3 x 2 x 2 planted discus tank

[JamesW]

Hi everyone I've been building this since August and it is finally ready to share with everyone.

15 years ago I had a 5x2x2 which I converted to a saltwater tank for my parents when I moved out. I took the lessons I learned from reef tanks to try and apply them to a freshwater planted discus tank.

Fast forward to 2016 and the tank is 3x2x2 rimless tank from glasscages.com. The tank is drilled with a corner overflow with a herbie setup so the tank is silent. The sump is a standard 29 gallon tank and has seachem pond matrix and three 3" pieces of poret foam (essentially three hamburg mattenfilters) I also have red cherry shrimp and scuds in the sump that eat any food that goes into the overflow. Substrate is a mixture of fluorite black and super naturals aquarium sand. I don't do any water column dosing, the plants are all fed with osmocote plus buried in the substrate.

Fish stocking is:
20-25 (have to re-count) cardinal tetras
2 German blue rams from yunite rams
5 Bristlenose plecos (3 males, 2 females) I've just been able to sex them (they have their adolescent moustaches growing in) and will be getting rid of two of the males.
10 Discus from DiscusHans
-2 Blue turq's
-2 Flachen
-2 Pidgeon Blood reds
-2 Pidgeon Blood blues
-2 Blue Snakeskins

I feed with frozen brine shrimp, frozen blood worms, Omega one super color flakes. I tried to get them to eat NLS pellets but they are not interested and are still too small to eat omega one super color cichlid pellets but they are definitely interested, (they suck them up and spit them out to break up the pellet then they go crazy over the fragments).

Water parameters:
pH 7.8
Temp 29C
NH3/NO2 0
NO3 5-10
TDS 250
Can't remember KH or GH right now.
Lights: Current USA Satellite Freshwater LED Plus Pro, whites are at 50% as I was getting a lot of algae from not adding CO2.

Now pics:
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[JamesW]

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[JamesW]

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[JamesW]

This morning's full tank shot!
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[koushikman]

The tank and fishes are shaping up very nicely. Just one suggestion/advice, you can move the right hand side front plant to the back of the tank, thus it will give those cuties more space to roam, and the viewing area will also increase. But then, it's totally, personal preference :)

[JBurgo]

Your plumbing looks huge for such a small tank, nice and deep and tall though. I like your Herbie System in a box like that, better than a sump IMO, and I prefer the look of it without the cover on.

Plant (and log) placement for me is about water flow and circulation. I have my flow pushing to an empty space so that it makes it easy for the Discus to find the food, and me to clean up the mess.

Love the big Java. I could never keep the water lilies going though, they went gang busters and then seemed to burn themselves out, I think it was too hot.

[JamesW]

Thanks jason, where are you in australia? I grew up in redcliffe just north of brisbane. If I had the choice again I'd do 1 inch plumbing all around. They do 1.5 inch as standard. The banana plants ditched their bananas and were looking very sad for a while but seem to be adjusting to the higher temp.

The herbie system works great and I went with the box as I wanted to maximize space for the fishes. The sump is super simple and seems to be working quite well. I've got a pond snail issue in the sump and am thinking of getting a few assassin snails to curb their population. I like the mts in the main tank though they would be sump only.

[JBurgo]

I live on the NSW Central Coast.

Banana Plants, I never knew what they were called.. mine always seemed to do really well too, but after about a month or so, they just dissolved away, never could understand it so I gave up on them.

I used to like having snails too, the problem is they get so infested that your substrate is constantly moving, in the end this just means higher nitrates in the tank. I'd just get rid of them altogether. A dose of Wormer Plus with Flubendazole will eradicate them without a problem, if you want. I'm very careful what I introduce to the tank now.. getting anything out of an 8 footer is a pain.

Better to have the plumbing overdone than underdone! I'm a little underdone.

[JamesW]

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Most recent full tank shot.

[JamesW]

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Close ups of the two bosses of the tank, a flachen and blue turq.

[Ryan925]

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Close ups of the two bosses of the tank, a flachen and blue turq.

Gonna be fun watching color and pattern develop on those guys. To me that's the best part

[JamesW]

Most recent full tank shot. I had a three week vacation and with an auto feeder and auto top-off with R/O the discus were OK but certainly appreciated the return to normal operations! Lost a few cardinals and the shrimp population in the sump took a big hit. I also added a Hydroy Koralia Nano 465 into the bottom left corner of the tank as the detritus tended to collect there. That's why the tank is a little cloudy in the photo. Hopefully it is sweeping it all up into the sump now! Two of the discus have been slow growing but I'm happy with how all the others are looking! Maybe not to the monster size some of you are capable of but I'm satisfied. I'll try and get some close-ups and post them here.

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[JamesW]

I've attached some close ups of the discus as they continue to grow. I hope you enjoy them.

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[abijitr]

Your tank looks super sophisticated, James! Congratulations. I recently started my tank and I think my fish are about same size as yours ... it will be fun watching them grow, I have found some truly inspiring work on this forum.

One question: I keep wondering about the eye to body ratio? My fish looks similar to yours and I do wonder about that ... just not sure what is the right age to do that analysis ... mine are 2.5 - 3 inch in size and my guess is that they are 3+ months old, so they are juvi's.

[JamesW]

I don't know about eye to body ratio except that if they are out of proportion then it means the discus is stunted. Any options on the most recent photos? Eyes too big for their bodies? I know I haven't done what is necessary for massive fish so I'm just looking for honest feedback.

[abijitr]

I started 2-2.5 inch juvis about 7 weeks ago. Almost all the fish have poor eye-to-body ratio, so have been researching many tank journals and noticed that at this age eye-to-body ratio is off for almost every fish pic I have come across on simply and it is also clear that they look way different and better as they grow... they color up and get rounded. So I don't think you should be worried about that at this age either.

What I am curious about now is, when the juvi's will start rounding up, at what age?

Mine are all growing well, some have gotten bigger than others which is natural and expected but there is one guy who is way too off, he is tiny and I him to be stunted, only time can say. As of now they are all coloring up well but yet to round up ... hoping to see that happen sooner than later!

I am no expert and just sharing what I analyzed. Hope this helps.

[Ryan925]

I started 2-2.5 inch juvis about 7 weeks ago. Almost all the fish have poor eye-to-body ratio, so have been researching many tank journals and noticed that at this age eye-to-body ratio is off for almost every fish pic I have come across on simply and it is also clear that they look way different and better as they grow... they color up and get rounded. So I don't think you should be worried about that at this age either.

What I am curious about now is, when the juvi's will start rounding up, at what age?

Mine are all growing well, some have gotten bigger than others which is natural and expected but there is one guy who is way too off, he is tiny and I him to be stunted, only time can say. As of now they are all coloring up well but yet to round up ... hoping to see that happen sooner than later!

I am no expert and just sharing what I analyzed. Hope this helps.

I think around 4"-4.5 they will have round shape but still get better as they grow. If you have one that's behind, which there usually is, don't give up on that runt. Take a look at my thread here.

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?125284-Can-a-discus-be-stunted-and-still-round&highlight=

[abijitr]

I think around 4"-4.5 they will have round shape but still get better as they grow. If you have one that's behind, which there usually is, don't give up on that runt. Take a look at my thread here.

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?125284-Can-a-discus-be-stunted-and-still-round&highlight=

Thanks Ryan! Of course, I have researched your thread thoroughly... have learnt a lot from it as well!

[JamesW]

Thought I'd post some pics of how I do my water changes. Previously I used a hose to the kitchen sink (open plan main floor) and a hose up the basement stairs to my aging barrel. Now I plumbed in a garden hose through my ventilation outlet to run to the utility room of my basement. I drain directly to the basement drain and fills are quicker due to less hosing and more direct line to my tank. Better yet, no lugging hoses up from and down to the basement and no fish water into the kitchen sink!

Pre-softener tee with a ball joint to mix a portion of it with RO, currently 1/3 tap to 2/3 RO. Note this was my first attempt at gluing, hence the drips and messiness.
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The water change hose and the auto-top off going into the ventilation tubing.
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Water change hose going into a t-joint, I use my return pump to empty for water changes too. I siphon down from the display tank to the return side of my sump. Note this is my latest attempt at gluing PVC, a little nicer in my opinion.
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Aging barrel with an auto-top off.
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Water change hose and auto top off coming out of the ventilation tubing.
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RO unit feeding the aging barrel auto-top off, sump auto-top off and refrigerator (how I convinced my wife to install an RO unit...)
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[JamesW]

While I was taking pics I wanted to share a few pics of the animals living in my sump. I think they do a good job keeping the matrix and poret clean. The shrimp and scuds also make an occasional live food snack for the discus!

Red Cherry Shrimp on pond matrix, they eat any food that goes into the overflow.
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Assassin snails, taking care of my MTS issue. Apparently feeding beefheart and mysis shrimp multiple times a day in a planted tank causes a population explosion of MTS.
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Tough to make out but dead center of the pic is a freshwater copepod/amphipod/gammarus scuds. They live in the poret and pond matrix.
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[JamesW]

Tank is looking great I've added a red flame sword and 30 cardinals.

Current stock is:
9 Discus
40 cardinal tetra
5 BN Plecos
Many MTS
Growing number of assassin snails (~20)
Rebounding population of shrimp (in sump)
Growing number of scuds

Do twice a week 30% WC with 1/3 to 2/5 tap to 2/3 to 3/5 RO (depending on TDS reading, aiming for ~160ppm)
pH 7.2
Nitrate <20ppm
GH~6-8
KH~3

[JamesW]

Larger Blue Snakeskin
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Smaller blue turq
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Larger blue turq with Flachens and White Pidgeon Blood
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Flachen
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Smaller blue snakeskin (the runt)
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[geo57]

Beautiful fish and real nice photos. Wish I could take good photos lol.

[nikolyator]

Your flachens just amazing. nice tank and plumbing too.

[JamesW]

Noticed the widest poop I've ever seen! It is about half the width of the fish it is coming from!

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[Filip]

Noticed the widest poop I've ever seen! It is about half the width of the fish it is coming from!

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My BD oftenly does this too :) .
He seems to be the only one in my tank that poops like a monster from time to time :)

[snxtif]

Nice setup & fish!

Btw, 3 weeks vacation would never ever happen in my life after I had discus ;)

Just had 1 week vacation a couple months ago and my mind kept wandering after the 3rd day lol.

I might need discus-sitter & IP camera for that...

[JamesW]

I only change 30% twice a week so pushing that out wasn't too stressful. Last year during my vacation I deliberately underfed to maintain water quality but I ended up with no cardinals left... This time my autofeeder was putting too much food in but fortunately my sump was able to handle it though the water did get a little cloudy. I have an IP camera set up to check in on my dog while I am at work and can check the fish tank as well. I'll admit to checking in every few days but corrective action is difficult on the other side of the world.

[JamesW]

Time for an update. In video format this time: https://youtu.be/E_ojNYRO21M, sorry about the noise I was doing laundry in the background.

I decided to ditch the mixed substrate and go to straight Esty river sand. I highly recommend it!

Recently replanted (hence the low growth) are:
Corkscrew Val, Giant Hairgrass, Crypt Wenditi?? Red Ozelot Sword, Standard green sword, Staurogyne Repens (these have melted on addition, hopefully they recover), assorted Bucephalandra, Java fern and some java moss.

Lights are planted plus pro and I'm using PPS-pro as a dosing regimen as well as an osmocote ball under each root feeder.
Discus from are Stendker and I've had them for ~1.5 years. WC 30% once or twice a week since they were the smallest option from Hans, lost one from a jump out early on but otherwise no issues.

BN's often breed though I have two males and one female so not ideal. I want to get rid of the sub-male but my wife forbids it. Assassin snails are there in such great number due to the overwhelming MTS issue I had which was largely resolved with substrate removal.

In the sump are some red cherry shrimp, more assassin snails and a bunch gammarus on top of pond matrix, the BN juvies also end up in the sump where they seem to grow up well with absolutely no intervention from my end. The main filtration is from poret foam (10, 20 then 30 ppi, 3" cut to fit the 29 gallon sump) and on the return side heaters (2x 150 w eheim, controlled by inkbird) and the return pump.

[jake37]

Some questions if I might - do you ever vacuum the gravel or is there no need to vacuum the gravel; can you take a large picture of the sump and where the shrimp/snail live in it ? Have you considered adding an mbbr at the end of the sump (after last foam) ? Do you use pure ro water or do you mix ro water with tap water - given you ahve an aging bucket i presume some of it is tap to remove chlorine but how do you control the mixing rate (if it is mixed) ?

[JamesW]

I vacuum the poop off the top of the sand. Periodically I will dip the vacuum into the sand but it comes out clean so I'm not anal about cleaning the substrate.

I'll get some pics of the sump, I haven't used an MBBR as I feel like the poret does a great job for biological filtration. I use 2/3 RO to 1/3 tap, chlorine is removed with standard dechlorinator. I mix by filling tap to a set level on the barrel and letting RO fill with a float valve overnight.

[mleibowi]

Very nice tank. Can you post some updates?