Dining with Discus

[DonMD]

So, living in a small house, I’m limited about where to put my fish. Started with a 46 gallon bow front, then upgraded to a 90 gallon, and now, finally, up to a 125 beautiful show tank. It’s my ONLY Discus tank, so it’s both my grow out tank, and my display.

Here’s what the 90 looked like, and here’s the 125. It’s plumbed to drain straight to the basement, and the water supply likewise is plumbed straight from the aging barrels in the basement.

[DonMD]

It’s got to be easy to do Water Changes in a 125, especially if it’s in the dining room! Otherwise, can you imagine lugging around 5 gallon buckets all day? I set up 2 quick connect drains inside the cabinet, and now it drains massive amounts in just 10 minutes. It drains directly to the laundry sink in the basement.

[DonMD]

So, in order to set up this super fast drain system that goes right to the laundry in the basement, I had to do some rough plumbing. It helps to be handy, sometimes. I opened a hole in the wall next to the old 90 gallon tank, drilled down inside the wall through the floor, and then went down in the basement and drilled up through the sill board, and ran both supply and drain pipe from the basement into the dining room. That flex PVC is absolutely the best! It was easy running the rigid PVC through the closet in the basement bedroom (remembering to keep a ¼ inch per foot slope), and then into my work area where the aging barrels and laundry sink are.

With the new tank in the room, you can’t see where the plumbing and wiring come out of the wall.

[DonMD]

Since I planned this well in advance, I also planned how to set up the 6-foot long cabinet. Of course, I built all the utilities in the cabinet before I brought it into the house and set the tank on it, so that I could work while standing up, instead of laying on my back under the cabinet, that’s SOOOO uncomfortable. While I was at it, I installed a 4-foot T-5 light with a door-activated switch so that whenever you open the door, the light turns on.

I set the two drains facing up at a 45 degree angle, both with a valve, and the supply parallel to the floor, also with a valve. And I installed three stitches that control outlets in the basement. One switch turns on the aging barrel pump to drive the water up, one turns on or off the heaters in the barrels (I don’t like them to be on when I’m draining the barrels), and one activates the solenoid that allows water to flow from the city supply into my aging barrels (this one I put on a 30-minute timer, so that the solenoid isn’t working all the time).

[DonMD]

Setting up the solenoid and the float valve in the aging barrels was new for me. Since I was going to let the float valve decide what level to fill the barrels, I needed an overflow, not unlike a toilet tank overflow. I didn’t want to have water running all over the floor if the valve failed.

It’s easy to put a sump pump, a mag drive pump, in the bottom of the barrels, but you’ve to use bulkhead fittings to put in the overflow, and plumb it to a waste drain, which is what I did. And after a couple tries, I got the float valve positioned so that it fills the barrel to within about an inch of the overflow.

[DonMD]

OK, all set. Time to drain the old 90 g for the last time and move those fish! After all this hard work, it’s time to fill up that wine rack!

[Chad Hughes]

Don,

I LOVE YOUR SETUP! This has got to be the most well thought out, perfectly executed, professional setups I've seen in a long time. I really enjoyed reading all about it and the pictures are great! You have some lovely discus, which look thoroughly spoiled. Well done my friend!

Best wishes!

[machine77]

hi, are those 55g rubbermaid trash cans? and what kinda insulation did you use to rap them in? thanks so much!
nolan

[DonMD]

Thanks, Chad!

[DonMD]

Nolan,

Those are heavy duty 55g barrels from Home Depot, and the insulation is just a bubble-type also from Home Depot. Not that I like HD, but there's a store close by. I honestly don't remember if they are Rubbermaid, but they might be.

[Organic Farmer]

Congrads on a very clean ,well thought out system.Who is your stand made by Thank you Tom

[DonMD]

Congrads on a very clean ,well thought out system.Who is your stand made by Thank you Tom

The stand is by Oceanic, the tank by AGA.

[Eddie]

Nice set-up Don, and the tank looks really nice. The fish are gorgeous!

All the best
Eddie

[MSD]

Sounds like a new reality show, but your tank is really nice and I'd love to have a setup like that in my home.

[smsimcik]

Beautiful tank and fish Don. Now that you've done all the hard work, water changes and maintenence will be a snap. You'll actually have time to enjoy your fish.

BTW, I have that exact same boulder background in my show tank. I love it in a discus tank.

[hedut]

Nice setup Dan, thanks for sharing.


hendri

[rickztahone]

hey Don, quick question. when you use the hoses to siphon the tank bottom how do you start the siphon? do the hoses stay primed somehow? i only ask because i find myself sucking on my hoses to get them started, and let me tell you...that gets old really quick!, lol. love the setup btw, truly well done

[DonMD]

hey Don, quick question. when you use the hoses to siphon the tank bottom how do you start the siphon? do the hoses stay primed somehow? i only ask because i find myself sucking on my hoses to get them started, and let me tell you...that gets old really quick!, lol. love the setup btw, truly well done

Ohhh, I used to do that, suck on the hoses. Don't do that!

It's extremely easy to start the syphon. Put a small ball valve on the end of the hose (like the ones they sell for hoses at the hardware store). Now, keeping the valve open, insert the syphon and most of the hose into the tank (try not to spook your fish too much), close the valve (the valve is usually just a couple inches from the surface of the water).

With the valve closed, lower the syphon hose to the drain, connect it (I use a quick connect) and IMMEDIATELY open the little valve. Since the water in the hose is below the top level of the water in the aquarium, water rushes down the hose.

hth. -Don