I'm working on a new tank to upgrade my six pangios (myers, kuhli, oblonga assortment). It's a 40 breeder. I'd posted a couple of times as I tried to figure out what to do for substrate, and ended up going with Diana's idea of a rock wall, with sand in front and eco-complete in back. The sand is a mixture of natural colored pool filter sand, and black estes sand that came with the used tank. The rock wall is flat river rock from a local landscape supply, and I used waterfall foam to fill in the cracks (that stuff is messy!)
Here's the substrate in place:
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v413/clevortrevor/tanksetup01.jpg)
I ordered plants on line, and used some of what I already had. Narrow leaf java fern on the rocks, and then various crypts and lotus in the back. The plants are quite new, and I'm still not sure if I got sent the right ones! I think they're still in their emersed form, so we'll have to see what they actually grow into. I was trying to go for crypt wendtii. Whatever they are, I'm very anxious to get the CO2 system set up (hopefully tomorrow), and get lots of growth. It's all very sparse right now, but they're so expensive! I had to skimp so I could splurge on the CO2. Hopefully it'll pay off
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
The wood is manzanita, and I just added the piece on the right today. I'm not too happy with it yet, and it wont sink yet so there's a rock holding it down, which is making things look worse.
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v413/clevortrevor/tanksetup02.jpg)
No fish in there yet - I want to have it very established before i start that. There are four cherry shrimp holding down the fort til then.
This has been a bigger project than i had envisioned at the beginning! One afternoon, I looked around the kitchen, and it struck me how far gone we really are! The number of random items that have gotten repurposed or taken over by aquarium-related activities is quite staggering. So of course, I took some pictures.
So just for fun, here's a tour of our kitchen. I swear this was not staged in any way
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v413/clevortrevor/kitchen01.jpg)
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v413/clevortrevor/kitchen02.jpg)
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v413/clevortrevor/kitchen03.jpg)
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v413/clevortrevor/kitchen04.jpg)
And that's just one day, one room! It's no wonder we don't have people over
![Rolling Eyes :roll:](./images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif)
Anyway, back to the tank - I'll hopefully have better pictures to post once I get the driftwood sorted and the plants grown in a bit. I'm always anxious that my new projects are going to fall apart
![Confused :?](./images/smilies/icon_confused.gif)
I really appreciate all the encouragement I've gotten here - whether it was to me directly, or in a million other posts. Thank you!