[Natalia]

Thank you all for replies.

Roy: Thanks for encouraging remarks, I like many of your posts and I have learned a lot from them. I surely will have lots of questions when it comes to planting.
BryceM: I red your 180g journal many times over, I love your tank. Thanks for clarifying many issues for me.

The tank is glass, so I will try 1/10 diluted HCL and razor blade/credit card, hopefully this works.

The overflows will stay and I take it that a sump is the way to go. I have no clue how it works though, and following your advice will start a separate thread on sumps.

The weight issue keeps bothering me. According marineland aquarium chart a filled 210 gallon weights close to 2200lb, plus the weight of substrate, decorations, sump, ets. This comes very close to the limit a standard residential floor can support (2880 lb distributed across 6 joists). This concern was behind my original decision to have it in the basement. You have made a very important point by mentioning that the bending of the floor could sprang a leak. I think most folks (myself included) are horrified by the image of the tank going down through the hole in the floor, but the leak option although less dramatic is nevertherless as disastrous.

My problem is that my basement is nothing like yours. It is unfinished, unheated, not well lit and has noisy equippment lincluding oil tank and furnace. I am pretty sure there are mice there and who knows what else. While we do entertain ourselves with the idea to convert it into a living space one day, realistically this won't happen in the near future. Therefore, if I put the tank in the basement half of the fun (sitting and watching it for hours) will be gone. I have to still think about possible options here...

I think I am all set with plants and fish. I decided to limit myself to the fish I already have (two plecos, five gold gouramis, three yo-yo loaches, six bloodfin tetras and three Garra flavatra). I plan to add more yo-yo loaches and garras to have 6-8 fish in each school, some extra tetras as well. I also would love to have a small school of cories in the future if space permits. I know that my fish selection is not the best for a planted tank, but these are the first guys I started with and I am sort of attached to them.

Oviously, with this selection of fish I will need a very good filtration, high water flow at the botton and some more quiet areas on the top for gouramis. I plan on having ~ 2 inch Aquasoil layer (to keep the pH low) topped with a 2-inch layer of coarse river sand. Large driftwood pieces and stones will do for a hardscape. Plants are to come from my existing tanks and will include several kinds of mosses, Bolbitus and Anubias. I also plan to get needle leaf Java fern. Plecos are currently housed with these plants and do not damage them.

Given my plant and fish selection, I aim for ~ 2wpg via HO/ VHO (not sure yet which ones) T5 bulbs. I plan to get 2 of 6x39wt retrofit kits and hopefully, my skills will suffice to screw them onto the canopy. Later I can add either MHs or extra T5s, if needed. I am not sure wether I will need CO2 for these plants, but if I do I have a complete pressurized set-up with regulator, in-line reactor, pH controller and 20lb CO2 tank.

For those of you here with incredible colorful tanks this setup might seem a little drab, but if i try hard it could be very exciting. Just give a look at the attachment below.

The maintenance indeed promise to be a challenge - something that I did not fully anticipate. I tested yesterday whether i could reach the bottom of the tank. Well, I could but only if my husband holds me by the feet. Some implements will be required for cleaning and I would like to know what you use.

Avi, I see you have Garra flavatra in your signature image. Do you keep them in your tanks and what is your experience with them?

Best regards,
Natalia.