180 Gallon Community Tank Suggestions Please

Nanook said:

Hello,

I am looking at starting a 180g community tank with the following fish:

Pearl Gourami (pair)
Moonlight gourami (pair)
Paradise fish
Angelfish (pair)
Silver shark (pair)
Ram cichlid
Clown loach (school)
Banded Rainbow (school)
Rummy nose tetra (school)
Long fin Rosy Barb (pair)
Pictus Catfish (pair)


I am debating filtration, but at present am thinking that two Eheim 2128 filters would suffice and be very quiet. I do not want to use a sump and want a plain 180g 72x24x24 show tank.

My real question other than filtration, is what kind of lighting would I need to do a few live plants? I don't want a heavily planted tank, just enough to look somewhat natural. I am not looking to add CO2 or high powered lights....I already have reef tanks for that nonsense

Thanks for any suggestions or criticisms!

Nanook

Click to expand...

Well, a fwe plants, unfortunately need just as much light as a lot of plants. More accurately, certain plants have certain light needs. That doesn;t change if there are less of them present. If you want to go with low light plants you still need close to 1 watt per gallon, which most stock fixtures just don't come with. You can get away with less, but of course your options are extremely limited, especially in such a deep tank. Java fern and Java moss may do well. You won't need CO2 unless you decide to go with higher light.

Eheim, of course, has a stellar reputation. Those filters are rated at 277 GPH, which gives you just over 3 times per hour turnover with two. With some of the larger fish you are considering, you may still consider a large HOB filter just to keep good water circulation and mechanical filtration.

There are some bad choices on your list for this community setup. (They are nice fish, though.)

Clown loaches can reach 12" each, and need extremely large tanks. These are awesome fish, and I had some myself. (I ended up trading them in.) In your 180 G, you might be able to keep three or four of these fish, but that might be about it - no other fish. Apparently, they get aggressive at about 7".

Gouramis can be aggressive, but keeping them together is pretty common. Don't house them with a Paradise Fish, though.

Maybe try to keep fish of similar sizes to prevent problems. I'm not too familiar with the other fish on your list, but I think some of them might be aggressive as well.

Here is a suggestion. Put two small Compact Florescent as focus points and grow the plants you want directly underneath them. Light the rest with shop lights.

^ Good advice!

Nanook, I'm still setting up my 180g community (it's only a week old), and your setup is very similar to my plans.

When it comes to plants a really nice low light plant is the dwarf lily. You can find the dormant bulbs at walmart, drop them in the tank and they'll sprout in a few weeks. I had one sprout and grow in my 80g that my 180 replaced. The 80g was 24" tall and had 2 20w lights on one side, and 1 20w light on the other. The bulb sprouted just fine under the 2 20w lights.

So since the height is the same on my old 80g, and our 180g's, 1 40w light (a 48" tube) centered over the tank, will be able to grow the dwarf lillies directly under it. But in theory, if you have 2 or 3 48" lights centered on top of the tank, you should be able to grow dwarf lillies, ambulia, jmoss, jfern, and sunset hygro; without needing to add co2 or ferts. You'd have to keep the live plants in the middle (the jmoss and jfern could probably grow off to the sides) and you could keep plastic plants off to the sides as well. ( I have all of those plants listed growing in a 10g with 2wpg, and no c02 or ferts, so this simple setup should work).

For filtration, I'll be using 2 AC110's, 2 fluval 404's or 2 Eheim 2128's, and 2 maxijet 600's (I will be getting more powerheads, or more powerful ones when I decide on a model).
Water movement is crucial in any tank, but even more so in larger tanks, since filter intakes don't hang as close to the substrate as in smaller tanks (you can buy extention tubes for the AC's though). I also do not plan on adding a sump, so efficient water circulation, filter maintenance, water changing schedule, and aeration (for the bacteria in the gravel) is key for success. Also, needless to say, a python is practically required .

Flusher is right about the gouramis and the paradise fish, mixing them is a gamble, and not a very safe gamble.

Also, your smaller fish might disappear when the clowns get larger since they do become more carniverous and prefer more meaty foods. Feed them small fish (like feeder guppies), carnivore pellets, blood worms, etc.... They should have a diet high in protein.

I'm not too sure on the limit of how many clowns you should keep in a 180 to tell you the truth, but I know Flusher's 3-4 and nothing else sounds a little extreme to me. I e-mailed a guy named Bob who has 14 clowns among other loaches in a large tank. The exact size of his tank is unlisted so I inquired about that. He has several 11" clowns, and all the others are smaller and he keeps them with rainbowfish, and some rosey barbs I believe. I'll get back to you when he returns my e-mail.

HTH,
Serg

Skip the silver sharks, if they are the commonly sold "colombian shark" they get very big and require brackish to full SW long term.