New Freshwater Tank

[jd22]

Hello,

I just bought a 72 gallon reef ready tank with the intentions of upgrading but I've put a lot of thought and I'm thinking I might like to go freshwater with the 72 and start my 30 gallon reef tank over again. I'm trying to put a plan together and also have some questions. Right now I'm thinking none planted(maybe some floating or possible in the future), driftwood/stumps, base rocks, need tips on substrate

I don't know much about stocking but heres a few I'd be interested in: Trinidad pleco, 1-2 red oscars, colombian shark, and 4-6 silver dollars or some other larger schooling fish and just to throw a crazy one out there needle nose gar.

So with all this said:
-Substrate? I think I'd like the darker look
-Should I use the sump or plug the overflow up? if so, what do I run in there?
- I'm a little unclear on what people are using for water? RO, RO/DI, Tap?
-How to cycle?
-Thoughts on Stock list

If there is a site with some good freshwater advice please let me know. Anyway thanks for looking any advice is much appreciated.

 

[hiimsean]

that's a lot of fish for just a 72g. you could prolly get away with 1 oscar in there, no colombian shark and maybe 3 SD. if you want a cat, look into something smaller like a pictus cat. oscars are messy fish so you're going to want good filtration like 2 AC110 or an AC110 and a decent sized canister filter. you could do a sump since its RR.

oscars can get hole-in-the-head pretty easily, if you have access to RO or RODI water that would help, toss in some drift wood to bring down the ph.

there's a bunch of good FW forums, monsterfishkeepers is a good one and atlantaaquarium is local.