# Suggestions on lighting and Rock Pile



## mccluggen (Jul 5, 2008)

How does the rock pile look? Natural enough?

I am going to add more sand, need just a bit more for an even layer.

What about the lighting, do you folks like the warm to bring out the browns and reds of the petrified wood or the cooler lighting on the right?


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## sean151 (Feb 19, 2008)

I'd have to say that lights aside that it looks quite natural. It's hard to make it look unnatural if you're not stacking it into weird symmetrical ways. I'd say see if you can make bigger gaps between the set of wood on the left and maybe mess around with the smaller pieces on the right if you want.
Light wise I think it would be really good if you could get a timer and have both with the warmer lights start an hour before the others go on and and back on for an hour after the cooler lights, yes kind of like what salt water tanks do to recreate sunrise and sunset. If you can't do that then I'd say the cooler lights for a better viewing quality and calmness.


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## mccluggen (Jul 5, 2008)

I tinkered with it a bit and alternated the warm and cool bulbs... I think this looks better. The picture isn't wholly accurate. In real life the colors blend much better when viewed with the eye.


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## sean151 (Feb 19, 2008)

That works too. It looks natural still but, the more I think about I really do think the wood on the far left should be laid down so that the butt end of the piece next to it can create a small opening for a fish or two to hide in. That is of course if any of the fish you plan on stock in there do live at the bottom and not just hanging out in the open water. Thats just my opinion and if you don't it's still a great looking tank.


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## mccluggen (Jul 5, 2008)

That works, I adjusted the left hand chunk of pet wood to provide more of a cave. Good little adjustment I think.

This will hold an oscar and a severum as they continue to grow out. As I set up my 6' down the road they will move out of this and I think I will add some shells into the open areas and do a Tang community with Julies, some shellies, and maybe a calvus or two or some cyps.


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## sean151 (Feb 19, 2008)

Once you move onto the Tang. setup come to our side of the forum and we'll be glad to help you choose a species of shell dwellers for a big tank like yours. I think occies would be great with their small, but big attitude for a tank like yours.


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## mccluggen (Jul 5, 2008)

I'm kind of partial to the look of stappersi, but I recently saw a color variant of occies that really caught my eye. They had the same blue irridesence on the side that the gold variants have, yellow fins, and some pearling. They were really nice looking.

http://www.shelldwellers.com/index.php/topic,3155.0.html

Not sure where to find them though.


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## sean151 (Feb 19, 2008)

Sadly shell dwellers are not that usually found locally, especially if you know what you want. I had to use aquabid to get mine. If you can you should get a known pair of whatever species you choose. That way one you have way less aggression than two males only and two you get more in the end. That site will have plenty more information on there for you and I check it a bit more than I should  I'll probably be writing an article/guide for either multies or shell dwellers in particular. And then parts of that will be dissected for an even bigger article on setting up tanks. But then again I'm a busy college kid studying business so what time am I supposed to have for these kind of things and where to put them anyway.


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## mccluggen (Jul 5, 2008)

I'm close enough to Dave in San Antonio to order from him regular ground and get fish overnight. When it comes closer to time I was going to see if he could lay hands on some of the yellow finned occies, otherwise I will go with Stappersi.


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## F8LBITEva (Nov 9, 2007)

looks great, the lighting reminds me of the way the sun penetrates the water in nature.


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## slimbolen99 (Apr 28, 2006)

That's a really great rock pile! Is that petrified wood or what?! Cool!


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## mccluggen (Jul 5, 2008)

Yup, it's petrified wood.

Here we go, fish in and tinkering with a bit of plants. I will probably add some floating plants, not sure how I feel about the java moss.


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## sean151 (Feb 19, 2008)

Looks quite natural now that the sand has settled and there's a fish in there. I know what you mean about the java moss. It's a durable plant(weed?), but isn't one of the better looking plants. The problem is that you also plan on going from a low PH tank to the highest in the African Rift Lakes, Tanganyika. The java moss can handle that, but I can't think of any other plants that can live in both ends of the spectrum. Good luck with the tank as it is though. It'd be something that would keep me busy just watching for hours on end expecting something new to happen or something.


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## Chris2500DK (Feb 15, 2006)

Other plants that can thrive in rift lake tanks are Java ferns, Vallisneria and Cryptocoryne aponogetifolia.


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## natalie559 (Dec 6, 2007)

I love it and think you did great!! :thumb:


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## trigger (Sep 6, 2002)

Great setup indeed. Nice and simple but impressive!!


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