$100 dollars to spend on equipment - What would you get?

are you doing plants? what kind of fish are you getting? that makes a big difference as far as what kind of lighting and decorations.
well, this is what i got for my tank, and it's working out pretty well.

sand - 1 bag Quikrete medium grade sand - $6
background - 1 large black trashbag - free (stolen from work)
plants - 5 bunches Hornwort - $12
driftwood - 3 pieces - $65
cave - 1 md terra cotta pot, broken into 2 halves - $2
lights - 2 standard strips from old 10g tanks - no cost

I'm not sure what the price difference would be, but since you won't be running a UGF, how about getting some porcelin tiles at a home center for the bottom instead of gravel.

I was told to use porcelin, don't know/wouldn't chance using terra cotta or painted tile.

I used some slate looking tile for my 75, at about $1/piece. I had to have a few cuts made to fit the dimensions of my tank at 50 cents a cut. Be sure to measure the inside of the tank! I spent about $10 for the bottom.

I also added about 5 pounds of gravel, scattered here and there for looks.

It's easy to keep vacuumed and looks nice.

Anchoring plants is a problem though. Someone here suggested drilling holes in the tile and glueing plants in place with silica. Good idea, my tank was already set up and filled-but I may yet pull out one tile at a time and do that.

I bought a mat of plastic plants for egg scatterers. I cut it out in naturalistic shapes and placed it around the rocks. I stuck a taller plastic plant through the base grid in two of the pieces. That was under $15, but less than buying many low plastic plants.

The little rock cottage in the right front I built up from several pieces given to me by a friend. The driftwood was downright expensive. I bought the taller plastic plants a couple at a time.

get a back for the tank, I have since added a black background, looks much more finished and the fish are brighter against it.

good luck.

Someone here suggested drilling holes in the tile and glueing plants in place with silica.

Click to expand...

That was me!

I'm pretty sure, anyway.

Yeah, it was me.

silicone??

if you are using silicone as an adhesive..just make sure you use aquarium safe silicone. many silicones had additives in them that may leach into the tank and may be toxic.

i would invest in a gnarly piece of african root driftwood. its self sinking and really interesting. can be alittle pricey, i paid 7 dollars a pound for mine (its really heavy) the pics doesnt do it justice