More or less....?

[HawgHunter]

Ok, so I finally cleared my tanks of all fish....I've tore down and reset both tanks. I like the looks of the 75g....but I'm at odds with the 100g. I need y'all opinions on a couple things....

A couple things you need to know....

Filteration will be two 60g HOB filters running with a custon wet/dry powered by a mag9. Eventually I'd like to add some sponge filters running off maxijet 1200's, but those can wait for now.

Fish kept will be Pseudotropheus demasoni....perhaps a couple other mbuna's thrown in??? (IDEA's????)

My questions are....A) Do I have too much gravel? I'm known to go a bit overboard at times.
B) What about the rock set up? This is my main concern....is it enough for these fish? Should I fill it up or leave more open space?

And for the h*** of it, How does it look? When I first was setting it up I thought it was gonna look awesome....but once set, I couldn't help but notice how great the 75 looked with the crushed coral compared to the look of the gravel in the 100. Not so great, or is it just me???

[J-WS6]

Well, it's a good start. A couple of things...

White sand/Crushed coral will reflect a lot more light than the brown gravel, and make your tank appear 'brighter'. Darker substrates tend to absorb more light. As for the amount, that's totally up to you. I don't think it looks bad with what you've got.

If you're only going to be doing Pseudo's/Mbuna's, I would add some more rock because as these fish age, the males can get pretty aggressive. So more rock piles/pieces will allow for more territory to be evenly distributed.

As for anything else, I would add as much filtration/flow as you possibly can. What you've got now is good for a start, but I say you can never go overboard with it. Plus it will cut down on your maintenance schedule.

Hope this helps.

J

[CichlidFan]

I don't think there is too much gravel in there, but I prefer the look of sand/crushed coral myself, over gravel.
Never the less, the tank looks great, and I like the rocks where they are.

CF

[HawgHunter]

JW....Initially I had more rocks in there, the full look was what I ws going for....but I could never get them set to my satisfaction. So, this is what I ended up with. I think I'll have to bring more inside and see what I can do.

CF....Your right about that coral and sand compared to gravel....that's what I think makes me like the look of the 75....I kept the rock work simple with just a center piece made of 3 rocks, yet I still like it. The brightness of the white coral makes it nice and bright as JW was saying. All I have in there is a female red zebra along with about twenty 1/4 inch fry....and they really 'pop' out at you.

[J-WS6]

If you can't get the scape right in the tank, put a towel down in front of it, and scape it on the floor til you can get it right, take a picture, and rebuild it inside the tank. That always helps me.

[HawgHunter]

If you can't get the scape right in the tank, put a towel down in front of it, and scape it on the floor til you can get it right, take a picture, and rebuild it inside the tank. That always helps me.

....believe it or not, I did. Thought I liked the look, but once inside it wasn't so great anymore. You know, now that I think about it....the towels where 'white'....wonder if that isn't why it looked good out but not in the tank.

[eklikewhoa]

You need various size stones to help make it look right.

[J-WS6]

Haha, possibly. Make the swap if you've got extra crushed coral sitting around.

[treehuggingfishlover]

If you can't get the scape right in the tank, put a towel down in front of it, and scape it on the floor til you can get it right, take a picture, and rebuild it inside the tank. That always helps me.

That is a great idea! I am always fumbling around in the tank, trying not to scratch the glass, moving rocks this way and that and then having to climb down and step back to look at it. Your way seems much more efficient- LOL I'll try it next time.

[finfan]

i feel soo dumb, why didn't i think about the towel approach?? i spent countless hours with driftwood and stones inside the tank only to end with frustration, next time i will be wiser :)

as far as the tank, i'm a beginner by all means, but i've seen many pix, based on that, i would also vote for lighter/coral/sandish substrate, and definitely more rock, and make the rockwork be less symmetrical maybe

[TaTeR ToT]

hey man, tank looks good,
i think the gravel looks ok, but i do think sand will look alot better, although i think a really white substrate with the white rock will make it to bright, and from personal experience with pseudo chewe and pseudo demasoni, when i had mine in my old 45g with holey rock and crushed coral, they were very light colored, and didnt show the distinct barring as well as i liked.
i added pool filter sand, which is somewhat darker, and they popped!
i would add pfs, its cheap and it looks great, imo.
not if you had darker rocks like lace rock or petrified wood or something, i would say definatly go with a much lighter substrate, but i think pfs is the way to go.
also i would add seeral smaller rocks around the bigger ones, and a small rock pile made of smaller rocks int he middle.
just my two cents.

[finfan]

i didn't think about it earlier, but i also think lava rock (same as lace rock?) would go really good with white substrate, i believe armthehomeless had a lavarock on white substrate setup and it is one of the best i've seen here... at least as far as looks are concerned... arm do you know which thread it was? i believe it was in africans because it had electric yellow labs in it

[TaTeR ToT]

yeah, lace rock AKA lava rock is what he had in that tank, it did look good!
but i think the bright white sand and white stone would look sterile, kinda like a house without painted accent walls. i think pfs the thr thats there + a few more pieces, and a black background for that bold contrast, will make the demasoni pop!
when i had my 45g exactly how i wanted it, it had about 60lbs of lava rock caves, on a white sugar sized aragonite sand bed, with corkscrew vals scattered throughout, and a black background, with around 13 2-3" demasoni.

[fshfrk]

I do not like to vac gravel, but it's ok. pfs and crushed coral are easier to maintain and look better IMO. just stir it up during WC and get on with it. demasoni are cool! you can always change substarte at a later date.

[armthehomeless]

i believe armthehomeless had a lavarock on white substrate setup and it is one of the best i've seen here... arm do you know which thread it was?

http://www.houstonfishbox.com/vforums/showthread.php?t=21532&page=10

I had holey rock on the PFS on page 8.