I'm wondering what to put in the 150 gallon tank I got over the weekend. (traded a treestand for it)


The back interior of the tank has been aquascaped using foam backing and quickwall. to look like rocks, I put in 100 pounds of sand, and some rocks and broken pottery.

The tank came with 2 emporer 400 HOB filters. I got one of them running but it looks like I'll need to replace the other one.

I'm torn between 1 or 2 large fish or a crapload of smaller ones.
Right now I'm leaning toward an oscar and a few tinfoil barbs.

So here I am, right in the middle of cycling a 55 gallon, when the top breaks and a few days later i'm bringing in a 6 foot long 28 inch high, 18 inch wide mamoth of a tank. What the hack am I thinking?


P.s. will post some pics this weekend.

I've always been partial to a big tank with a large school of smaller fish like a small tetra or barb. The sight can be breathtaking.

Good luck!

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I like big fish tanks and I can not lie. You other brothers can't deny.

I bought a used 150 about three weeks ago with a broken panel for 75 bucks, I replaced the panel and now I have it filled with water for a leak test. Now I'm building a stand from a plan that I found here on the forum. I just love doing things myself. When I set it up I plan on doing discus, which is my favorite fish.

Angel fish and a huge school of tetras :D

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"Being ignorant is not so much a Shame, as being unwilling to learn".-- Benjamin Franklin

Id definetly go with an american cichlid tank, oscars and blue jack dempsy's are my favorites

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10g- 2 hi-fin fm platys, 3 koi & red wag sword fry
40g Breeder- 6 danios, 4 female swords, 1 male swords
"I was born with nothin and I still got most of it left."- Seasick Steve

I get a bunch of different types of schooling fish with 1 or 2 centerpiece fish. I'd do tetras, rasboras, danios, etc . . . and probably 1 or 2 gouramis.

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I would personally do a discus tank.

I was thinking about discus. but after doing some reading i found they need a well established tank. Is this not the case?

If I can successfully do discus I will start putting plants in during the cycle.

In my personal opinion, I think HOB filters become useless for a tank that size. They cannot match the effectiveness, or area of media that either a canister or wet/dry filter does, wet/dry being the best type of filtration you can get for a FW setup. A little more expensive, but you will never look back and think you should have used some HOB filters.

Geophagine cichlids and a bunch of two inch tetras - the best of both worlds. Sand bottom, plants with root protection from the sifting of the eartheaters, and you have a thing of beauty.
Discus? Nah, they look like cake plates and always move like they have severe hangovers.

There are so many prettier fish.

Spoke with my LFS yesterday who is only a couple blocks away. He recommended against discus because of our hard alkaline water. he said if I wanted to do them i would need an R.O. setup and different filltration. the search for tank stocking continues.

was thinking same would look amazing

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another tank yes please. want a bigger tank always

Native all the way for me! I am currently shopping for a tank, somewhere between 150 and 240. Bass, bluegill, sunfish, gosh I would be lost during the cycle trying to finalize. Good luck to ya!!! Pics

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55 Gallon Planted dirt bottom,Reproducing colony of Heterandria Formosa(Least Killifish), 2 Dwarf Puffers, 5 or so Gambusia, 2 Swamp darters???, Several Wild P. Latipinna(Sailfin Mollies), a handful of Jordanella Floridae(American Flagfish), 1 Lepomis Macrochirus(Bluegill fry)

picture time!

Well I would probably be in favor of a large school of smaller fish. My 75 gallon has had one oscar and 2 - 5 inch feather fin cats and that is all the past 11 yrs. I took my oscar into the LFS and they took him and put him in 150 gallon with the two cats and now I have 10 neons, 10 rummy nose, 6 platys, one small red tail shark and 4 small green cories. These were all babies when I stocked them about 6 weeks ago. My wife remarked how alive the tank looks now and she was against getting rid of Oscar as he was a cool fish, but the more little fish deal is really fun in that tank now. Needed a change I guess......

Malawi! :D

Cool looking background!

I ended up inheriting a 90 gallon tank recently. I'm going with lots of plants. Lots of cardinal and rummynose tetras. 5 hatchetfish (I wish I got marbled hatchets now). 5 sterbai corys. 2 bamboo shrimp (one for each filter output). 4 assassin snails (I have probably 20 eggs on various plants). All the pond snails I could pull from my 55 gallon, and all the trumpet snails I could pull from my friend's 90g (I wanted trumpets to keep the sand moving and as food for the assassins). And finally I added "thirty" red cherry shrimp. This tank is so peaceful and there's something happening on every level. Hatchets at the surface, corys mostly at the bottom. Shrimp crawling undisturbed on plants at all levels and most importantly all the tetras schooling together in the middle. Rummynose and cardinals learned to school together. So cool to watch. It stays very clean and is easy to maintain. I wanted a discus tank, but water quality issues here and not being home much make them logistically difficult for me. One huge plus to keeping small fish in my opinion is how peaceful it is. The cherry shrimp are tiny and would end up as food for a lot of fish, but nothing in this tank bothers them. If you don't go with discus, go with a big community tank. They can be amazing. Or you could get two oscars. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think two oscars can share a 150. Whatever you decide to do, post a picture! =)

I would have so many guppies! <3

I agree-large schools are so cool!

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10g lightly planted with vals, crypts, anubias and one female betta.

75g lightly planted with 8 neon tetras, 7 black-skirt tetras, 7 Swartz' cories, 1 Bolivian ram, dozens of rcs, hundreds of mts, and four assassin snails.