ok so I basically--or actually--have a blank tank for my O's. Very little to no substrate ( few pebbles),no background, no plants--i know that wud be useless probably--only have a few big rock. Well...its just too plain n I want their home tolook nice. Money is a little tite rite now--did good just getting tank n O's-- I want to use sand as substrate-wuts the best/cheapest kind? Any idea on a background--they are tiger O's just few months old n havent colored yet. Should I at least try some plant? Fake or real? What do u guys have setup

tank view or appearance is always based on the beholder's
preference. but for fishes, what they need is adequate space,
pristine water, and varied foods....

but to give you an idea, the easiest way for background is
an acetate sheet that could be attach at the back something
like this:

For substrate... instead of buying expensive sand from the petstores, just go to a hardware store and buy some play sand. It should be about 5 dollars or so for a 50lb bag.

blasting sand? that stuff is very very fine man... and packed full of dust! i wouldnt want it personally, that stuff would get stirred up very easily i would think. hell i had a truckload of it dumped in my yard for a sand box for my baby sister and half of its blown away. id prefer a very fine gravel. 1/8th inch pieces. i picked up 300lb for my new 212gal tank for free lol. yay. freebie = win.

i have seen the sand used its real simple way of cleaning it up to make it easy set up just get a screen and all the lil stuff get falls through and you are good to go and one thing is, after it settles and all that when the fish stir it up a lil it settles real fast my buddy uses it in his 180 gal and looks so cool with the drift wood and what not, oh and win i have a huge piece of drift wood i can use lol its too big for a 55 with plants but i bet it would look good for your tank lol if you want it shipped to ya

well i understand that not all sand is the same, the stuff in fish tanks isnt that very fine sand they sell at the hardware store, its more crushed coral type, and its not that fine. that stuff at the hardware store is usually that really fine stuff like salt size, and its got ALOT of dust in it. they use it for sand boxes and sand blasting. but more often than not its added to portland cement to make concrete.

drift wood you say???
lol can i get a pic of it??? where u at? i wonder what the shipping cost would be on a piece of drift wood lol.

lol i need to get it back sometime its in the office of a friend but i live in colorado and considering size and even for twenty bucks would not be fair deal in the end lol

you talk about it like its a log or something... how big is it?

Win wrote:

Yo, Win, you could be Dutch!

im half Dutch as a matter of fact Noddy my moms side of the family is Dutch with a little dash of Cherokee Indian lol. dads side is pure German. they figured it out that im half german, 1/64th cherokee, and the rest is dutch i say im dutch and german, but theres just enough native american in me to make me buck wild when i drink lmao!

Win wrote:


No not blasting sand. Play sand. Ya know the stuff that kids play in when they are in sand boxes. NOT something you would chip paint away with a sand blaster.
Play sand isnt any differant than what you would find at a pet store.

that sand your talking about is the exact same stuff they used at my last job in the media blaster. its not the coarse shit for blowing rust off industrial stuff, its more like cleaning small parts. a stand up cabinent if you will. they used it to lightly etch the surface up on transmission parts before they bonded them to the friction material to help it stick. its quite fine. the bags actually had the little plastic kiddy "turtle" sandbox on the front of it lol. its tha same stuff.