opinions please

porksnorkel

my second 125g w/ slate backround. set up on acrylic w/ styro spacers. made some design errors, but curious to know ur opinions anyway. this is supposed to be a waterfall backround using a bubble wand between the 2 outer sections of the backround. it is intended as a malawi cichlid tank.












so the questions are...

A-should i remove the large piece that spans the 2 rockpiles

B-should i take all the rock piles out and choose a different type of fish that doesn't need hidey holes

C-swap the white sand for black...even if it will cost 8 or 9 times more money

D-yank the whole thing out and start over

i'm looking for aesthetic opinions folks. :thumb:

herefishy

Looks nice. I don't understand the large space behind the wall, but that doesn't affect the asthetics. I might have use lava lace rock in lieu of the slate work. Would have broke up the monotony of all of the slate.

Amphitrite

I'm a great lover of slate in tanks, and I love the background you've made - it looks awesome.

I don't like the slate wall in front of it though.. I think there's too much slate now and it ruins the overall effect of the background. How about changing the slate wall to make it look less solid.. more gaps and structure to it?

Either that or as Bob suggested, replace the slate with some rock work.

Gump

I basically agree with herefishy, like the background by id change the rock type in the tank and not put as big of a space behind the slate background.

gymnothorax

very creative design, pleas post pics when the tank is stocked, looks great!

porksnorkel

ty for the replies guys. i've come up w/ an idea that i think i will like. it will basically be the same thing but have styro stacks in between the horizontal pieces.
[foreground rock stacks] i'll cut some caves into the styro then cover the styro w/ small vertical pieces. this will give me the more natural look i was hoping for. should take a few weeks to do, so hang in there and i'll post pics of the progress and final set up.
i will also be hunting for cheap black sand to bring it all together.

ps...the spaces behind the walls are for filter intakes and heaters. this way no equipement can be soon.

porksnorkel

this weeks progress is going well so far. i bought a roto zip tool w/ a diamond blade to cut the slate. whoa what a mess. talk about dusty. i don't recommend doing this inside,lol. i actually moved my workspace outside for the day, and still made a mess!:wallbash:

so i started the other day by cutting the styro stacks up. i made sure to make plenty of caves, and the caves are big enough to house the fish when they grow, i hope.


here's the left side


the right


and the whole thing dismantled after a good rinse. hopefully i will get to paint the styro tommorrow.

willow

wow ! looking great.

Amphitrite

Looks fantastic porksnorkel. What are you using to coat the styrofoam?

porksnorkel

ty guys. the styro will be painted w/ black epoxy paint and maybe sprinkled w/ black sand. all the flat surfaces between the caves will have rock glue to them as well as the L and R sides.