nice tank yes pvc pipe can be use but make sure u file any sharp eges of them thats all realy and enough sand to cover the bottom and for them to dig in a bit

i have been reading and they say you only need an inch of substrate or less to stop to much yuck getting caugh tin it.. not sure on what everyone uses but i don tuse much.. i have pvc pipe used in tanks and it looks very effect and makes great caves for them.i have seen people glue, aquarium silicone, pebbles all on the outside to make it more natural and that looked great to. going to be a great tank..

going to be a nice start.

I have found in using sand you need to be carefull of bacteria building up in the sand. It will start to look a brownish black and if un attended with you will end up with sick fish. On the depth I used maby 7 gal of sand in my tank. Its at anywhere from 1/8" to 1/2 any more than that youre looking for trouble. All and all if you are the guy that is on top of all issues with your tank and clean as well as water change weekly or atleast byweekly, then you should be able to deal with it. If you want you can get a geraffe cat to keep the sand turned up allowing for the bacteria to end up in your filtration where it belongs. Good luck and love the start you have goin with the tank. cant wait to see it finished.

Looks good. What color sand are you going with?

we are going to be using black sand. I paint that background black so the fish could stand out!

I LIKE THE IDEA OF PAINTING THE BACKGROUND..I MIGHT TRY THIS ON NEXT TANK..GREAT START I LIKE..:)