But to the OP, since your tank is tall, have you considered doing a predominantly rock scape in that tank? Then you could do some low light plants like anubias or moss and asd different species of unusual smaller fish such as killies, stiphodon gobies, ottos etc...
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Most all of my previous tanks have been predominantly rock/hardscaped. I actually REALLY like that last photo for Discus. (Even though I've never found the types of branches like that that twist and can start from the top...)
I do wonder about how I'd stack rock in a tank THAT tall.
Maybe I'm wrong, but from the pics, this tank (surrounded in beautiful wood, and in that space, that doesn't want to be splashed) looks like a PITA to do maintenance on. (is it drilled, for a sump?)
You are correct. I want low maintenance because a) those upper doors still have a central divider piece b) the upper doors are hard to open c) that top is NOT coming off except for emergencies d) the top of the tank is higher than eye level, and of course e) it's 36" tall.
Honestly I have no idea how the hell I'm going to clean it or ever net out a fish if I have to.
Nothing about the stand is drilled at all yet, but whether I do sump or canisters (I prefer the quiet and lack of humidity from canisters) I'll need to cut something into it somewhere. Right now the bottom is a completely sealed tomb.
So If it were me, I'd do heavily planted with only enough fish to keep maintenance to a minimum.
If you have neutral to soft water, maybe a few angels and some colorful tetras (I like gourami swamis suggestion of Altums)
My only issue with heavily planted is that I've never gotten it right. I get some growth in the beginning, then algae, then eventually the best stuff dies off and the littler stuff that grew on its own stalls, and then I get annoyed. I am also not a huge fan of using a ton of unnatural light. Basically, I'm scared I'll screw up plants.
But yeah, it's soft water ideal for the wild discus. Which shocked me when I found that out, because when I moved here I had been told Miami city water was extremely hard. It's not at all... they just dump a ton of chloramines in it at random intervals.
If you want to go low maintenance, I’d do a salt tank, pack that sucker with cured live rock, get some macro algae like dragons breath, some dirty water low light corals corals like Xenia, Kenya tree, ,green star polyps,mushrooms etc, a good clean up crew, snails, hermits etc... lightly stock it , maybe a pair of clowns, a royal gramma, a lawn mower blenny,. Use RODI water and it would be beautiful and almost hands free. The macros and corals would take care of almost all nitrates, the CUC would keep detrius low, the live rock would handle ammonia and nitrites. Plus you would probably get some very cool hitchhikers
I barely know what any of that is... hence my trepidation with salt. (Plus I know it requires totally different equipment as well.) But I do like the idea. Would love to see some colorful examples.
One thing I failed to mention (although it's visible in the pics) is that it didn't come with a tank. I found a local 48x24x32, which I was hopeful was just the guy measuring only the glass portion between the 2" black strips, but alas, it was not. I'll probably end up needing to pay up for a custom build... part of me wants to combine something like the above photo with the wood and plants reaching up above the water lines, and maybe even have that be visible... but I think ultimately that'd look like crap, only having those few inches of space exposed. That kind of thing works better in a tank with no canopy and suspended lights.