Freshwater With The Look Of Saltwater?

[Tobin]

Hey all, i am pretty new i guess to the whole underwater scene.I have had many tanks in the past but none of any great size. I have recently relocated and was planning on purchasing a new 36 gallon bow front tank, the dimensions are 30 L x 15 W x 21 H. I've always loved saltwater tanks, but, after doing alot of reading i'm starting to think it just might be too much for me to get into right now, maybe all this new information is just confusing to me. Well, my question is, are there any good freshwater fish that i can put in a comunity tank, that would resemble a salt water tank? I really liked the discus, but not really sure of what else i could use. I'd really love to be able to have a few schooling fish, but im unsure as to what i can use without your help on deciding what other fish i could use. Please, this is just an idea of mine, if there is any help at all it would be greatly appreciated! Thanks again guys!!

 

[helterskelter]

I do this sort of stuff at work all the time.

What i do is use ocean rock and dead corals, but fish selection with corals is very important and most fish will scrape against them and get infections, the best fish in general are African cichlids and i like to use mabuna's I'll add a couple of pics later if i get time.

 

[Mr Bliss]

Heya!

I'll start by saying that Discus would require a bigger tank. Anyway...

Saltwater tanks aren't necessarily all that complicated, but they do tend to be much more expensive. My foray into reefkeeping a few years back probably cost me more than all the freshwater tanks in my life. You could head to the Saltwater section on this forum and look for suggestions for a "beginner's saltwater tank" if you're really into them.

It's hard to recreate a marine look in a freshwater tank, because you'll never have all the critters or the characteristic color of the chalcareous algae, but if you enjoy rocky aquascapes with colorful fish, you could read up on African cichlid tanks, although your tank is a bit small for most of them. But there are smaller species that are equally colorful and interesting. I'm sure the people at the African/Old World cichlid section would be happy to give more advice.

Or you could get into planted tanks if creating good looking aquascapes is your thing. In terms of looks it's probably as far from a marine setup as you can get, but there are surprising similarities in the philosphies of reefkeeping and planted tank keeping, particularly the focus on the entire tank as an ecosystem, rather than just a container for fish. That's the way I see it anyway.