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This will be a 90 or 125g with larger NW cichlids (geophagus, severum, pearl, etc). I'm kind of lost...all my tanks have flourite or flourtie/gravel substrate, wood, and plants.

I'd like to do a sand substrate but I'm concerned about cleaning the sand initially. I'm in an apartment so using a hose isn't an option, which I've read is most often recommended for cleaning.

Rocks, wood...which is best? Or a combination? What type of rock and where do I purchase it?

Apparently plants are out of the question since these fish either eat them, dig them up, or both. I guess I'm just not sure how to make a tank that large look nice without plants.

Any ideas would be appreciated...pictures too, or even links to sites with pics of these type of setups.



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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

the problem I see with larger cichlids and sand is that they can get rowdy and kick up the sand which might be sucked into the filters. I'd use a small to medium sized gravel with lots of wood and rocks. I collect my own rocks from a stream near my best friend's house. A nice scrubbing and baking for an hour at 400F gets them ready for the aquarium. As for wood, well you can do the same with wood but ime scrubbing is a lot more difficult so I prefer now to just buy driftwood at an lfs. As for plants, you can find nice realistic looking fake plants with a good sized ceramic base which are much more difficult for larger cichlids to dig up. From what I remember about the species you're considering (at least in the peaceful setup ) these will be much less inclined to dig at plants as opposed to oscars, midas etc. If aquabid comes back up any time soon, I'll get you the link to where I bought my fake plants at. I'm really happy with them and they were very cheap. The problem is I found the website through aquabid and never bookmarked it.

Thanks for the info about rocks, I never knew about baking them. I actually saw quite a few in our complex that I jokingly said would look nice in a tank. There are at least two lfs here that have a good selection of wood. I would appreciate that plant link when you get it though.

I'm definitely flexible with the substrate. Would small gravel be ok with Geophagus? I have one brasiliensis that will be going in the tank. Jurupari and abalios are also on my 'potential' list.

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

i was in the same boat about a week ago and at the time i was paying 80 cents a pound at lfs for my river rock. but on the way home i decided to stop at a stone material company and they were selling the same rocks as the lfs but larger for only 15 cents a pound! so thats the way i went.

as for the driftwood, go with the lfs

as for the plants, i have an oscar, blackfin pacu, and a black in my little 125usg. they rearange the tank completly constantly except for one large plant.

but with ur cichlids they shouldnt do much havoc.

goood luk

small gravel would be fine for geophagus...the smaller the better. [link=here's]http://www.wholesale-aquarium-plants.com/" style="COLOR: #FF8080[/link] the link to the website I was telling you about. the same seller posts auctions on ebay as well...either that or he switched to ebay now that aquabid is down. either way I found the site.

if you could do live plants would you? if so I could give you a few ideas on how to keep the plants from being uprooted. the cichlids would still most likely munch on live plants but then again this would provide a 'natural' look.