for your cave try useing natural river rock siliconed together looks good when you take time and lay it out fortunatly for me living close to rockies i get slate and river rock in abundance then i boil it to remove impurities this works well
Well it took a lot of rinsing, moving, pouring and filling, but we officially got the tank wet tonight.
I'll get a head start on a fishless cycle using a filter pad from my Eclipse 5g, and once the plants get here, I'll drain about 70% of the water, fill it up, and get the fishies in there.
There is a very small 'gouge' in the front glass panel of the tank. It must have happened yesterday or the day before. It's tiny, less than the width of my pinky fingernail, and not very deep (it catches your fingernail but it has no discernable depth).
I'm not sure if I should be worried about this or not...
Being a new tank, I'm sure that's upsetting. However, as long as the chip doesn't mess with the silicone in the seams, it won't be a problem. I've had a few tanks with this kind of chip and they've never leaked.
How do you get the plants to grow on the wood. I have seen them for sale at the LFS but wonder how you do it . I assume it is only certain plants. Are there any aquatic orchids?