Amazon biotope with angels

[Mobydock]

If anyone read this thread http://www.fishforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5060 , you saw I'm going to be setting up my 75G tank again(and probably 20G). I was thinking of doing an assorted communtiy tank at first, but now I'm thinking about doing an Amazon biotope, with angels as the "centerpeice". I just did a quick scan through the google search results and I'm having trouble finding any good info on what plants and fish could go in this setup. If anyone has any good links to such information, so that I don't have to dig for hours, please post them.

[Mobydock]

Well, I bought my angels today. I decided I'm going to cheat and just go with Amazon fish, rather than a real biotope. I guess Amazon is just so big, with such a wide variety of plants and fish, streched out so far, that it's hard to do a specific biotope. I couldn't find a whole lot of info on the subject.

I am quite happy with myself though. I actually managed to settle with regular old LFS fish, rather than spending big bucks on special breeder's quality fish off of aquabid.

[Lisachromis]

Some regular old petstore fish are quite pretty in their own right. It's just that people have seen them for so long, that they forget how pretty they are in search of the next big pretty fish....

[Dr. Tankenstein]

If you want to go "down and dirty" cheap, to start anyway... Go to The Home Depot and buy a Spathiphyllum or "Peace Lily" Heck, I've seen them at pet stores for sale as a "Brazilian Sword". You can decorate a 55 gal tank for under $10! I put some in my tank a week before the Super Bowl last year and one is STILL my centerpiece. After that some "banana" plants or Crypts will do fine. Make sure you use some Malaysian driftwood though (not the stuff screwed to pieces of slate), it will help buffer the water and give you the "tea stained" look you see in the better fish stores. You can get some pretty nice pieces (plants too) on eBay. Hope this rambling helps..

[Lisachromis]

Peace lilies are terrestrial plants and will eventually rot in your tank. It may take a while, but it will happen. Do you know of a local fish club? If so, maybe some members will sell/give you some cheap.

[Mobydock]

I'll look into contacting members of a fish club not too far, but I don't think there are any closer than a 45min drive from here. I already have some plants, but I still haven't decided what I'm going to do as far as a "planting scheme". I finally bought a nice oak stand and hood for the tank, instead of the coffee table it was on, with the factory glass lid. I just finished wiring the flourescent lights last night. It's going to look really nice. I wish I had taken a before and after shot. I still have to swap the gravel for sand and then over the next couple months I'm going to finish stocking with fish and plants.

I've got too many "projects" going on. As soon as I do some research, I'm going to be restoring my pump organ, which has been in the family since sometime in the late 1800's(If I remember correctly, it was my great great great grandmother's). When I'm done getting the 75G tank setup, I'm going to be making a base and top for my 20G tank, so that it looks like its a peice of the pine dresser it sits on top of and then get that tanks up and running again.