[tigger101023]

Hope that's ok here and not in the tank setup forum. Not great pics, but hopefully not terrible. I'm way overstocked for the long-term, I know I have to rid myself of some yellow labs in the next year or so (I think I a have a lot of males), but I like it so far! I really wanted demasoni, looks-wise, but decided against that temperament. I went with all really easy africans :

16 L. caeruleus
10 M. callainos
4 Ps. acei

The tank is boring since I can't find plants (fake) that I like. I tired to drape giant bamboo on the rocks and it looked awful! But the fish seem happy so far.

 

[Cromak]

looks good, only thing i would do is paint the back of your tank black it will break up all those neutral colors.

 

[olsonwa07]

I think it'd look awesome if you did more of a natural setup with the rocks, with all that rock you'd have plenty of nooks and crannies. And what I did for fake plants is something i picked up somewhere else whilst reading.

Go to a hobby store like hobby lobby or michaels and look in the fake plant section for stuff you like. Then get a hot glue gun and some stitching pieces (idk for sure what they're called, it's the gridlike stuff that people use with yarn or something), cut up the plants and arrange them how you want on the grid, cut it up so you have a little to bury in the sand, and bam, the most realistic fake looking plants you'll find. I love mine, no fake plant manufacturer can beat it tbh. Just need a wire cutter to cut the plants up. Haven't had any deaths from poisoning or anything either. Just rinse them off real well, I had one kind of plant that must have had a lot of dye in it, glad I decided to rinse them off first lol! Didn't leak after that either thankfully.

 

[GTZ]

Looks pretty good. Is the tank set up for viewing from both sides?
I'd probably arrange the rocks in a more half hazard fashion, like they all fell over. More so like they would look on a lake bottom, but that's just my opinion.

 

[Chunkanese]

+1 for the michaels hobby store fake plants. I did the same the other day, spent $8 for 3 realistic lake looking plants.

I also agree with GTZ about maybe rearranging the rocks. You will still have just as many caves and if you make it look like the fell in place you also have less of a risk that they will actually fall and hit your glass.

Otherwise your fish look great as well as the tank, very nice[/u]

 

[eagl97]

Looks good!!!

 

[tigger101023]

looks good, only thing i would do is paint the back of your tank black it will break up all those neutral colors.

Actually, it is painted black already :lol:

I'll take the advice to look around for plants at the hobby store. Or maybe if I just glued my giant bamboo, it would look better than trying to drape it like I did. I don't worry too much about falling with them being on a diffuser under the sand - they're fairly sturdy. I go back and forth on how they look - the flat rocks lend themselves to beign stacked, but I know what you mean about how it doesn't look very natural. That was part of the reason for the fake plants. I'll keep at it.

 

[Cromak]

****, maybe its just the picture then it looks dark but it also looks transparent :lol:

 

[dielikemoviestars]

I was wondering why people were saying to paint the BG - looked black to me. Just a reflection from the flash of the photos or ambient lighting.

Technically, plants would look even LESS natural, since there aren't any in the lake.

 

[Kanorin]

Technically, plants would look even LESS natural, since there aren't any in the lake.

There are vallisneria and a few other species of plants that do live in lake Malawi. Definitely not everywhere, though, and probably not at depths more than a few meters.

 

[tigger101023]

They certainly don't seem to miss the plants - maybe I shouldn't worry about it, the fish really are the focal point anyway My con tank has lots of (fake) plants, but that's different. I know the holey rock is awesome for function, but personally, I don't like the way it looks - nothing that white looks natural to me. So it's either flat rocks or round ones and I went with flat for more caves. I love, love, love the 3D backgrounds, epecially with all the caves built in, but there's no way I have the time or en energy for that!

 

[st.jimme26]

Nice fish! Did you get the fish from a LFS, or online?

 

[tigger101023]

Nice fish! Did you get the fish from a LFS, or online?

Got the yellow labs from a local breeder. He didn't have a ton of mbuna - his socolofi were out at the moment, mostly yellow labs and M. aurora "mozambique", but what he had was very nice. The blue cobalts and the aceis were online and I thought got a great deal - 14 fish for <$100 with shipping! But I know it's the wrong forum to advertise so I'll leave it at that. I can PM you the online store if you want.