my masterpiece

[wifishman]

this will be the look im going to try and recreate with some minor changes to call it my own design. lol
i will be using some driftwood as well. not a lot but a few nice pieces

and thanx for awnsering the flow question, it was my main concern... and i can do it to where it pulls from one end and returns on the other... nothing is glued together yet...

as far as the stocking some mid size fish... looking at my list what recomendations do u have. it is a very peacrful tank... i actually was thinking about a ram or 2... i think thats what they were... from what i read they are a nice peacful fish

[wifishman]

Originally Posted by emc7

It seems that pond people use bead filters that look like pool filters, but are different inside. http://ponddoc.com/Store/Filters/Pro...ruction123.htm

Are you losing your sump space by making the tank a bar?

sry it took me so long to respond to this. i decided against the bar thing... tank would visually be in at an akward vewing angle. so it is going to be on top of a portion of it.. thanks for that link btw

[sneasle]

I like that tank, should look great when your done.

You may want to consider building all that out of some lighter weight material and then just 'surfacing' it with rock to keep the overall weight down.

I'm not really sure what to recommend fish wise. Most of my comments are just regurgitation of my readings for the short time I have actually been digging deeper into this hobby and I am not yet familiar with many of the different species available.

I like my angels and they are very peaceful, but they can get aggressive and I am unsure how they would behave in a larger group. You may be able to get a school of them going, but I am not sure.

I really don't know of any mid-level fish that get larger that aren't aggressive. Maybe Discus, but I know next to nothing about them. I have heard silver dollars mentioned as larger fish, but again, I don't know anything about them.

Your definitely going to want to go to some sort of canister filter. I would really not worry about flow. Many of these fish come from rivers, and while they may be very lazy rivers, they are not unfamiliar with moving water.

Maybe send s13 a pm. He works for a tank cleaning/maintenance company so he see lots of larger tanks. Maybe he can give some input on filter solutions in your size range.

[akangelfood]

Discus are beautiful and full of personality, but they are not for the inexperienced hobbyist. There was a local couple who was breeding them and I almost bought some, but they are way too delicate. They are rather stkittish fish and demand perfect water conditions. Some people like mixing them with "dither" fish, to get them used to the activity, but that is not generally recommended. Discus do best in perfect water, with lots of water changes, and in a quiet area without a lot of people passing by on a regular basis. A wonderful fish for someone with the experience, the time required, and a quiet home.

[emc7]

I think the pond filters would work, my only concern would be if they are loud/hot. I think outdoors you can use a cheaper pump than you'd need inside.

[emc7]

Rams are real wimps except when they are breeding. Then a pair will defend an area about the size of 10 gallon tank. Any species of Laetacara, Nanocara, Crenicara, Pelviachromis or small Aequidens is a reasonable choice, too. The major cause of "cichlid aggression" is a too-small tank. You should look for "dwarf" cichlids only because bigger cichlids could snack on you neons.

[wifishman]

Originally Posted by akangelfood

Discus are beautiful and full of personality, but they are not for the inexperienced hobbyist. There was a local couple who was breeding them and I almost bought some, but they are way too delicate. They are rather stkittish fish and demand perfect water conditions. Some people like mixing them with "dither" fish, to get them used to the activity, but that is not generally recommended. Discus do best in perfect water, with lots of water changes, and in a quiet area without a lot of people passing by on a regular basis. A wonderful fish for someone with the experience, the time required, and a quiet home.

my freshwater experiance is nil, i have 9 years of saltwater reef experiance... im not to overly concerend with tank maintance as that is something every hobbiest better grasp before setting up something.... im just not sold on discus. i stopped by the lfs in bloomington mn today right next to work and watched the discus tank for over an hr today... hoping to get inspired by them... and it didnt work. however the did have a wonderful tetra tank set up with about 25 different tetras and it was simply amazing. so im guessing that is what i will be sticking to.

im deffinetly going to be adding galaxy rasboras to the list as well as a few others as well as taking a few off so here it is.. updated
20 cardinal tetras
10 cherry barbs
15 glo lite tetras
15 head and tail light tetras
15 rummy nose tetras
11 harlequin rasboras
15 penguin tetras
7 albino corys
10 siamese alage eaters ( i like them better than the chinese)
7 zebra dainos
11diamond head neon tetras
11 x-ray pristella tetras
17 galaxy rasboras
10 bloodfin tetras
13 gold tetras

now as for plants ive kinda thought about it more and more and here is a list of plants i plan on trying to keep


anacharis
micro sword
cabomba
vallisneria
water sprite
variegated japanese dwarf rush
ozelot sword
java fern
brazillian sword
four leaf clover


these from what little reaserch i have done are some of the easier to care for plants... if im wrong please correct me

[sneasle]

sounds like a plan.

[HTML.Coder]

Originally Posted by wifishman

ill redo this thread here in the am but im gunna post a couple pics of the tank being made here for yall

looks good [the pic on that post] (for nothing in it yet)

[HTML.Coder]

Originally Posted by wifishman

this will be the look im going to try and recreate with some minor changes to call it my own design. lol
i will be using some driftwood as well. not a lot but a few nice pieces

and thanx for awnsering the flow question, it was my main concern... and i can do it to where it pulls from one end and returns on the other... nothing is glued together yet...

as far as the stocking some mid size fish... looking at my list what recomendations do u have. it is a very peacrful tank... i actually was thinking about a ram or 2... i think thats what they were... from what i read they are a nice peacful fish

wow! I wish I could do that!