RES tank #1

This is a picture of my 120g RES aquarium (48"L x 24"W x 24"H). On the right you can see the vertical solid concrete block supporting the slate. There are two of them, about 3-4" thick on both the close and far side of the tank (a safety piece of aluminum lies across the top of the blocks in case of any rock breakage). This allowed me to keep some swimming area under the large pieces of slate, but also gave Buddy a cave. Because my tank has about 19" of water in it, I needed to build up the walls around the tank, not only to keep Buddy from crawling out, but to put the lighting fixtures at the appropriate height. To do this I used 1 x 5" wood painted black which sits on the top lip of the tank. I used 1-2" river rock for the bottom, some real and some fake plants, and some driftwood.