**new pic posted on this thread as one of my replies**

I just got a 55 gallon (seems small compared to the 90 I had) but I guess this will work for some good cichlids...i'm looking at red devil (love them) jack dempsey, firemouth, and maybe 1 other cichlid and a catfish or some kind of oddball... a little overstocked I know, but I have quadruple the filtering needed. lol

it's got a black background, and black gravel with a tiny tiny bit of light blue gravel mixed in... looks really good but I dunno how to decorate it, i've only done natural tanks before... I got it off craigslist. It has a few decorations but I dunno if I like them or if i should go buy new stuff to decorate with.

Im a little more into natural decorations, you have a good size tank for that, those look good but everybody has different taste, i will buy some river rocks, plants and maybe some driftwood and i'll bet your fish will be even more happier.. good luck!!

im thinking when iget paid again i'm going to go with some dark colored wood or rock formations and some good looking fake plants to breakup the dark colors and call it a day... im gonna get rid of everything in there except the house, cuz i like it... lol

The fake plants will be floating so use some GE silicone I (not II) and glue them to heavy rocks. You can use rocks you find just be sure to boil them first. The decor will be rearranged by your fish so I wouldn't put alot of effort into it.

yea my red devil loved to dig and build... lol driftwood and some plants would be better than the random assortment of stuff i got with the tank... should i also add some rock with the driftwood and plants or just keep it simple, piece of driftwood in the middle and some fake plants climbing around the back of the tank?

i'm also thinking about just getting rock, like the long flat rocks and stacking them to make tons of hiding spots for the fish so smaller cichlids will have tons of places to hide. I could see just getting a bunch of rock and making it really nice that way, but where would I get the rock so it'll look decent?

look at garden centers much cheaper than LFS, even Lowes or Home Depot.

what do i look for when i go there?

I have firemouths in my 55 gal but i would not recommend having a firemouth in there with those other cichlids you mentioned cause they are a weak cichlid and might get bullied to death. I like colored gravel but the paint will start coming off sooner or later thats been my case anyhow.

Look for any natural rock no limestone rocks it will effect the PH

I forgot Firemouth is smaller than the others thanks for heads up

Dcninja....Look in your local yellow pages for landscapers or landscaping supply......many of these people have a selection of rock that is reasonably cheap that they sell by the pound........There is a place here that I have used for years and they have almost any type of rock you could want.