180Gal brought back to life - Old Hat

Hi everyone,

It's been forever since I posted, at least 5 years ago.

I used to have about 10 tanks setup and be really into everything when I had time, but all that's left standing is my 6ft (6x2x2). I've gone tropical because it's easier than keeping Cichlids.

Anyways...Blank canvas what do I want/need should have without running into drama's.

5 Rosy Barbs
5 Zebra Danio
3 Molly
2 Blue Gourami
2 Reticular Loach
2 Goldfish
1 silver shark
1 clown loach
1 bristlenose

I'm going to go up to around 60 fish I reckon. Water quality isn't an issue, might get a bit more serious about monitoring it once it gets up to full stock.

I want middle/medium dwelling and possibly a few marquee fish like my 4" male bristlenose which has survived 4 different tanks with pond like water quality.

Gimmie your best shot, lets assume money isn't an issue (oh but it is).

yeah they are feeder goldfish, they are already in there, for $1.50 each there are only two. I'm looking for what else I can put in there as suggestions.

Some good points,

I will get more loaches of both, but I'm pretty picky with clown loaches, reticular I'm not too fussed about. I will get these up to 6 Each.

I had 2 Silver Sharks, I like them, I will try to keep them at 2, and rehome when they get too big.

I'm not honestly bothered about the Goldfish, I've kept goldfish with almost every system I've had to use mostly as target fish and they've always thrived and pretty much outlived everything.

I will fill out with Molly's probably up to 10, not bothered about them breeding, I'll just suck them out and Q-tank them until they grow and fob em off somewhere.

My water is pretty hard, but most of the LFS have hard water I used to work in one and we never tampered with it unless it was for the Africans.

Should I go back and try and get my money back for the $1.50 Goldfish I over paid for? It's not even a cup of coffee....

Also I tried to stay clear of barbs but so far they are doing some pretty nice schooling.

This might be the end product

10 Rosy Barbs
10 Danios
10 Mollys misc.
6 Clown loach
6 reticular loach
6 bristlenose
2 Gourami
2 Goldfish
2 Silver Shark

I'm thinking about adding 1 ONE of this as my 'main' fish:

Ghost knife fish - My cousin kept a ghost knife with 4 silver sharks and a pleco in a 4ft it was a pretty sweet tank
Kribensis Pair OR small pair placid cichlid (chocolate/rams or whatever's)

I'm not a purist, if they won't kill each other they'll probably live together, in regards to bioload, water quality, temperature etc I've never had water as good as in my 180gal in all my fish keeping years, I'd recommend AquaONE Ext. Can. Filter.

I'll get some pictures up.

I can't upload pictures using the image icon and upload from PC method....what are my work arounds?

In any case imagine a 6ft tank with crystal clear water, bubbles and a bunch of fake plants and broken pots etc in the middle...you can't see any fish because it looks super empty.

Click for a bigger res, not really clearer, off my phone