by joemc » Mon Oct 21, 2013 2:13 pm
Hi, nice job on the stand, colour coordinating bases etc . puts my Frankenstein setups to shame (well that's what my family call my tanks!)
temp in my cupido tank is around 25, it goes up or down a degree at different times of the year
my tank looks darker, with lots of shade due to the poor lighting I use and the fact that I have a home made background that I built into the tank, I built it like a riverbank, curved outwards towards the surface, like an overhang. It was built using polystyrene, cut and melted to shape, then painted with epoxy resin and coated with layers of different sands, grit and peat, it gives the tank a shaded dark effect, and now as it ages and gets coated with algae it looks very natural.
you can darken the tank a bit by adding black card or similar to the back and sides and maybe laying some black card on sections of the glass covers, that should give you the dappled shade you seem to be looking for, just moving it about till you get the look you want.
more boulders and chunks of roots will help with breaking up the open tank look and should help the fish settle and feel more confident, I have found though hat the F1 cupido in the tank have much less fear and shyness, and are less likely to bolt if startled.
thanks for posting the pictures and the update, always good to see how things are progressing
joe