75 Gallon Build - Large Goldies

So,
Hi. New to the Forum. Building a tank for my geek cave. I hope to start placing fish in by end of July.

A old local pet store is going out of business. Owner is retiring. I got some good deals to start.

So far I have
75 Gallon Tank
Glass Canopy
Marineland Majesty Stand
Marineland Majesty Canopy
Marineland Magniflow 360
Current USA Serene Sun 4327 LED (With Mounting Brackets)
Aquatop 300 Watt Titanium Aquarium Heater

Plan is to start working on the Foam/Concrete 3D Background this weekend. I want to hide the heater and filter parts with this. If I can accomplish this I am not yet sure.
Going to have non aggressive hardier fish. Current Plan - Neons, Swordtails, Tetras, Plecostomus, Fancy Guppies, Upside down Catfish, Albino Corys, Loaches. I am sure I will run across more I will want to buy. It has been a while and a lot of the names/species are escaping me.
The main stars of the tank will be two large fancy gold fish. Large where the body (not fins) is about the size of a small fist. One of these goldfish will be a Black Moor. I always had one as a kid and they are a favorite of mine. The 2nd large fancy type is tbd.
Live Plants of course.
Substrate I am not sure on yet. Torn between sand and natural gravel. Going to do more research. Input is appreciated.

I still need to buy a 20H for a hospital/isolation tank that will be kept hidden in bottom section, but this is further down the road.

Soric said:

Substrate I am not sure on yet. Torn between sand and natural gravel. Going to do more research. Input is appreciated.

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I would personally do sand. Play sand is cheap, but it looks very natural.

Sounds like a cool tank project. Keep us posted!

So I went and purchased supplies for my 3D background.
All from Home Depot
7 Sheets of 1" Foam Board
Hydraulic cement
Foam Safe Locktite

I was torn for a while between Spray foam and Foam Board. I went with foam board as it just seemed easier to build the structure.

Sounds good! Tell us how it looks when you get through.

I was up until 4:30am working on this. Started about 10:30pm. My goal was to get it all shaped and glued in place so I could start concrete today. This didn't happen.

In short I was trying to hide my heater but allow enough waterflow safely around it. I also wanted space incase I had to replace the heater with something larger in the future. My design was just not working. I did not like the large void I was leaving. Essentially it would look worse then seeing the heater itself. So I continued this morning working on it...when I woke up at noon. Silicon was still not dry and I completely redid the middle section.

It is divided into 3 sections. The two outer pieces are 18 inches wide at the base, and the middle piece is 10 inches wide at the base. The back of my tank measures about 46.5 inches.
Always part of my design plan has been for the middle section to hide the straight edges of the foam board since I can not do one large piece due to the crossbar.
So it is all shaped now. Waiting on the silicone to dry more, then I will go back and sure up some of the smaller pieces by putting more silicone creating a fillet. Will likely use some stainless steel screws also.

I own a foam wire cutter for my other hobby stuff. This is how I shaped most of the foam.

Over all really happy with how it is coming out.

Very creative. I myself am a DIY guy, but not like this!

Great work! There are some potential issues with your stocking plans if you'd like us to go into that

JuiceBox52 said:

Great work! There are some potential issues with your stocking plans if you'd like us to go into that

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Potential stocking issues? I don't see how... it is a 75g tank. That is plenty enough for 2 fancy goldfish. Black Moors need a minimum of 30 gallons. I see no issue with the stock...

Looks like a nice start, wish I could have a 75 gallon tank However you do have stocking issues, some of your fish are soft water like the tetra and cory and some of them are hard water like fancy guppies and swordtail. Do you know what type of water you have? (hard or soft) Also the GH and PH of your water. If not you can contact the local water company to find out. I keep both hard water and soft water fish in separate tanks. I have hard water and use RO water to soften the water for my tetras and cory. I would not mix gold fish with tropical fish,

@PheonixKingZ retired viking covered the issues

Temperature wise gold fish are best kept at cooler temps than most of the tropical fish you have listed. 68 degree or less is the norm. Neon tetra need 72-78 degree water. I kept Koi for several years in my 55 gallon until they out grew it. Gold fish are also aggressive eaters and as they grow they will also eat smaller fish like neon tetras. They are also "dirty" fish and with other more sensitive fish like neon tetras you will have to constantly clean and maintain you water quality.

No need to hide a heater behind a foam background. Definitely it;s better to leave it in front of the background for better circulation of the heat... and then you can hide it with tall plants. Good luck with the build. Looking forward to the results.

I hide heaters by keeping them horizontally at the bottom level of the tank. Then its hidden behind plants or hardscape plus, being horizontal and so low, i can do water changes without them being exposed to air and potentially malfunctioning.


Id choose either the two goldfish, or a tropical community. Both wont work so well.


BUT, there are some cooler water fish you could add in.

A shoal of rainbow shiners would give you smaller fish with the goldfish...

Thanks for all the feedback everybody.

I will have to do some more research about what fish I can keep with what fish. This is something I planned on getting to soon, but building the tank has been highest priority since I am still likely 2 months out from adding fish. Even if I get concrete on the foam this week, I'm giving it 3 weeks to cure before it goes in water, in that waiting time I was going to fine tune my stock list.
In the past though I have always had a black moor mixed with tropical fish with no perceived issues in regards to temperatures, but this is something I will still revisit.

The start of this build, the idea of it was to create a community tank with a "happy medium" in terms of conditions for the fish within the tank.
But older and wiser me, I will be more fine tuned in my approach. I do not want to cause undo harm and stress, a lot of the fish I listed off are types I had more success with as a kid.
I am certainly flexible on the stock list, but still heavily leaning towards goldfish

I did not see that he was planning on adding sword tails. I only saw that he was adding goldfish.