My first big tank! 150 gallon tank set up questions

Just got my new 150 gallon in place in the dining room. Came with just tank and stand so I need to pick out a substrate, heater, filter and light on my own. What do you guys recommend for a big tank like that?

It's 48 by 24 by 30 inches.
All my other tanks have sand on top at least I haven't done gravel yet.

 

if you want to try something different, this would be a good sized tank for some nice looking round river rocks.
what are you thinking about keeping?

 

Denison barbs and penguin tetras I think primarily. I do love my cories though are they ok on smooth pebbles?

 

theyd have to be very smooth, you could either use polished rock or just run your hand over them,
you could do both and fill the space between these stones with sand.

I'm liking the aqueons for big hobs, but you could justify a different filtration method,
like a cannister

 

I'll check out the aqueons thanks. Might just stick with black sand maybe some ecocomplete underneath it seems to always look good

 

Ok so my husband is not terribly impressed with me and says this has to be the last tank...whatever...for the year right? lol. So it has to be totally awesome. I'm ordering 80 pounds of black sand and 20 of blue sand to make a underwater "lake" and putting the huge castle I already have in storage floating around my garage in here. Hogwarts here we go! looking at the Finnex planted 24/7 light system, It will still be fairly low light though at 30 inches deep right?

 

You would be better off running a pair of ac 110s or a 110 and a canister on a tank that deep.

 

You would be better off running a pair of ac 110s or a 110 and a canister on a tank that deep.

Awesome love my AC 50 on my other tank, how do you run two hob filters, do they need to be on opposite sides of the tank?

 

Yes one on each end works great.

 

My tanks first resident may end up being a teensy juvenile bn pleco lol, he's going to look ridiculous in there. Otherwise hoping to pick up a good school of juvenile roselines or penguin tetras to quarantine and then start the tank.

Anyone have heaters or lights to point me to or warn me away from?

 

I dream of having a huge tank some day.

 

if you're adding a plec first, make sure there's enough to eat

 

Sadly baby pleco was found dead this morning so he won't be going in first. I'll get another at some point bit I think I'll stick with tetras and maybe livebearers to start. I've done well with those