new guy says hi

Hi all,

new to the board and wanted to introduce myself and get some advice and help from you all. I live in a lovely but small arts & crafts house in key west, circa 1930.
I've had an aquarium of one kind or another for the past 25 years or so, always freshwater. lately my aquarium, a 55 gal tall, was getting kinda small for me, but i didn't want to throw it away either. so i had a built in cut out of the wall of the front room of the house and placed it there. all the fish survived, TG. It looks really great and everyone compliments me on it, the most common thing heard is "Oh, I always wanted to have a built in aquarium!" The fish stock is as
follows; black ghost knife, large pleco, 3 algea eaters, 3 clown loaches, large channel catfish, 3 angelfish, bala shark and a blue beta. Ill see to posting a picture of it. you may think thats a lot of fish but they've lived together in relative harmony for quite some time, and the water stays clean with little maintenance.

So heres the fun part. I bought an approximately 160 gallon tank, custom fit to go along the back wall of the house in the tv room. it is 7 feet long, 32" tall, and 12 inches deep. The stand and hood arrived last week. the tank itself arrives in early january. I plan on transferring all the fish into the large tank and adding many more. The 55 gal will keep only the large pleco and then I plan to put something different in that tank, like discus, chichlids, oscars, gar, or something else that is relatively large, preferably two or more, but not more than six. the idea is to have a couple of large, striking fish in the front room that can be enjoyed from a distance and have a crazy community tank it the VLA (very large aquarium) that one has to come up close to see everthing.

what would you put in them? My greatest hope is to have large schools of small fish, tremendous variety, and even live plants in the VLA, and I don't know about the 55 tank. I saw a kewl fish, don't know what its called, very prehistoric and skeletal looking topfeeder with a large mouth that i thought would be really great there. my cousin has two fullgrown tiger oscars but those are not entirely my favorite. I've always wanted chichlids and my favorite fish are discus, but im concerned that they may be too fragile. I also have a thing for alligator gar but im concerned about their growth and appetite. my central philosophy is always to have the fish live for many years in the aquarium. the plecos seem to outgrow the tank most often, but there is a really big koi pond in town that becomes their new home. i go visit them every once in a while. the main enemy of my fish is hurricanes. the power goes out for a day or two and in a crowded tank like mine, somebody is going to die. we've got a generator now, so that may help when the next one comes, hopefully not for a very long time.

I would appreciate any suggestions and advice about everything in the VLA, including decor, filter, pumps, lights etc., and also what to put in the 55. Look forward to chatting with you here.

Thanks,

Ghostknife

some pics

You know, i dont think its a 55 gal tank. I think its a 39 gal tank. But heres the pics. difficult getting a good shot. The paintor is supposed to come this weekend and work on the stand for the VLA. Ill post pics of that too.

headboard

Hi Guz,

I once had a 55 gallon aquarium as a headboard. it was a queen size bed, i think, and the length of the tank matched the bed very closely. It was hard getting out of bed in those days. The buzzing and bubbling sound of the aquarium was great for sleeping, and the light timer doubled as a wake up call. So I strongly recommend it, but plan it carefully so that you can do maintenance on the tank without getting the bed wet. That tank eventually sprung a leak and the results were very messy.

Its starting to hit me how much bigger this tank is than the 39, and how much real estate that is to cover. Im going to have to come up with something, although, i think i wont rush it. I will be sure to post the progress on a builders page here.

the first pic is right as you walk in the door and the other a bit closer up. the backside of the tank is in the laundry closet, and beyond that is my bathroom which has a tub. i often sit in the tub and watch the fish from there. the advantage of the laundry closet is that i hooked up a water hose from the washer so i can fill the tank, and also i can drain the tank into the washers' waste pipe. the two downsides are that repeated use of the dryer warms the aquarium and since the stairs are above the tank, there is little room to work with above the tank.