bolivianbaby

I went to my LFS to get everything I needed to set up the 55 for the African Cichlids. They had everything but rocks.

Where do you guys get your rocks for your tanks? I was thinking slate from Home Depot. What do you think?

Thanks.

Shawnie

hope you are getting pics along the way!!!!!!! LOL

I got some of my deco off amazon, got my rocks from up the street as they were used for water run off as well as some of the limestone rocks from my LFS...you can get slate from home depot and caves are a must..you can build your own with aquarium silicone as I did also ...just make sure everythings secure very well so none fall over on the fish babies...I think I have a thread here with things I built along the way ...ill see if i can find it

EDIT: heres a couple pics when i started

in the first pic, I got a ton of rocks for caves, that I siliconed together, at walmart..you can see the clear bag with the rocks in it....I think they were $3.99 a bag...the colasium were a set off amazon for $21 ...all 3 pieces came in the set....the reddish/white big rocks were at my LFS...the ecco complete bag is 20lbs for $20 ...I used 70lbs under my gravel rocks...DSC01833.jpg

DSC01666.jpg

the plants and containers in the second pic, I got at our local dollar store....

EVERYTHING I got was boiled and cleaned very well of course

bolivianbaby

Thank you. I'll be posting pics as soon as I get it looking like a tank. Hopefully, that will be tonight. I'm going to set up the heater and the new filters so I can get the filtration going and get the temp stabilized. Also, I did luck out. The LFS had two decorations that were cave-like. I got them both and I'm going to check out some other places so there will be one more cave. If everything goes as planned, I'll be putting fish in either Friday or Saturday depending on the temp and pH stabilizing. I also want the rocks in there before I buy any fish so they can just enjoy their new home except for my paranoid daily parameter testing.

I am so excited!

gmen4life

um how about your cycle?

bolivianbaby

I run two filters on my two 20 gallons and my two 29 gallon aquariums. I'm taking one filter from each aquarium and replacing it in addition to grabbing a cup of substrate from my longest cycled tank. The 20 gallon is my daughter's and it's lightly stocked, so the probability of a mini cycle is fairly low. The 29 gallon is also lightly stocked so it's probability of a mini cycle is fairly low.

I run two filters out of paranoia. I never knew it was going to come in handy

Angela_96

Any rocks from around the area is fine, just scrub an boil them. Limestone is great for cave building, and buffering the water.
I have used sandstone, slate, and limestone from local lakes.

gmen4life

yeah i went to the river by my house and just started picking rocks and made caved but i boiled my rocks for a long time before trusting them lol but i have no problems with them and makes wonderfull homes for your lil buddies

bolivianbaby

One more quick question:

Since caves are important, should I put the aquarium backing on the solid black side to give the tank more of a "cavey" feeling? I couldn't find a "rocky" backing.

Shawnie

mines black wrapping paper ...im not sure if they know the differences in background...as long as there is one because mine hid much more without one than when I put it on...its like a security thing lol

deathtroll

I get all my rocks from local streams. and for the the background I painted the back of the tank with chalkboard paint