Awesome tank planning

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
B

Betta132

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Oct 18, 2015
331
83
31
27
I've seen a few rather nice display tanks that are just black sand and a bright light, no decor, and they gave me an idea.
I want to get a large tank (couple hundred gallons), give it a layer of nice black sand for substrate, put a nice bright light over it, and basically try to make it look like how museums display gemstones and the like. A literal showcase tank, really.

I need to figure out how to do this, but I'd like to put a banged-up treasure chest and maybe a few jewelry display boxes in the tank. Is there some kind of heavy-duty clear-coat acryic that I could use for that? I also intend to get some gemstones of various kinds made from glass, and maybe get some of those little stands that single gemstones are displayed on.

I still have to figure out fish stock, temp range, and compatibility. Fish I would like to include are:
Gold nugget pleco
Royal pleco
Silver dollars (at least 2 kinds- are there any gold-ish ones?)
A nice bichir or two (every hoard needs a dragon)
Shiny goldfish? Not sure if temp requirements are compatible.
Jewel cichlids, for obvious reasons.

I'm looking for fish that are at least reasonably peaceful, are big enough to not be swallowed, and fit with the theme. That would be anything that's gold, silver, or gemstone-like. The silver dollars are the only ones on that list that I'm firmly attached to, but the rest are all pretty cool.
Something more draconic than the bichirs would also be cool.

This is not something that'll come to fruition any time soon, but can anyone give me a hand with figuring this out?
 
I agree black sand with a black background is a nice look and really makes the fish standout.

I like your ambition, but you may run into issues with a weird random mix of fish like that. May be best to pick a habitat and kind of build around it. Also keep in mind the jewel cichlids can be very aggressive.
 
LOL wow ur really into the whole sunken treasure chest kind of thing huh? Even with the stocking... jewels, dollars and gold nuggets.

Don't put goldfish in - temperature will be too high for them.
The rest may work together. I am not sure about the bichir as I have no experience with them.

Usually the best setups look as close to the fish's natural biotope as possible, so the challenge would be to not make the end result look tacky.
 
Obvious Bichir choice.... Gold Dust Bichir

dfjfj_zps2e9a582f.png


Maybe a school of Diamond Tetras... as long as the other fish aren't big enough to eat them.

http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/moenkhausia-pittieri/

There is a lot of clear epoxy resin stuff on the market. Its mostly used as tabletop coatings. The stuff is basically fiberglass resin that dries clear, and is mostly waterproof once it dries. I have no idea if its aquarium safe, but I think it probably would be once its fully cured. Could be used to coat a treasure chest.

http://www.amazon.com/EPOXY-RESIN-C...456027031&sr=8-1&keywords=self+leveling+epoxy

Alternatively... you could put an actual treasure chest in the tank if you build it out of the correct materials... stainless steel fasteners and non-treated woods, not really any different than using driftwood.
 
I'm not intending to just chuck a bunch of fish together and hope for the best, I will be doing compatibility research. I'm trying to put together a list of fish that I think would look cool, and then I'll pick my favorite species from the list and construct the rest of the stocking (and to some extent the tank) around that.
At this point, my base species will probably be silver dollars, though I'm not certain of the exact variety. Does anyone have a list of semi-readily-available silvers?

Ooh, that's a nice bichir, and Google says they don't get too huge. And if I remember correctly, bichirs are pretty chill with anything that doesn't look like them and won't fit in their mouths. Nice peaceful dragon.

Diamond tetras are very nice, but they'd probably get eaten.

How about a solo jewel cichlid so I wouldn't have to deal with spawning aggression? Still too mean?

How are gold nugget and royal plecos with other fish? Are they aggressive at all? I especially like the gold nuggets, and I think they'd fit in really well.

I love platinum fish of any kind, but it seems like just about all platinums are too big for this setup, too small (bettas), saltwater (clowns), or incredibly expensive.

I searched "gold", "silver", and a few other things on Seriouslyfish.com, and I've come up with http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/distichodus-affinis/. Anyone know much about them?

I thought about building the chest myself, and I suppose it would probably be the best way to get one that looks how I want. It seems like it'd mostly be simple, though I guess I'd have to have a flat lid rather than a curved one.

This is definitely gonna be tricky to pull off, but I figure worst comes to worst, I pull the stuff out and replace it with some decent driftwood, maybe with the treasure chest in there all banged up. A treasure-themed batch of fish would be cool in any decent tank, so I figure I'll give the showcase thing a try, since it'll look really awesome if I can pull it off.
 
Just say no to treasure chests........... and sunken pirate ships.... and the sponge bob things that petco sells.
 
If you go the treasure chest route I'd look for old beat up trunks, you can easily make them look nicer, but it's more work to make them look run down. Your gonna have to seal it up, otherwise it could leach toxins into the water. I'm guessing your gonna want a centerpiece fish if your going towards 200+ gallons, because the silver dollars are schoolers, the poly and pleco can end up about as active as the treasure chest, and because jewel cichlids aren't very big.
 
I'm definitely still looking for a centerpiece fish. Anyone have any suggestions? I'm in Central Texas, so there are some cool fish that I can't legally keep. I've considered a Florida gar, maybe an especially light one. I also considered one of the more golden varieties of peacock bass, but I think he'd just swallow everything. There are also some nice oscars with kind of a coppery center and black edging.
Ideally I'd like a gold centerpiece fish, but the only ones I can think of are those 24k arowana. Those are absolutely gorgeous, but they are far too expensive for my tastes.
 
Black wolf hoplias Curupira make his cave inside the chest and he will come out when he sees you to "defend" it
Widebar SDs and small schooling tetras BC a large wolf will mostly ignore them. A small wolf is more likely to get them.IMG_20160216_240449600.jpg IMG_20160214_103800219.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom