The epic discus project

[fischkopp]

epic [ˈɛpɪk]

noun

• 1 A long poem, typically one derived from ancient oral tradition, narrating the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures or the past history of a nation. [...]
• 2 Informal an exceptionally long and arduous task or activity: the business of getting hospital treatment soon became an epic

adjective

• 1 Relating to or characteristic of an epic or epics [...]
• 2 Heroic or grand in scale or character: his epic journey around the world a tragedy of epic proportions informal particularly impressive or remarkable: the gig last night was epic these CEOs are paid salaries and bonuses in the millions despite their epic failures

[Oxford Dictonary]



Some of you who have seen the tank have encouraged me to start a post a little about this project. It's starting to come to a point where I am happy with it so I will share my journey.

But why is it ɛpɪk? I have to admit to myself that I underestimated the amount of work that has to go into it when I do many thing from scratch. I took a day of here and then to finish major parts, but most of the work is done on evenings or weekends. Add summer time and busy work, as well as other projects of course, and it can take quite some time until you have a finished product.

The idea to setup a discus tank was born a few months/years back. I decided to make it a DIY project, meaning that I would build or at least plan everything myself, in order to setup the tank the way I had it in mind. There were a lot of ideas I wanted to implement, and I often had no idea how I would do it since I never took on a project like this. However, I enjoyed doing it and learned a great deal about custom aquarium setups, wood and metal work, plumbing and sump setups, wiring, and many more ...

It is now three years ago that I first started to think about this project, but a few month would pass until the present aquariums where moved and the place was ready for it. This new tank should house discus. I always loved them, but never kept them before because I didn't have a big enough tank. That would change as the designated place for the aquarium allowed a tank of 6 foot length. It could have been a foot more, but that would have been difficult to move. I am not a very good scuba diver, so I decided 2 ft height would be enough, and since my arms aren't longer than that either I went with 2 ft depth as well. So the final dimension were 6x2x2, a nice size tank that holds 180 gal. Sweet. I had picked up a 75 gal earlier that year, and that was the biggest tank I ever owned at that point. Instead of setting it up though it was doomed to become a sump from the early beginning. That sums up the system to about 250 gal. I thought that would be a good start for discus.

So far the teaser, more to come ...

[Peekay]

interest piqued!   

[daworldisblack]

interest piqued!   

+1 ! I'm a sucker for DIY projects and its DISCUS! I love them! Alas space and resources are an issue so maybe somewhere down the road so your set up might be the inspiration! Waiting in anticipation!

[charlie]

You guys are in for a treat - the build of the OVAS century 

[bizfromqc]

Looking forward to see how this develops... and PICTURES 

Sump three times the size of my display tank now... AWESOME
(ok... maybe one day, I'll get a bigger tank)

[touchofsky]

Looking forward to the journey, and yes, pictures, if you can 

[exv152]

Fischkopp, are you growing out your discus yourself, or are you buying mature fish? I've done discus myself (profile pic is one of mine), because if you do plan to growout your discus the work has just begun.

[fischkopp]

Thank you for your kind comments. Yes, there will be pictures. I have taken a few after each major task.

But first of all I like to thank everyone who was involved in this project, lend a helping hand, did brainstorming and offered ideas.

I like to thank my better half Winnie for tolerating aquariums in hallways, lots of noise, dusty rooms, a minor invasion into the kitchen, silicon smell, occasional floods, and most of all that I spend a lot of time on it.

A big thank goes to Ken who helped a lot on stand and lights. Without him I wouldn't be able to pull it off.

And I would like to thank all my other fish buddies (and I am sorry if I forgot you in here) Errol, Peter, Ed, Mark & Mark, little Al, big Al, Rebecca, Enrico, Brandon who helped or contributed in one way or another. It's a great community that we have here at OVAS!

A special thank you goes to Evelyn for her valuable advise on anything Discus, and of course for bringing some awesome fish to Ottawa!



I should also add a little disclaimer at this point. A few things that I have done are a little unconventional and may even appear over the top. By no means I want to give the impression that a nice aquarium has to be done that way. It's simply what I thought might be nice features in the setup.

These were requirements for this project:

• It has to look nice. The number one requirement from the boss.
• It is a discus tank. The discus comes first.
• It has to be planted. That's because green is so pleasant on the eye.
• It has to be low maintenance. Because a day is short.
• It has to look nice. No point starting this project without being clear about that.

So I came up with a couple of things that I wanted to realize to achieve all that, and few few more that I though would be cool:

• Starphire. Because glass isn't just glass.
• Furnished metal stand. Good looks have clean lines.
• Sump. Good tank is clean too.
• Automatic water change. Because the day is short.
• Dimmable lights. It's for show.
• Controller. Because I won't be pushing buttons.

[fischkopp]

Fischkopp, are you growing out your discus yourself, or are you buying mature fish?

Hi Eric,

I raised juvenile discus in the progress, as well as adding semi-mature discus to the group. Yes, you are very right that it is A LOT of work. More to come on this as well ... 

Cheers,
Robert

[exv152]

I raised juvenile discus in the progress, as well as adding semi-mature discus to the group. Yes, you are very right that it is A LOT of work. More to come on this as well ...  

A word of advice, based on personal experience, buy all your discus from the same tank, that way they're used to each other's pathogens.  Too often I've heard of aquarists mixing discus and losing a bunch within a few months. Discus are renowned for carrying things they're immune to and passing it onto others that are not.  Also, min group size to get would be 6-8. What kind are you going to put in the 180 gal?

[fischkopp]

A word of advice, based on personal experience, buy all your discus from the same tank, that way they're used to each other's pathogens.  Too often I've heard of aquarists mixing discus and losing a bunch within a few months. Discus are renowned for carrying things they're immune to and passing it onto others that are not.  Also, min group size to get would be 6-8. What kind are you going to put in the 180 gal?

Yes, you are very right. Discus can vanish quickly, I learned that the hard way, too. The key is quarantine.
There are currently 16 discus in the tank. Various color strains, but no wilds.

[fischkopp]

The Tank

The dimension for the tank are 6x2x2. Standard 180gal. However, I thought it would be nice to have the front glass in starphire, so I went custom. The sides will face the wall, so I kept normal glass for them. If I would do it again they would be starphire as well. But that's not really a big deal.

The tank is eurobraced; that saves cost and weight since thinner glass can be used. A rimless tank would have been double the cost. The tank also got drilled to connect it to the sump.

I got the tank through Ray, who communicated with the builder, North American Fish Breeder in Toronto. He also brought the tank up for me. I must say the that I am very pleased with the build quality. It shows that NAFB have a few year experience in building tanks.

There are holes drilled. Believe me that it took me quite some time to finalize position and size. I had zero experience with sumps at that point, so I gave it my best shot. The idea was to use the big holes as overflow elbows, the small ones are for return. At that point I had two spraybars for each side in mind. A few month down the road I will dump that idea ...

I am a fan of black backgrounds, and one of the best ways to get that on is black vinyl. It's pretty cheap at the art store, and, once applied, gives a nice black tone. You just have to be a little careful that you don't trap any air when you stick it on. Use lots of water, a credit card of your choice, and a little patience; you will love the result It's pretty easy to remove too if you really want to do that.

tank as it was sitting on my floor for 3 months

vinyl background applied

[bizfromqc]

Very nice 

That piece of driftwood looks tiny in that huge tank, although I'm sure it's not! I'm a big fan of the black background and have always used the LFS backing applied with a bit of oil to make it stick. It's roughly the same process; oil, wipe, stick background, curse, get air bubbles out, curse some more and then you're done 

Now this vinyl you speak of from the art store, does it have any advantages over a regular LFS background? Easier to apply, cheaper, looks better?

I was thinking of going the "paint" route for the next tank using Krylon Fusion. I read many good things about it but If there's a better product out there, I want to give it a shot.

[pm]

I am a fan of black backgrounds, and one of the best ways to get that on is black vinyl. It's pretty cheap at the art store, and, once applied, gives a nice black tone. You just have to be a little careful that you don't trap any air when you stick it on.

And a word to the wise, put the background on before you setup the tank (like you did fischkopp).  I did mine after, and can't get behind the tank to remove the bubbles.... I just have to live with them for now.   

[fischkopp]

Thanks. There is another, bigger piece of wood, that made it into the tank.

Your method might just look the same; the idea is that there is no air gap between glass and background. Its just that oil, vaseline, etc are a lot messier to work with, and it's a real mess if you ever want to remove it. So is paint.

Price wise its probably similar. Vinyl is sold by the yard, $4-6 depending on the size. I got mine from De Serres.

Yeah, it's good to do that work beforehand. I have maybe 6 inches between the back of the tank and the wall. No way I could apply a background like this now.

[charlie]

And a word to the wise, put the background on before you setup the tank (like you did fischkopp).  I did mine after, and can't get behind the tank to remove the bubbles.... I just have to live with them for now.   

Very good words to the wise.
Fischkopp was the  person to introduce me to the Vinyl route & now like him i love it, him & Winnie was even nice enough to do a demo on my 79 gallon tank for me , maybe they will be nice enough to do a demo @ the next plant meeting   .

[fischkopp]

The Stand

I had done 4x2 constructions in the past. The work well and can be done on a low budget, but they tend to be very bulky as well. So I decided to get a metal stand. The tank is standard size 6x2, so you can get a metal stand in any LFS.

But I found that the stand would probably not work for me: I was planning a 75gal sump that is 4 ft long; I was afraid that the bottom may bend do to the weight being unevenly distributed. But more so, the stand was pretty low, so there wouldn't be much space to work inside the sump. So custom it is.

My friend Ken knew an experienced welder, it was on me to organize the metal for the stand. Commercial stands are mostly build of cold rolled steel, which has the advantage of being stronger. That allows the use of thinner and hence lighter material. But it's also a lot more expensive, so hot rolled steel it was. I used square tubes, 2"x2", I can't recall the thickness though.

After making a drawing and getting the dimensions I made a list of all pieces needed and send it of to the Superior Metal Centre. They sold me the pieces precisely cut. These were dropped off at the welder who did an excellent job putting the stand together. Once I had it home I cleaned it up and gave it three good coats of rust-free black paint. Another job done.

The stand in its place

[fischkopp]

Levelling

Levelling the stand is the one most important step before putting the tank in place and filling it with water. The forces due the water will only then be evenly distributed. Any carelessness at this step causes stress on the glass panels and seams and can lead to a disaster.

So I spend good 2-3 hours going back and fourth to all four feet until I was happy with it. It turned out that my (concrete) floor wasn't level at all. It fall by 1 inch! from the back right to the front left corner. The feet of the stand are 4x4" for better weight distribution, the shims are made of aluminum. Thanks again to Ken for making these, as well as helping me to move the stand into my apartment.

I used 3/4 plywood as base for bottom and top. I was a little worries that my wooden flooring will give a little under the weight of the tank, so I used the 75 gal for the sump to add a little bit of weight. All was good and level!

Leveling and shimming aluminum plates The 75gal adds weight ... ... and serves as up-scaled level bar

[Peekay]

That looks great! 
Funny how our perspective of size in photos works.  It doesn't look huge, until you say that the 'levelling' tank is 75G!

[bettabreeder]

I'm excited to see how this turns out! Did you consider painting the plywood black as well?