$200 budget for a new tank setup. What to do?

So i have $200-$300 depending if i want to be fiscally responsible or not. I CANNOT have any new fish or tanks at the moment, but this gives me the perfect opportunity to begin gathering for a nice setup.

what i'm looking at is "It is a 125 gallon drilled tank the comes with two fluval 450 canisters, each is rated for 150 gallons, also the stand is a nice golden oak color with good storage, will come with nets, gravel, rocks, plants, food ect..." but he wants $400, which seems to be a wonderful deal... once he finds new homes for the monsters that are living in there.. but i'll try to talk him down to $300 (i'll copy/paste at the end of my post since he keeps deleting/reposting to top the list)

if this doesn't work out, i'm looking for ideas on which to spend this money. I'm not into monsters, but i do want a big planted fw tank.

so the main point is, what tank would you build with $200 or $300?

here's the guy's list if you live near missouri and want to drive. and search anything i paste on craigslist under "for sale" in springfield, MO if you wanna work out driving or shipping with the guy... obviously one main concern is that they are truely monsters and need huge tanks. it'll get me one step closer to buying his tank :thm:

My prize fish, a very beautiful and rare 12" MBU puffer - $200
20" African Clown Knife fish - $50
20" Silver Arowana - $70
24" Tire Track Spiny Eel - $40
16" Tire Tack Spiny Eel - $25
10" Fire Spiny Eel - $30
10" Dinosaur Bichir Eel - $30
10" Endlicher Bichir Eel - $40
2X 10" Leporinus ( Black and Yellow stripped headstander fish) $10 Each
5" Beautiful and Huge Clown Loach - $100
5" Angelicus Synodontis Catfish - $50
3" Angelicus Synodontis Catfish - $25
5" Ocellifer Synodontis Catfish - $40
2X 6" Feather Fin Synodontis Catfish - $30 Each
5" Jaguar Synodontis Catfish - $30
First person who buys fish and wants a free 6" Reg. Pleco gets him.

spencerguy1 said:

i would do a tank with 500 zebra danios... that would give guests to our house a siezure, lol

actually, i would do a heavily planted tank with a school of boesami rainbow, probly 10-20, and 2 cteneptoma acurostre. i need to avenge that species after killing mine.

Click to expand...

I forgot to mention that they have to meet my GF's standards of "pretty" .............. she doesn't like rainbows, and as much at i love anabantids... they aren't pretty...

I should have specified this in the first post, when i get my new tank is when i'm moving into a new place with her. while i have the final say in the setup, i still want to make her happy :wall:

edit: but i'm always up for a good seizure! :thm:

oops! "they" = cteneptoma acurostre, not rainbows >.< i misspoke there!

That's probably the best thing to do, Taari. i like the list of centerpiece fish :thm:

spencerguy1 said:

how are rainbow not colorful? thats like an oxymoron!!!

Click to expand...

lol, they're colorful, but she doesn't like the shape of the fish :headshake2: same goes for botias, but she can't stop me from getting a school of angelicus and striata!

i would love some discuss, but i don't have the money to buy them or maintain them. this "massive" budget isn't a recurring thing, so once i buy this tank, i'm broke. or i could buy a 55-75g and still have money left over to start planting