I Don't Know How To Decorate My Tank!!!

I'm so NOT artistic!




This is my tank.
Just "stuff" in here! I don't know what to DO WITH IT! I have quite a few small-ish, irregular flat pieces of slate and flagstone 6",8",10", tons of granite rocks around the house, lots of dried dirty dead cholla outside I could clean (but that's a prickly chore) and boil, the big shells in picture, a ton of giant California clam shells and other shells I've picked up and bought...I need help building a hardscape for African Lake Cichlids. Been looking at pictures all over. Been re-arranging rocks and stuff all day. I want to put water in here. Frustrated...

 

Cichlids like places to hide and protect their space. There is no right answer when it comes to scaping. You can do whatever you like. Just boil anything you put in the tank and start a maze for the fish. They will do some redecorating themselves. Slate placed over two terracotta plant pots makes easy caves. My daughter-in-law calls them apartments! Personally, I would forget the cholla. It can get messy.

Relax and enjoy the adventure. Redecorating is half of the fun of fish keeping.

 

Redecorating is half of the fun of fish keeping.

Pretty much. My avatar photo is my 29 gallon. It looks slightly different since I took that picture. I added a couple more broken clay pot apartments to the left side of it, using marimo moss balls for bushes

I call it Zen Garden

 

Do what looks good to you. But keep in mind that cichlids like rocks for hiding. You can also look up some hardscape videos to get inspiration.

 

Nice Zen! Thanks!

 

Oh man, I just found a problem I didn't account for with the clay pots. The bottoms have little holes that I didn't close up on the newest upright pieces I added to the left side. One of my peppered cories attempted to swim up through the hole (I don't blame it, it looks like it could be fun XD) and got stuck. I had to reach down in and push it back down through, I felt so bad. I gotta find a way to block up those holes now...

 

Awwwwww! Poor little frayed-fin guy! You can find all kinds of silicone and rubber 'plugs' stuff at a hardware store. OR just cut a small piece of 1/4 inch aquarium tubing, fold it and shove it in there.

 

A background would be something I would do first, before you add water.

 

A background would be something I would do first, before you add water.

What kind of background? I was thinking of painting the back slate gray. I think I'm going to stock it with zebra and/or peacock cichlids as well as a few Red psuedotropheus estherae. They all prefer more alkaline harder water and are similar tempermemets/size. I want their colors to pop out. Any other ideas? Also, that big piece of wood is still dumping lots of tannins in the water so It's always kind of yellow. Know any kind of lighting that would be good with yellow water? I will have glass tops on the tank so something that sits on top. I know NOTHING about lighting!

 

I always get my completely empty tank, put the heater and filtration on it, and then add the substrate.
After I smooth out the substrate to something I like, then I start adding hard items first, like rocks and wood, usually building rocks around the wood.
Personally, I wouldn't use those shells, only because I don't like the look of them, but you can do what you would like to do.

I always put taller plants in the back, and move forward with smaller ones, but most of my tanks are just decorated in freestyle, meaning I just squeezed as many items in as I could.

 

What kind of background? I was thinking of painting the back slate gray. I think I'm going to stock it with zebra and/or peacock cichlids as well as a few Red psuedotropheus estherae. They all prefer more alkaline harder water and are similar tempermemets/size. I want their colors to pop out. Any other ideas? Also, that big piece of wood is still dumping lots of tannins in the water so It's always kind of yellow. Know any kind of lighting that would be good with yellow water? I will have glass tops on the tank so something that sits on top. I know NOTHING about lighting!

I usually use a commercial one ( mostly black) but black poster board is cheap.

And helps colorful fishes color really stand out.

 

A touch complicated, but 3D backgrounds look pretty nice and can help tie in your stone decor since you're doing cichlids 3D Aquarium Background