New Tank Ideas

[Killerdrgn]

Ok so my friends dad got a new tank made, it's like 250 gallons. Nice tank, it has overflows and a sump. Problem is they're water pet newbies and They're not sure what they want to do with the tank yet.
My friend's dad wants it to have colorful fish or whatever. But I'm not sure if they would be able to take care of the cools colorful fish like any saltwater stuff or things like Discus's.
I was thinking that they may want to start off with a planted tank or something like that, but the major problem is the tank dimensions. This thing is like 4-5 ft tall, NOT INCLUDING THE STAND!!! You have to literally jump into the tank to reach the bottom of it. Don't ask me why they bought it this way or why they bought it without thinking of what they were going to use it for in the first place, I'm trying to figure those out already.
So long story short what would be easy for them to keep and take care of. And what would be the needed equipment to do it?

 

[jhale]

as a planted tank that height is going to be a huge challenge to work on.
it could be cool if the right plants were selected, ie, tall ones.

 

[Killerdrgn]

yeah i thought so too, until i realised the question, how am i going to plant the plants into the bottom of the tank?

 

[jhale]

a long stick, or practice hanging upside down lol

 

[masterswimmer]

Best way to reach the bottom IMO:

 

[tosiek]

the only problem they are gonna run into is them using copper based medications in their tank then not beeing able to convert it to SW later down the line.

You could always set up a really easy softie tank for them with not much more maintenance than a freshwater planted and be able to keep all the easy to take care of hardy corals and fish that are 20x as bright. Acually the freshwater planted ends up beeing more work as they will be trimming the plants weekly sooner or later. Only difference is the cost of stuff needed to start the tank up, IE skimmer, RO, and some test kits/LR/LS. But a canister or HOB filter for a tank like that will run you the same price as a skimmer.

All SW professionalism aside, you can run the tank 3+ months with just changing out phosban and carbon before your doing a water change on most moderately stocked tanks. And you would never see the difference.

 

[Killerdrgn]

OK update on this, well apparently I didn't have as much time to plan this for them as i wanted. My friends dad invited over his boss to try to impress him with the tank so I had to rush a freshwater tank into production. Yes, yes I know the fish that they bought are totally screwed and I did inform them of that but they wanted to go forward with it anyways. They wound up spending $1000 on everything to get things up and running right away.
But the long term goal was to make a FOWLR tank and they want me to help them convert it over the next couple of weeks or so.

Oh and trying to set up a full system of that size in 3 days is really not fun at all.

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

Cichlids!
Hardy, colorful ....


My 150G cichlids shelter runs on only a Mag12 or Mag 18 with a wet dry and whatever leftover light I have time to put on.

You can even use SW dry rock for decor and filtering but dark color rock makes them the fish darker though.

Besides one fish died due to extreme coldness during moving in, there is only one death of my 7 years old(minimum) prehistoric cat fish so far after 1.5 years in here. The wood underneath is showing the wider side of the 2x3

 

[Killerdrgn]

Is that a cat fish or a pleco? But it sounds pretty decided that they want to do a salt water tank. even though I know they'd get tired of the maintenance and would abandon it soon enough.

 

[Hungriee]

hmm.. the height of the tank isn't really good for planted; its too hard to get down for maintenance and planting/scaping.

The only fish I think thats colorful - would be Discus. The height is perfect - a hardscape with manzanita wood and some plants on the wood can make it a go.

 

[Killerdrgn]

Oh and a funny thing, since the tank is MUCH taller than it is wide, the tank actually shakes ever so slightly whenever you walk by it. All in all i don't think they really had any idea of what they were doing when they ordered the tank.

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

Is that a cat fish or a pleco? But it sounds pretty decided that they want to do a salt water tank. even though I know they'd get tired of the maintenance and would abandon it soon enough.

That's really a cat-the mouth is in the front, not downwards. I am sure it ate a lot of my cichlids eggs, not algae LOL.

Oh, unless there are actually plecos that have front facing mouths instead of scrapping scrapping mouth.

 

[Killerdrgn]

Ok yeah my friend is intent on making it a salt water tank, and supposedly his dad wants to get LED lights so Wingo I might speak with you in several weeks.