DHBIOFISH
08-25-2017, 01:02 PM
Hey everybody out there. I've been in the aquarium hobby for about 8 years primarily doing things from goldfish to planted tanks. I'm going to be setting up my first discus tank and I wanted to get your experience and feedback on the plan that I have before I execute it.
I'm going to be building a 180 gallon tank that will have a 75 gallon sump for filtration and increase water volume. My plan is to have about 7 to 9 adult discus, 100 rummy nose tetras, 15 Otocinclus, and maybe a few Cory cats as well.
As for the filtration and the technical side it will be as follows. I'll be running a 1000 gallon per hour pump that will be directing about 80% of its flow back to the main tank from the sump. The rest of the flow will be directed back into the sump, to power things such as carbon reactors and bioreactors. I'm planning on having about one cubic foot of matala mat, 2 gallons of K3 media, a fluidized sand bed filter, carbon reactor, and possibly an algae scrubber depending on my nitrite levels.
I'm also going to have a drip system in the that will be adding about 15 to 20 gallons of fresh filtered water daily. The idea is to help reduce the amount of manual water changes that are needed and create a more stable water profile for the fish.
As for the display tank it will be heavily planted and also have rocks in hardwood with plenty of open space for the tetras and the discus. I'll probably also add a couple circulation pumps just to make sure I don't have any dead spots in the aquarium.
I would love to know what you experienced folks think of the setup and if you think it will be effective. Also with the drip system I'm hoping that I can basically eliminate large-scale MANUAL water changes once I stabilize the aquarium. Maybe once or twice a week I'll increase the drip setting to drip 50 gallons a day which will essentially be doing the water change for me. My goal with this setup is to make a beautiful tank with an extremely stable environment with very low nitrates. Also I'm trying to do my best to minimize the amount of water changes and Hands-On maintenance I'll have to do in the display tank to minimize the stress on the fish and give them the best life possible.
Thank you for your time and for your feedback.
I'm going to be building a 180 gallon tank that will have a 75 gallon sump for filtration and increase water volume. My plan is to have about 7 to 9 adult discus, 100 rummy nose tetras, 15 Otocinclus, and maybe a few Cory cats as well.
As for the filtration and the technical side it will be as follows. I'll be running a 1000 gallon per hour pump that will be directing about 80% of its flow back to the main tank from the sump. The rest of the flow will be directed back into the sump, to power things such as carbon reactors and bioreactors. I'm planning on having about one cubic foot of matala mat, 2 gallons of K3 media, a fluidized sand bed filter, carbon reactor, and possibly an algae scrubber depending on my nitrite levels.
I'm also going to have a drip system in the that will be adding about 15 to 20 gallons of fresh filtered water daily. The idea is to help reduce the amount of manual water changes that are needed and create a more stable water profile for the fish.
As for the display tank it will be heavily planted and also have rocks in hardwood with plenty of open space for the tetras and the discus. I'll probably also add a couple circulation pumps just to make sure I don't have any dead spots in the aquarium.
I would love to know what you experienced folks think of the setup and if you think it will be effective. Also with the drip system I'm hoping that I can basically eliminate large-scale MANUAL water changes once I stabilize the aquarium. Maybe once or twice a week I'll increase the drip setting to drip 50 gallons a day which will essentially be doing the water change for me. My goal with this setup is to make a beautiful tank with an extremely stable environment with very low nitrates. Also I'm trying to do my best to minimize the amount of water changes and Hands-On maintenance I'll have to do in the display tank to minimize the stress on the fish and give them the best life possible.
Thank you for your time and for your feedback.