Decorating Freshwater Tank

[powerdyne6]

I am wondering if anyone out there can give me some tips of how to decorate my freshwater aquarium, it is a 38 gallon
basically I want to know how to decorate my tank with the tyoe of fish I am putting in
theses are some fish that I am interested in
cichlids, maybe some species of sharks (I know they grow huge but they will go to a new tank or back to the LFS when they outgrow my tank)
catfish, maybe some cory's
do these fish like lots of plants, or do they like wide open spaces, or caves or shelters
if someone could please help me with some pictures or diagrams that would be great
thanks Mike

 

[funkyhoney]

well, depending on the type of cichlids you're probably going to want to steer away from plants, the majority of them like to dig and will uproot your plants, catfish and cory's would be fine as they'd just rummage around the bottom anyway, but some places to hide would be ideal.

for that kind of mix i'd say get some medium course gravel, driftwood and lava rocks, and try and recreate an unplanted, rocky environment. decent amounts of open space would be good but some large places to hide would also be advisable.

 

[powerdyne6]

well, depending on the type of cichlids you're probably going to want to steer away from plants, the majority of them like to dig and will uproot your plants, catfish and cory's would be fine as they'd just rummage around the bottom anyway, but some places to hide would be ideal.

for that kind of mix i'd say get some medium course gravel, driftwood and lava rocks, and try and recreate an unplanted, rocky environment. decent amounts of open space would be good but some large places to hide would also be advisable.

thanks for the reply, yah I am not yet set on those perticular fish, by the way my tank is already setup and currently cycling for the past 3 weeks hopefully it will be done soon, right now in the tank I have some plants, couple pieces of bogwood, and some coral rocks
maybe if you have any tips or pictures on building caves or some nice hiding places would be great

thanks mike

 

[Torrean]

there are lots of ways to make caves for your fish. My personal favorite is PVC pipe with silicone spread over the outside and then coated with sand. For an extra touch you can tie something like java moss (will attach itself) or riccia(will not) to the outside. Other options include...

1. silicone different rocks together to make caves, slate works especially well for this.

2. coconut shells make good caves. You should look into how to prepare them before you use them.

3. flower pots once well cleaned make good caves although they are a bit shallow and completely open on one side.

4. you could also buy the cheap (not inexpensive) polyresin sunken ships and castles. Although be careful as these sometimes aren't very well designed. They tend to have lots of small holes and crevices that fish like to get stuck in and die. Also those crevices tend to be in places you can't see easily so you don't know that you have a rotting fishin your tank.

lot's of other options too.

If your looking at african cichlids then I would get lots of rocks of varying sizes then silicone some of them together to give your rockwork some stability, I say some so that you can still change the look relatively easily. Next I'd get some floating plants, They love to eat elodea. Also your gonna want a high PH so I'd go for an aragonite substrate...caribsea makes a nice aragonite sand. Now you need to THOUROUGHLY research the fish because getting the stocking right with africans is tricky. I'm probably leaving out a million things. Good luck