River style 69.69"

[ZanaZoola14]

Hello, I am looking to set up a 49.1 gallon, 185ltr tank.

length x width x height
Inches — 69.69x12x13.78
cm — 177x30x35 approx

I would like to make this into a nano fish river tank. I have a aow-16 from where this was a marine tank before to create some current for it. The tank will be with a canister filter, possibly some sponge filters for oxygen levels.

I have two ideas.

A) a fully UK native river tank. Scottish cobbles, hopefully substrate found in the UK, wood from the UK (if not then corbo or structure wood like tree trunks), oak leaves if anything botanical. Plants would be native as well.
Stickleback and common minnow. Maybe some stone loaches if I can buy some. Gudgeon might be possible, but not 100%.

B) general river tank. River/beach boulders and cobbles, corbo/structure wood. Val, various ferns (java and such), floating leaf marsilea if possible.
Rainbow shiners, some kind of cichlid that will like the flow (smaller Geophagus maybe?), lemon bristlenose pleco from a previous tank, and nano fw gobies. Maybe some danios, like gold ring.

Of course, I could always do a combination, stickleback, common minnow, nano gobies and rainbow shiners (I keep a breeding group rainbow shiners in the pond so always have room to move them or the minnow if they argue), lemon bristlenose pleco.

Wondering what people's ideas with this are. Or whether others have ideas.
I do believe I lean towards the UK native tank.

Any answers appreciated, many thanks.

 

[Magnum Man]

I have 2 specific river tanks, where the flow is from one side to the other... I have plenty of bio filtration, so no sponge filters I'm a big fan of large air stones I use 10 inch long stones to create what I call bubble waterfalls on one end of each of these tanks, they really amplify the current from the filters on the same side... with terrestrial plants, I simulate the shoreline, along the back... I like regional tanks, and really don't know much about fish in your area, so I would find that interesting... I wouldn't mind doing the same here, but the native fish require colder than room temperature water to be happy, and any tanks I've seen with enough chiller to make the fish happy, ends up sweating, that wouldn't make mrs. happy...

 

[ZanaZoola14]

I have 2 specific river tanks, where the flow is from one side to the other... I have plenty of bio filtration, so no sponge filters I'm a big fan of large air stones I use 10 inch long stones to create what I call bubble waterfalls on one end of each of these tanks, they really amplify the current from the filters on the same side... with terrestrial plants, I simulate the shoreline, along the back... I like regional tanks, and really don't know much about fish in your area, so I would find that interesting... I wouldn't mind doing the same here, but the native fish require colder than room temperature water to be happy, and any tanks I've seen with enough chiller to make the fish happy, ends up sweating, that wouldn't make mrs. happy...

Thanks for the reply.

I was only thinking sponge filters because I already have some spare. However getting some decent bubble bars shouldn't be that difficult either.

I have previously kept coldwater fish within a tank in a similar position and managed to keep temps below 20 except in the couple of day heatwave we had which some fans managed to keep it cool enough anyway. 18°c in a heatwave with fans for max of three days previously. Once I had a tank hit 30°c but I had it ontop of a savanna monitor in a heatwave so that was my own fault.

The UK native tank would be fish I could find in my area. I am a short drive away from the furthest point from the sea in England, so to do a regional tank for my direct area the UK native I described would actually be true. I have seen stone loaches, stickleback, minnows and gudgeons all in my rivers nearby.

Thanks for the reply!