75 gal Holy crap what have I done? Errr, make that 90gal.

[Beza]

Thanks for the comments guys!

I will be posting pics as soon as I can grab my camera back from work (it's waterproof too, so there may be some interesting experiments!). I would love to have someone ID the fauna for me, or at least point me in the right direction for cichlid species keys on the net, so that I could make up little lame plaques with spp. names on them! Yeah, that's right - I just finished up a degree in environmental science, so I am a latin nerd still... hope I don't embarrass myself too much!

Oh, and yes... I am starting to remember how much I friggin love fish! Four days back in and I'm already thinking of another tank! Sigh. The reason is that I am starting to doubt I could take care of an empty tank for 6 months just to start growing rock, ha ha. I suppose I'll just focus on building the stand for the time being.

Other things on day 4 that are beginning to occur to me include a short list of what I want to find:

- more power heads! I need more of these, right? The more current in the upper strata of the tank, the better? Does a 75 gal even have enough volume to have upper strata? I am pretty sure I just made this whole strata thing up.

-I must begin to find another smaller tank to use for something that sounds like it might be called a berlin reservoir filter system, right?

- Obviously I need to set up a cool pump system... oooooh I can't wait! Why the hell did I throw out that wicked 1 1/2" pool jetpump I refurbished years ago?

- Definitely some sort of digital water testing system that can show me interesting things like salinity, tds, and whether or not I am pregnant.

- Lights. Damn you, expensive lights!

- a skimmer... I see these things used everywhere... should I be throwing one on my tank before it is salt water?


Anything else I am obviously unaware of, aside from my blatant status as yet another excited newb?