces of holey rock, so I got three, and put them in this afternoon. The two pieces piled on top are the artificial ones I bought previously, and the one in the center is resting on the top of a black sponge filter, so not as precarious as it looks. I think next payday I'll get another couple artificial ones for the left third, and then it will be good.


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