Greeve

Hi all.
Hubby & I have a 211 litre tank waiting for us to decide between salt or freshwater. Have researched into marine & know that side of things so have come here to see the other side.
The main reason we are setting a tank up is too help our daughter who is special needs. Along with that, my hobby of photograpghy will give me a new challenge.
What is an example of a nice bright mix of fish for this size tank that could live together?
Also, i've read that live rock is too marines what plants are too freshwater, our local marine specialist has made us a list of equipment so we can choose how much live rock we want, the filtration does not rely on it. Would i be able to do the same things with plants?
The setup cost is not worrying us, the running cost is something we would have to bear in mind.
Thanks in advance, off to scout round the forums again!

agabr123

freshwater tanks are cheaper all around, the fish are cheaper and you don't need as much equipment/LR/etc, and they're also much easier to take care of. having only kept freshwater tanks myself (money and space are a limiting factor right now), i can only really comment on the FW tanks.

for a 55 you have a whole lot of options. do you think that your daughter would like a whole lot of interesting and fast small schooling fish or just a few bigger fish that might be more interactive?

you can do the same thing with plants, the only difference is that IMO you still need an actual filter for a FW set up, even if it is heavily planted.

i'm working on a stocking list, the 55 is a couple of posts down but should give you an idea as to some of the FW fish that you can keep in that size tank
Work In Progress: Freshwater Community Stocking List

oh, one other thing. although i'm definitely all about FW tanks, one thing you might want to consider is a GSP (green spotted puffer), they can be brackish or kept in full marine as adults. PFP (pinkfloydpuffer) is the puffer expert around here and she has 3 GSPs in an 80 gallon tank, you could definitely keep two in a 55. they're really interactive and SO cute

namehater

have you looked at red earred slider turtles? they get very big and live for a long time. i dont think you could put to many in your tank, maybe only one, but on the plus side, they are easy to spot in the tank at any given time, they would be fun for a child to have because they are very interesting to watch, even when they are just swimming around. also, since your new to the hobby it would be easier to operate a tank with a freshwater turtle then to dive right into a difficult tank to maintain, like a saltwater or african cichlid tank (which is what i would advise for colorful freshwater fish)

Greeve

Thankyou for your replies.

agabr123: Fab list, that really helped. Thats exactly the viewpoint i wanted lol, i've had the marine only point of view. A puffer is one of the things my hubby really wants. The marine specialist ok'd having at least 6 other fish at the same time. Think our marine list was clown, cardinal, yellow tang, blenny & wrasse along with the puffer. Would it be a similar number with FW/brackish? Will have to see if the planned filter will work with either, which is the Eheim pro 2. Don't suppose you need a skimmer or powerhead. What about a uv steriliser?

namehater: I saw those turtles in the shop but they said you can catch salmonella from them. Part of my daughters special needs is pica & everything goes in the mouth. Even with strict handwashing rules i don't think we could take the risk. I will look up the afican cichlids & what care they need before ruling them out, thankyou.

namehater

african cichlid tanks dont take to much special care, the only thing that i know that gets complicated with them is laying out your tank. they require lots of rocks and caves, which would be a workout for me to get accomplished.

im definitely in favor of saltwater tanks if you can handle the money it takes to get them operating, they have the potential to be absolutely amazing!

agabr123

i'm glad it helped! as far as the puffer, i'm not sure about ALL puffers but i know for the GSP i wouldn't recommend keeping any other fish with them, they can get pretty aggressive and species only tanks for puffers are the best option IMO. there are LOTS of FW/brackish puffers, in a 55 you could have 3 maybe 4 figure 8 puffers (brackish). if you got 3 F8s you could have bumblebee gobies on the bottom, probably 5 or so. a whole colony of dwarf puffers (freshwater, and probably about 10 of them, but i'd say no more than 2-3 males and the rest females), and you could keep some otocinclus with them. the F8s are some of my personal favorites, so cute! nope, you dont need a skimmer, some people use powerheads just for the extra water flow, but it's not necessary. i'd recommend an air stone or bubble wand along with the filter (the eheim pro should be great), and i know some people use UV sterilizers on their FW tanks but IMO it's not necessary.