What does your dream tank look like?

Here is the situation:

If you could only could only have 1 tank, and money and availability was no object... what would your tank look like? What would you keep?

I just want a HUGE tank for all my goldfish!!!!!!!
seriously that's it!!!!!!
all I can think of at the moment!!!!!

That is almost an impossible question. I think tanks should be arranged by 'ecosystems', and there are so many great ones.

I'd want a large tank. It would have a lot of plants, and as many zones as possible. The plants would be a little unkempt, and there would be algae thriving. There would be wood, and rocks, and the bottom would be sandy.

I would have some pelvicachromis dwarf cichlids - one pair for every 30 inches in what my brain has just announced would be a 12 foot tank (dream big!). I would want P taeniatus, P sacrimontis and Enigmatochromis lucanusi for dwarfs, and Benitochromis uffermani as a slightly larger inhabitant.

My dream tank is big, but the fish are all small - under 5 inches for the largest, and mostly around 2 inches.

The tank would be about 18 inches deep, but three feet front to back. There would be a deep ledge along the back, creating a shallow (maybe one foot deep) zone made to resemble a shoreline. The plants up there would emerge from the water, and that zone would be for killies. I'd have a Chrompahyosemion biteniatum group, and an Aphyosemion - maybe a dozen of each to start. There would be an Epiplatys chaperi group for the open water surface. I would have 2 dozen Barbus jae and a horde of open water lampeyes - Procatopus nototaenia.

The same tank set up could hold rainbows galore, or Poecilia orri and petenensis mollies with Central American cichlids, or my only large fish fantasy, Satanoperca daemon - a huge cichlid.

Big tank or small tank, it's hard to imagine one tank...

GaryE wrote:

Big tank or small tank, it's hard to imagine one tank...

I thought you might say something like that, haha.

I would like a 12' by 4' footprint, maybe 2' deep reef tank.. I find reef tanks so amazing with the amount of life in it. There seems to be much less life in freshwater tanks as far as inverts and other things that may be kept in a tank. There is a lot of insect life in the freshwater world that we never see as part of our tanks. (i guess mainly cause they fly away after a while)

Well I have three dream tanks and if your going to dream might as well dream big

Dream #1 a 5000+gal tank to hold a Black Tip reef shark and some of his friends.

Dream #2 a massive salt water reef tank full of coral and huge colorful fish.

Dream #3 (this one is probably not as far off as it may seem) an indoor koi pond with a glass front so everyone can get a good look at them. Maybe even incorporate a indoor/outdoor component.

Steve

oh dear
so love the idea of an indoor outdoor component with dream #3.....
cool!

My tank size would actually be similar to coader's, 12 by 4 by 2, but I would keep clown loaches. I'd want the tank to act as a partition between two rooms, maybe the kitchen and the livingroom, or the office and the wreck-room. This is actually a dream tank, but I hope to make it a reality someday

My other would be a HUGE outdoor pond, with an indoor winter home: a fully heated large shed or extension built onto the house. Who knows, maybe that one will happen someday....!!

PS - Steve's #3 is also looking intriguing...!!  

Now, how does one win the lottery?

goldfishbetalover wrote:oh dear
so love the idea of an indoor outdoor component with dream #3.....
cool!

Unfortunately that part of the dream will probably remain a dream

Steve

I like Gary's idea a lot, however cannot comment on the sizes as I am inch/foot illiterate.

What I would add though is a kind of small stream/ low waterfall flowing into the tank that would create natural current and an extra zone with some cobble stones in that stream/waterfall part and the habitat corresponding fish of course!

For Steve - I saw a photo essay once on a tank in Thailand. The man had built a moat around his house (I'd like that!) and had it built around cement posts that were the foundation. There were walls coming down into the water between the posts, to seal if off from the outside (except under water - you could burglarize with a snorkel, I guess). It came into the house underneath, with a glass aquarium type wall all around. The indoor part was about three feet (one metre) wide, and the outside moat about three times that. In a warm country, that would be astonishing.
He had koi.

I think 12 feet wide by 3 feet for a footprint. I don't think I'd want it much higher than 18-20 inches. Heavily planted, huge schools of different types of tetras. I love the effect of the group jaunts around the aquarium. I'd probably toss a few rainbow species in there as well for some size. Perhaps some barbs as well but it would all depend on compatibility. I too, would like to keep the fish on the smaller side. Then I could turn my 75G into a mbuna tank!!!!!!!!! Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh daydreaming........

I want Gary's or hello_rockview's tank!! Or this one here: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=150555

My dream tank is huge of course, with both shallow and deep areas and some emersed and epiphytic plants too. Tons of cool aquatic plants - for this I'd probably have to go high tech with fertilizer and CO2, which is something I haven't tackled and don't have time/$$ for at the moment. Ideally the tank would model a natural ecosystem as much as possible and require minimal maintenance (though knowing little about CO2 type systems it may not be possible to have both!).

1 tank!! Not fair!! Oooh - what if you set up a huge aquarium/paludarium with several separate water areas divided by steep cliffs - then you could house several incompatible groups of species in the same tank without worrying about them killing each other!! Is that cheating? lol

GaryE wrote:For Steve - I saw a photo essay once on a tank in Thailand. The man had built a moat around his house (I'd like that!)  and had it built around cement posts that were the foundation. There were walls coming down into the water between the posts, to seal if off from the outside (except under water - you could burglarize with a snorkel, I guess). It came into the house underneath, with a glass aquarium type wall all around. The indoor part was about three feet (one metre) wide, and the outside moat about three times that. In a warm country, that would be astonishing.
He had koi.

Sounds like a dream tank to me

Steve