My Discus Tank

[tim_s]

Hi Everyone,

So I have had a good amount of progression on my discus tank and I thought I would share a picture.  Needs more work but it is coming along nicely.

SETUP

90 Gallon Perfecto Display Tank
30 Gallon Perfecto Sump (A little counter productive I know)
--
20 lb Co2 Cylinder
Milwaukee 2 stage regulator
Red Sea Needle valve + Bubble counter
Red Sea Co2 Reactor
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Danner Mag Drive 950 GPH
PVC Piping
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4 X t5HO Sunlight Tek-Elite (I know a little on the high side)
2 Daytime Giesemann
1 Flora Giesemann (For colour)
1 Actinic Blue Giesemann (For colour)
--
EI Dosing

STOCKING

6 Discus
2 Krib
4 Bolivian Rams
2 German Blue Rams
4 Congo Tetras (I feed a mixture of fast / floating dropping pellets to reduce competition as food enters the tank)

RESULTS

[exv152]

Nice tank, I love discus, got any pics of the co2 setup?

[daworldisblack]

nice.. they make the tank look so small haha

[fischkopp]

Good job on the setup! How long is it running? Can you share some info about your sump setup as well.

[tim_s]

Nice tank, I love discus, got any pics of the co2 setup?

I do not at the moment but I will add some pictures when I can.

The tank was from praxair standard 20lbs beverage grade Co2 (I originally purchased the standard grade but they upgraded me for free)

nice.. they make the tank look so small haha

Yeah I know, they are quite large now, the youngest is the orange sunrise / penang but bigger than my hand for sure.

Good job on the setup! How long is it running? Can you share some info about your sump setup as well.

START UP
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I had a build thread on a cichlid forum so I have all this information.

AUGUST 2012 - Purchased everything and setup the tank + wood etc.
AUGUST 2012 - Started fishless cycle
SEPTEMBER 2012 - Added Platties as my first test subjects
SEPTEMBER 2012 - Added Plants
SEPTEMBER 2012 - Started Co2
OCTOBER 2012 - Started shopping for Discus breeders
OCTOBER 2012 - Added Kribensis + 2 Blue German Rams + 6 Congo Tetras (more water testing - with Co2 and ferts + testing the new fish for disease before adding Discus)
NOVEMBER 2012 - Added Discus

I have been pruning and mixing fertilizers to try and bring out the colouring of the plants as the growth is sorted.

SUMP
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It is a 3 (technically 4) chambered sump made from a Perfecto 30 G long.  The chambers are from glass I have cut siliconed with GE Silicone. 
I have 2 x 1.5" pvc pipes (only because the size I wanted was challenging to find) which feeds the returns.

Chamber 1: The chamber is the heighest as it use to include a wet/dry.  I have removed this as it is an office and people
complained about the noise.  It is sealed to reduce sunlight and keep the high temperature, which contains a mixture of,
bio-balls, ceramic media, also a Ehiem Jager Heater (forget the wattage) sits within this chamber to maintain consistant
heat and prevent temperature flucations.  Water is feed pointing at the wall of the sump which causes a "light" whirlpool
motion to assist with keeping the temperature rock solid.

Chamber 2: This chamber was intended for refugium but was never used, mainly this just adds to the over-all water volumn.
It is convenient for adding items like dry fertilizers and prime for example.

Chamber 3: Is measured to fit a Ehiem course filter pad for a pond system.  This is to defend the pump which I have removed the
finer inlet filter.  This is to prevent build-up and strain on the pump, small objects can pass through the pump fine,
where-as plant material etc is trapped and cleaned weekely.

Chamber 4: Is the return pump, controlling amount of water accessible to insure incase of failure the returned water is under
control.  The pump is a danner mag 9.5 (950 GPH) running approx. 750 GPH with the head height and check valve.  Within this
chamber - placed in front of the inlet of the pump is the Red Sea Co2 Reactor.  The vaccum does not disturb the Red Sea
reactor but when the reactor burps itself. The pump will withdrawl this and pump this up as well.  The water is returned
below the surface in the display tank to limit the "gas-out" of the Co2.

I would not nesscarily recommend a sump + Co2 setup it is counter-productive and I had to accomodate this with 11 bubbles
per second feed into the display tank, however, I do appreciate the added benefits.

[exv152]

There should be no issue running co2 on the sump return, that way you lose little co2. Otherwise any splashing in the co2 path would be not advisable. You might be able to cut back to about 4-5 bps if you run it on the return.But as far as filters go, sumps and trickle filters can't be beat.

[tim_s]

I agree! My co2 reactor is on the return - I suspose I miss-worded the situation.  The is with the over flow and breaking the surface.

[zenins]

The tank and fish look great !

Where did you get the discus from ?

[tim_s]

I found the Discus from a local seller "Evelyn Turner" she is on these boards but I am not sure what her username is.

Thank you - The tank still needs a little more work but it is getting along for sure