Complex (mixed region) stocking for one large tank? (2800 gallons)

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Oh man, If I had a tank that large, I would mimic a slice of a river/creek.

I'd create slopes on each side of the tank, to replicate the banks of the river, covering them in branches/roots and plants to create a more natural look. Towards the middle, it would be like the bottom of the river, sand and some rocks, with a few plants. Maybe add some flow to the middle to replicate the flow of an actual river

I'd go for a South American theme, with a bunch of Red Head Tapajos, Severum, and a few other species of cichlids. I'd also get big ass schools of some tetra, such as Cardinal, Buenos Aires, and Columbian Tetra, and have some bristlenose pleco in the tank as well. Maybe a catfish or two of some type that stay medium sized.

Edit: Oh and I would install a lighting systems that kinda mimics a days light cycle, like what the finnex planted+ does, where there is a sunrise, midday, sunset etc. Also some branches dipping into the water from above to mimic a submerged tree. Plus blinds on one side so people wouldn't be able to see into the bedroom from the living room.
 
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If you already have a geophagus brasiliensis why not build the tank up around him? Depending on how old/what size he his you could even try getting him a girly friend.

I had a brasiliensis a few years ago and they're great fish. Mine would dance with me, give me kisses through the tank and even let me pet him. To date he's still my favorite I've ever had. :)

If I were in your shoes I'd move as much of my current stock as possible to the larger tank once its built, and if it still looked bare afterwards (which it likely would) I'd try to find some suitable tank mates from there.. But that's just me.


Whatever you do with it, I wish the best of luck. :)
 
cmsbthebest said:
Oh man, If I had a tank that large, I would mimic a slice of a river/creek.

I'd create slopes on each side of the tank, to replicate the banks of the river, covering them in branches/roots and plants to create a more natural look. Towards the middle, it would be like the bottom of the river, sand and some rocks, with a few plants. Maybe add some flow to the middle to replicate the flow of an actual river

I'd go for a South American theme, with a bunch of Red Head Tapajos, Severum, and a few other species of cichlids. I'd also get big ass schools of some tetra, such as Cardinal, Buenos Aires, and Columbian Tetra, and have some bristlenose pleco in the tank as well. Maybe a catfish or two of some type that stay medium sized.

Edit: Oh and I would install a lighting systems that kinda mimics a days light cycle, like what the finnex planted+ does, where there is a sunrise, midday, sunset etc. Also some branches dipping into the water from above to mimic a submerged tree. Plus blinds on one side so people wouldn't be able to see into the bedroom from the living room.
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Make your Riverbank through the center of the tank so that blocks line of sight between the two rooms also with a tank that size I would definitely go with an auto drip system to save you incredible amounts of time and effort
 
lightnb said:
Long story short, I'm selling my house while the market is good and moving somewhere where land is cheap and designing and building a new home. It's going to be fairly small, but between downsizing, the cheaper area, and doing much of the construction labor myself, I'll be able to have no mortgage, which means more money for fish!

Building my own house also gives me the unique opportunity to design a built in tank as a feature of the home. For example, a double window tank that can be viewed from the living room and the master bedroom.

I'd like to get away from having a bunch of small tanks and go with one big one. I'm currently considering doing a tank that is 11' wide, 7' deep, and 5' high, with an 8'x4' window on both 11' sides. That's roughly 2800 gallons. This is all in the planing phases so it can easily be changed.

At this point, I'm thinking of what I might want to do with such a tank. I know some people have giant tanks and put tiny little fish in them, but that seems like a waste to me (no offense). I'm also not a fan of species tanks, since It think a good variety is what makes a tank interesting.

I'm also not sure, having never kept any tank over 75 gallons, if some of the "rules" don't apply anymore or as much if you have a very large tank. For example, generally, you wouldn’t mix peacocks and mbuna in a 75G tank, but could they get along when there's a ton of space?

I'm OK with breaking "purity" rules as long as the stocking will work without any major issues. eg, There are some South American fish that can mix fine with certain Africans, but it has to be species specific stocking.

Cheddar’s restaurant often does some bizarre stocking that seems to work. (Does anyone know what the fish are in this first picture?)

https://www.google.com/search?tbm=i...A&biw=1920&bih=898&dpr=1#imgrc=mw8ddX73Bcj8RM:

https://www.google.com/search?tbm=i...A&biw=1920&bih=898&dpr=1#imgrc=iUXTplwqDkoJgM:

So the question is, if this will be my only tank, what would be a good and interesting use of the space, that couldn't be done with an ordinary sized tank?

My first though is to do discus, plus some other large and/or colorful and interesting things in there as well. Most of the recommended tank mates for discus though are small things like cory cats and rummy nose.

With a giant tank though, are there any large and/or colorful things that can get along with discus? Clown loaches? Eels? Turtles, like RES? Small mouth American predators like Blue gill or warmouth? I don't know if haps would be too agressive. They are mild compared to Mbuna, but Discus aren't that aggressive.

Does anyone have suggestions of what other large or feature fish would work well with a large discus setup? Or is there something else exciting that could be done if I ditched the discus plans?

Of course anything has to be safe and healthy and legal to obtain and own in the United States.
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If you wanted Discus I'd say consider this instead
X25 Discus (15-25cm)
X1 gold sunshine pleco (25-35cm)
X1 adonis pleco (75-105cm)
X1 black ghost knife fish (30-50cm)
X1 scarlet Cactus pleco (25-30cm)
X25 redhook silver dollars (20-30cm)
X4 silver arowana (60-120cm)
 
So I kind of like the idea of doing a discus with geophagus tank, with a few other things so long as they all will get along.

Will the following mix well?
discus
geophagus (assorted species)
Parrots (Hoplarchus psittacus)
Uaru amphiacanthoides
Datnoid Microlepis (Indo Tigerfish)
1x Fire Eel (Mastacembelus erthrotaenia)
Clown Loaches
Maybe a few rays (I need to do more research on species)


Also, need to do more research on materials. I see a lot of people doing big tanks in the basement, and that makes a lot of sense from a practical standpoint, but I feel that if I spend most of my time in my home office, the tank should be viewable from there. Which means building the office (and possible the living room into the basement, or putting the tank on the first floor.

In either case, the tank will be in a finished space, so I'm very uncomfortable with the idea of using just water pressure to hole the glass/acrylic in place, which seems to be the case with lots of DIY plywood and concrete tanks. I'm considering doing all acrylic, but also concerned about how (or even if sheets can be joined together), since they seem to come in 4x8 sheets. They are also really expensive to use in places where you don't need to see through it like the bottom. So I don't know if there's a good choice a materials that is "professional grade" for building larger tanks.

What do zoos use? I'm sure they bolt the window in somehow to keep the window in place when kids go an d lean on it, and I don't think they use acrylic or glass where there doesn't need to be a window. Are there any resources on building commercial quality tanks with prop materials and techniques, but done by the owner to save on the labor costs?

Thanks everyone for your advise!
 
lightnb said:
So I kind of like the idea of doing a discus with geophagus tank, with a few other things so long as they all will get along.

Will the following mix well?
discus
geophagus (assorted species)
Parrots (Hoplarchus psittacus)
Uaru amphiacanthoides
Datnoid Microlepis (Indo Tigerfish)
1x Fire Eel (Mastacembelus erthrotaenia)
Clown Loaches
Maybe a few rays (I need to do more research on species)


Also, need to do more research on materials. I see a lot of people doing big tanks in the basement, and that makes a lot of sense from a practical standpoint, but I feel that if I spend most of my time in my home office, the tank should be viewable from there. Which means building the office (and possible the living room into the basement, or putting the tank on the first floor.

In either case, the tank will be in a finished space, so I'm very uncomfortable with the idea of using just water pressure to hole the glass/acrylic in place, which seems to be the case with lots of DIY plywood and concrete tanks. I'm considering doing all acrylic, but also concerned about how (or even if sheets can be joined together), since they seem to come in 4x8 sheets. They are also really expensive to use in places where you don't need to see through it like the bottom. So I don't know if there's a good choice a materials that is "professional grade" for building larger tanks.

What do zoos use? I'm sure they bolt the window in somehow to keep the window in place when kids go an d lean on it, and I don't think they use acrylic or glass where there doesn't need to be a window. Are there any resources on building commercial quality tanks with prop materials and techniques, but done by the owner to save on the labor costs?

Thanks everyone for your advise!
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Also for stock you have to look at what's legal. Not sure if you're moving to another state, or moving to different part of florida, but rays are not legal in Florida and a few other states
 
lightnb said:
So I kind of like the idea of doing a discus with geophagus tank, with a few other things so long as they all will get along.

Will the following mix well?
discus
geophagus (assorted species)
Parrots (Hoplarchus psittacus)
Uaru amphiacanthoides
Datnoid Microlepis (Indo Tigerfish)
1x Fire Eel (Mastacembelus erthrotaenia)
Clown Loaches
Maybe a few rays (I need to do more research on species)


Also, need to do more research on materials. I see a lot of people doing big tanks in the basement, and that makes a lot of sense from a practical standpoint, but I feel that if I spend most of my time in my home office, the tank should be viewable from there. Which means building the office (and possible the living room into the basement, or putting the tank on the first floor.

In either case, the tank will be in a finished space, so I'm very uncomfortable with the idea of using just water pressure to hole the glass/acrylic in place, which seems to be the case with lots of DIY plywood and concrete tanks. I'm considering doing all acrylic, but also concerned about how (or even if sheets can be joined together), since they seem to come in 4x8 sheets. They are also really expensive to use in places where you don't need to see through it like the bottom. So I don't know if there's a good choice a materials that is "professional grade" for building larger tanks.

What do zoos use? I'm sure they bolt the window in somehow to keep the window in place when kids go an d lean on it, and I don't think they use acrylic or glass where there doesn't need to be a window. Are there any resources on building commercial quality tanks with prop materials and techniques, but done by the owner to save on the labor costs?

Thanks everyone for your advise!
Click to expand...

Not to be rude but seems like you have a crap ton of research to do if you didnt realize public aquariums actually glue their large panels together for clear viewing...

Look at the massive display tank in japan with whale sharks, you dont see bolts between the viewing panels coz it needs to look like one solid window...

Anyway, maybe you need to stop worrying about stock atm, and really consider realistically will you be able to put in a 2800G tank... coz seems like you still havent worked out how to go about building this monster yet...
 
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