Advice On A Tank Look

[tom_os]

i will soon have a spare 60l and my mum was talking about me putting it in the reception of our hotel.

as the hotel is next you the beach most of the flats have a slight shell theme so she was thinking of making the tank look like the sea

however i dont want it to be marine so i want a freshwater tank to look like under the sea

we have a big shell that we were thinking of putting in there, along with some old coral that is about 30 years old like some fan stuff, as well as some smaller shells. they are all real from the sea but have been out of water about 30 years. can anyone see a problem with this?

i was thinking of having a few plants like "seaweed" but not too much, just to add interest.

fish wise i was thinking some colourful fish like a gbr and some neons or somehing.

does this sound like it would work?€

cheers

 

[youngfisher]

Ermm, sounds to me if you maybe run the shells under the tap and clean them up and also not sure about the sea weed because of the salt etc. but it might be perfectly fine. someone will let you know.

 

[tom_os]

yeah i will wash them all

when i say seaweed. i mean proper troical plants but look like seaweed like eloeda

 

[youngfisher]

should be fine then, i would wait till someone that knows alot more lets you know though.

 

[Truck]

the shells will raise the PH and GH making it unsuitable for rams

 

[tom_os]

ok so no rams them.

i want low maintence fish anyway so rams wouldnt have been that good

i was going to keep an eye on the ph for a month or two before i add fish

 

[Honeythorn]

You could try some sort of hardwater tolerant cichlid or mollies.

If you can get them to grow in such hard water ( the shells and coral will make it very hard indeed ) you could try Aponogentons for seaweedish looking plants, it is rather Kelp-like in it's appearance.

To be honest I wouldn't add the coral. It could make your water really hard and unsuitable for a lot of fish if you want a good mix of species. There are plenty of nice realistic fake/rubber corals available , and even fake live rock if you want a reef look.

The shell will probably be ok, but a good idea would be to squeeze some aquarium sealant into the inner part of the shell , about as far in as you can get a finger, so that no fish can swim in and get trapped .

 

[pippoodle]

If you sealed the shells with clear epoxy paint (similar to a varnish finish) then they shouldn't affect the ph at all
this would also stop the shell from disintergrating if its a special one

 

[tom_os]

ok cheers, well all the shells came form like carabbian many years ago.

it will be a few weeks before i do anythig so will think nearer the time