This is my best friend from high school.
She did it all one night all by herself! It looks absolutely terrific! I'm very proud of her!
Right now she has a HOB that came with the tank. It's not very good so I'm going to lend her my Rena XP3 until she gets one of her own.
She wants to get discus however I'm a bit concerned about these being a beginner fish. I will be there to help, and our tapwater is very soft and ideal for discus, however I myself have never kept discus. It's my understanding they're fragile but someone experienced with discus can chime in here and correct me if I'm wrong. The pet store's also telling her she can keep black mollies with them, which I think do best in a tank with higher GH and KH, much unlike our tapwater. I'm thinking angels and other non-aggressive Amazon fish would be better tank mates.
Anyway, the next step right now is getting that tank fishless cycled, and I'm going to help. I'm thinking of just adding liquid ammonia (Gold's from Walmart). The petstore told her just to add a pinch of fish food, Seachem Stability, and after only one week it will be cycled, however I don't think it's quite that easy. We also want to avoid anything that might smell, like a rotting shrimp.
Thanks everyone for reading.