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I've been thinking about a re-scape for some time now and after placing a large order for 12, 4" to 6" Haplochromis and Aulonocara I thought it would be a great time to do it. I've watched quite a few Malawi dive videos to get a better idea of what the habitat should look like.
I pulled out the old scape of Cypress Knees and removed around 100 lbs of sand. Side note: I found my missing Pleco. It seems he tunneled under a rock and removed a bit too much sand and the rock collapsed on him. Felt bad for the little guy. The new scape has the stone sitting directly on egg-crate so that won't ever happen again.
My goal in this re-scape is to emulate the Lake Malawi structure where the huge rock formations have smaller rock structure radiating out from the main structure. After selecting just over 300 pounds of rock (to go with the 400 pounds of sand already in the tank), I pressure washed the stone and used my stone cutting blade to flatten the ends of the tall stones I wanted standing on end in the back of the tank. I am extremely happy with the finished product and can't wait to get the new fish in the tank that are arriving Thursday.
Enjoy the pics and please comment. I need more encouragement than I get from the family which mostly consist of comments like, "you're crazy", or "it looked great before, why are you changing it?"
Rock before pressure washing - looks like that are all the same basic color
After Pressure washing the variation in colors came out.
Cutting the rock to position vertically in the tank for height and large boulder illusion.
Laying the rock out in the general pattern I was wanting in the tank.
Before re-scape
After
After
Lots of nooks and cranies and tunnels for the fish to swim though and hide from larger agressive fish.
What do you think? Any suggestions for improvement?
I pulled out the old scape of Cypress Knees and removed around 100 lbs of sand. Side note: I found my missing Pleco. It seems he tunneled under a rock and removed a bit too much sand and the rock collapsed on him. Felt bad for the little guy. The new scape has the stone sitting directly on egg-crate so that won't ever happen again.
My goal in this re-scape is to emulate the Lake Malawi structure where the huge rock formations have smaller rock structure radiating out from the main structure. After selecting just over 300 pounds of rock (to go with the 400 pounds of sand already in the tank), I pressure washed the stone and used my stone cutting blade to flatten the ends of the tall stones I wanted standing on end in the back of the tank. I am extremely happy with the finished product and can't wait to get the new fish in the tank that are arriving Thursday.
Enjoy the pics and please comment. I need more encouragement than I get from the family which mostly consist of comments like, "you're crazy", or "it looked great before, why are you changing it?"
Rock before pressure washing - looks like that are all the same basic color
After Pressure washing the variation in colors came out.
Cutting the rock to position vertically in the tank for height and large boulder illusion.
Laying the rock out in the general pattern I was wanting in the tank.
Before re-scape
After
After
Lots of nooks and cranies and tunnels for the fish to swim though and hide from larger agressive fish.
What do you think? Any suggestions for improvement?