So basically I haven't been on these forums for quite a while (coupla years), I was active enough and then got out of the hobby for a while. Lately, all I can think about is setting up shop again haha. 
I have a 75 gallon tank drilled with 2 holes in the bottom left (used to have overflow box, was broken when I purchased this tank secondhand). One is 1 inch, and the other 1 1/4. I am definitely thinking of setting this up again, and was just looking for a little input on equipment and stocking.
As far as equipment goes, though I swore I would never buy an Eheim (I was a major DIY guy; massive DIY canisters, sumps, etc), the 2217 looks like a good buy for primary filtration. Definitely using a sponge prefilter on the intake. I plan to have the load on this tank pretty light (stocking for 50 gallons), so the only other filtration I was looking to was a couple of large sponge filters (I love them). Thoughts? Filtration wise, my two goals are (a) QUIET!!- it's in my room, and (b) prolonging time between major (more than 5 minutes) filter maintenance to monthly (at least).
Water change ease is super, SUPER, important for me. I am taking a massive course load, I spend 40 hours a week in extra curriculars, and every saturday of the year is taken with a debate tournament. Frequent water changes make me, and the fish, feel good. I am from the school of 80-90% waterchanges, weekly.
My room adjoins a bathroom with a shower, so I was thinking that I could set up one of the holes to have a ball valve and a hose to drain the tank into the shower. Any thoughts on how to streamline this? The issues with this seem to be (a) hose storage; and (b) preventing standing water in the hose.
Substrate wise, I always did sand. A couple times, playground sand which was vacuumed on the surface and stirred weekly. Once I did silica sand which was vacuumed like gravel. For this one, I am thinking dark slate tile. How safe is most slate?
Here comes the part where I am probably going to alienate a lot of you haha. Uhh... (I feel like I'm coming out to my parents
)... I think I might want to do fancy oranda goldfish. They're fancy. And pretty. And get pretty large (10-12 inches). And then I don't need a heater (they're ugly, and consume a lot of power, and cause excess evaporation). Oh, and they're chill, as in they won't swim around causing a ruckus when I am trying to sleep. Lastly, they'll look super cool under my moonlights. I am open to other suggestions, I have just always kind of wanted orandas. Full sized, I am comfortable stocking 7 or 8 of 'em in there. However, I feel like having 7 or 8 2-inch long fish in a 75 gallon aquarium feels like it would get boring reallly fast. How could I stock it to keep it from being boring, but from not being overstocked as they grow?
Lighting will be an LED strip-light that I made (tri-color leds, can change between R/G/B and respective mixtures, including white). That should look really modern, and clean, and then the orandas will be bright and shiny and whatnot. The back of the tank is tinted with auto tint so with lights on it's black (which is really nice). It'll look really clean and ~modern.
I would really love any suggestions for anything! I am open to anything and everything (except for maybe a sump haha, been there-done that, no me gusta).
I have a 75 gallon tank drilled with 2 holes in the bottom left (used to have overflow box, was broken when I purchased this tank secondhand). One is 1 inch, and the other 1 1/4. I am definitely thinking of setting this up again, and was just looking for a little input on equipment and stocking.
As far as equipment goes, though I swore I would never buy an Eheim (I was a major DIY guy; massive DIY canisters, sumps, etc), the 2217 looks like a good buy for primary filtration. Definitely using a sponge prefilter on the intake. I plan to have the load on this tank pretty light (stocking for 50 gallons), so the only other filtration I was looking to was a couple of large sponge filters (I love them). Thoughts? Filtration wise, my two goals are (a) QUIET!!- it's in my room, and (b) prolonging time between major (more than 5 minutes) filter maintenance to monthly (at least).
Water change ease is super, SUPER, important for me. I am taking a massive course load, I spend 40 hours a week in extra curriculars, and every saturday of the year is taken with a debate tournament. Frequent water changes make me, and the fish, feel good. I am from the school of 80-90% waterchanges, weekly.
My room adjoins a bathroom with a shower, so I was thinking that I could set up one of the holes to have a ball valve and a hose to drain the tank into the shower. Any thoughts on how to streamline this? The issues with this seem to be (a) hose storage; and (b) preventing standing water in the hose.Substrate wise, I always did sand. A couple times, playground sand which was vacuumed on the surface and stirred weekly. Once I did silica sand which was vacuumed like gravel. For this one, I am thinking dark slate tile. How safe is most slate?
Here comes the part where I am probably going to alienate a lot of you haha. Uhh... (I feel like I'm coming out to my parents
)... I think I might want to do fancy oranda goldfish. They're fancy. And pretty. And get pretty large (10-12 inches). And then I don't need a heater (they're ugly, and consume a lot of power, and cause excess evaporation). Oh, and they're chill, as in they won't swim around causing a ruckus when I am trying to sleep. Lastly, they'll look super cool under my moonlights. I am open to other suggestions, I have just always kind of wanted orandas. Full sized, I am comfortable stocking 7 or 8 of 'em in there. However, I feel like having 7 or 8 2-inch long fish in a 75 gallon aquarium feels like it would get boring reallly fast. How could I stock it to keep it from being boring, but from not being overstocked as they grow?Lighting will be an LED strip-light that I made (tri-color leds, can change between R/G/B and respective mixtures, including white). That should look really modern, and clean, and then the orandas will be bright and shiny and whatnot. The back of the tank is tinted with auto tint so with lights on it's black (which is really nice). It'll look really clean and ~modern.
I would really love any suggestions for anything! I am open to anything and everything (except for maybe a sump haha, been there-done that, no me gusta).
