# Large Tank~Fish Ideas Please



## spypet (Sep 15, 2006)

maybe you could talk him into making it a rescue tank for overgrown fish.
people will give him dozens of free fish that have outgrown their tanks,
that you can get from your local pet stores stuck with them, or craigslist.
that way every fish will have a _story_ behind it of where he rescued it.
I'm sure his friends will be much more impressed with his altruism, then
some fragile expensive colorful school of Altums


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## waterfaller1 (Jul 5, 2006)

OK,I had the dimensions wrong, it's 4' X 4' X 6'{yes..6' deep:eek5: , that's why it made for a difficult sw tank}
The customer is selling the house, the tank goes along with it, but that's a nice idea spypet.


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## spypet (Sep 15, 2006)

well, such a deep tank can only be made into a Paludarium


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## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

Maybe freshwater "reef"? African cichlids, perhaps? I wouldn't do plants, except for as spypet said.


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## waterfaller1 (Jul 5, 2006)

That's awesome.:thumbsup: No she doesn't want aggressive fish.
Spypet, do you have a link to any more photos of paludariums? I was looking at some months ago, but I did not save the link. It was from another country and they had dart frogs and beautiful orchids in them, etc. She is liking that idea alot!


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## daFrimpster (Mar 7, 2005)

An Amazon river tank with lots of wood and wild Angelfish


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## forddna (Sep 12, 2007)

I would totally do Angels and Discus! 

Or, he could go with Ghost Knife, Clown Knife, Arowana...


black ghost knife









clown knife on top









a black arowana









silver arowana









jardini aro photos
http://tropicalfishgallery.com/species-gallery/misc/jardini.html


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## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

boesemani rainbows 
that 6' depth is like asking for lighting trouble. ground cover plant choice will be limited.

please post the progress of the tank. it's very interesting..


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## forddna (Sep 12, 2007)

Wait..it's 6' deep, as in top to bottom? I was thinking "deep" the way tanks are measured. I'm not so sure about Arowanas in a 4' square. The knifes should be fine, though.


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## tpl*co (Nov 4, 2006)

spypet said:


> well, such a deep tank can only be made into a Paludarium


OMG, that's gorgeous!


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## BiscuitSlayer (Apr 1, 2005)

tpl*co said:


> OMG, that's gorgeous!


That is gorgeous, but I'll bet it is a nightmare to work on.


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## spypet (Sep 15, 2006)

BiscuitSlayer said:


> That is gorgeous, but I'll bet it is a nightmare to work on.


on that particular model, the upper side glass panels open on hinges
so you can stretch and reach the bottom and the back of the tank.


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## jinx© (Oct 17, 2007)

spypet said:


> well, such a deep tank can only be made into a Paludarium


OT but, why does that picture make me think of fishscale and his thread about duckweed in his shower?....lol


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## MARIMOBALL (Mar 18, 2007)

An Amazon biotope would be nice with wild green discus ,wild angel fish and cardinals. But its been done before. An African biotope planted tank with anubias and a large school of Congo tetras would be my choice. Congo tetras school together they have a beautifully colored pearl body and long vale tails.

http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/characins/CongoTetra.php


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## waterfaller1 (Jul 5, 2006)

Those are nice looking tetras..nice idea too, thanks.


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## BiscuitSlayer (Apr 1, 2005)

I would say Redline Sharks and Blue Tetras. Both look really cool and I have never kept either of them.


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## Canoe2Can (Oct 31, 2004)

fishscale said:


> Maybe freshwater "reef"? African cichlids, perhaps? I wouldn't do plants, except for as spypet said.


I'd say that's the best idea so far. Use "underwater cement" to build up a four foot high mound of rock with plenty of openings and caves and then stock the tank with Lake Malawi cichlids. It would be colorful, lively, and a heck of a lot easier than trying to trim plants in a 6 foot high tank.


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## Mori (Jul 23, 2003)

I think you could try to stick some easy plants towards the top of your FW "reef"--get some pockets of substrate and some sticky-root plants (like Java ferns). 

That might be a nice tank for a few _H. temminckii_ gouramis if you go with a SE Asian theme. They are impressively gorgeous when full size but you rarely see them big. They also nibble algae and probably won't damage sturdy plants.


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

tiger barbs
loaches
boesemani rainbows (have 2 in my 20L, they are awesome fish, they even spawn often and the male looks great during this)
large gouramis (red fin, kissing)


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

BLOOD PARROTS!!!

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...rot&um=1&start=2&sa=X&oi=images&ct=image&cd=2


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## waterfaller1 (Jul 5, 2006)

Thanks for everyone's input...keep the ideas coming.


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## newshound (May 9, 2005)

wow six feet deep 
that'll be easy to aqua scape ;-P


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## ShortFin (Dec 27, 2005)

Check out some of the paludarium that Aquarium Design Group did for inspiration. roud: 

http://www.aquariumdesigngroup.com/


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## waterfaller1 (Jul 5, 2006)

Those are breathtaking...
honey, can we set up another tank?:hihi: 
Thanks for the link!


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## BTDarters (Dec 30, 2007)

waterfaller1 said:


> ... I was looking at some months ago, but I did not save the link. It was from another country and they had dart frogs and beautiful orchids in them, etc. She is liking that idea alot!


waterfaller1,

Was this maybe the site you were thinking about? Black Jungle Terrarium Supply.

Brian


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## waterfaller1 (Jul 5, 2006)

Thanks Brian, no..that was not it. I find links, that take me to links, that take me to links.... I do think that is how I found it though. I was curious about keeping a certain frog, and it brought me to a website. It was more of a personal website, and there were comments by the person that owned the site about each tank. There were alot of tanks, all of them were paludariums. There was a certain tank style/shape to alot of them. The background of this website was black, I do remember that. That is a good site though, I have been to it. It looks like they have alot of step by step pics, thanks for posting it.


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## ShortFin (Dec 27, 2005)

Maybe this was it? http://www.wildsky.net/vivarium/evivariu.htm

The best site for Dart Frogs is http://www.dendroboard.com/

I used to keep Leucomelas. It was fun, sings like a bird. Be aware of fruit flys running around the house no matter how careful you are.


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## waterfaller1 (Jul 5, 2006)

ShortFin said:


> Maybe this was it? http://www.wildsky.net/vivarium/evivariu.htm
> 
> .


That is it, thanks so much!roud:


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## Brian A (Sep 3, 2002)

Hundreds of these guys!!!!!









But I am a nut for tiny fish!!


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## Destinee (Dec 11, 2007)

This idea may be a little out there. 

But I also keep lizards, and I have chinese water dragons, Hear me out now.

You could do a 1/2 water 1/2 plants and small trees ect at the top. You could keep chinese water dragons in it, b/c they LOVE WATER and in their natural habitat that is their ideal situation, and you could also keep fish that are a little bigger, maybe some rainbows, or something around that size in the tank, just big enough that they cant eat them. That would be a COOL vivarium. ( I think thats what you call those) You could have Fish and Lizards, It would by far be the coolest thing I have seen. Just like that pic above with the plants on top and water in bottom. except have some tropical lizards like water dragons, anoles, chameleon ect ect, and maybe misters to give it the rainforest look, Omg that would be so awesome..


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## waterfaller1 (Jul 5, 2006)

That's a neat idea too, thanks Destinee. I have a question about these type of tanks. How do you see inside the top portion? Do they stay foggy/misty? Are these pics just taken after someone cleaned the glass, or?


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## Destinee (Dec 11, 2007)

that is a good ? I would think you would have to have some sort of ventilation.


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## waterfaller1 (Jul 5, 2006)

Ok..wood and rock, and a pebble substrate is in. I need to have some ideas for some kind of plant that will get large and stay attached to the driftwood. It will be under a 400 wt metal halide. No Co2, but something could be added once or twice a month. We have decided to go with cichlids as the fish.{it's the nice kind..I forget what they are called, but they get big.} You should see the driftwood we found in daytona at a cichlid shop..wow, I am jealous. I will see if I can get some pics, but I would have to have permission to post them. This home is going to be in the parade of homes in a few weeks. The owner is an architect. It's going to be pretty cool..it will have a blue light in the water shining upward from below the driftwood. The driftwood is massive..like over 50 LBs.


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## waterfaller1 (Jul 5, 2006)

Actually, this is a public site, so you can sort of get an idea of the tank. If you scroll down,you can see a portion of it. It's the first home on Via Tuscany. Click on 'see pictures'~
{this is the tank still set up as saltwater}

http://www.philkeandesigns.com/portfolio.php


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

A few mother java ferns or java fern mats would probably be your best bet on the driftwood, as they get some height, thick and lush, and are low light/low maintenance. You could get a few different varieties for contrast.

Java moss and anubias would make a nice contrast with the java ferns.

Floating a few water hyacinth or maybe Pistia, with their dangling roots, would be cool plus work as the nutrient-sink plants since the tank is too deep probably for stem plants.


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