The costs of setting up and maintaining a 265 gallon discus tank

I have recently just started with my discus obsession and have loved every second of it. Everything I have learned came from this forum and I wanted to share how I have applied the countless hours of research along with the costs that have came about from it. This post is in no way supposed to discourage anyone from starting a project such as mine, it is simply to showcase the time and costs of such an undertaking.

It all started when I saw a video on youtube titled " Unboxing 500 discus fish" by Joey of King of DIY. From there on I was instantly hooked, My next video was how to raise discus showcasing some guy named Al as the presenter. I'm not sure if anyone hear has ever heard of him. Last I've heard, he was raising a billion worms and brewing beers. From there on out I started scavenging craigslist for tanks with the full intentions of buying a 125 - 150 gallon tank. I stumbled across someone selling a 265 gallon salt water setup on craigslist and the gears started to instantly turn in my head. The ideal of a 265 gallon tank full of beautiful discus was enough to keep me awake at night.

I called the owner the very next morning and asked some very basic questions such as silicone condition, sump size, filtration, overflows, pump size, etc. The owner couldn't tell me any little bit of info about it and even asked me what a sump was despite having one under the tank as the filtration method. That evening, me and my girlfriend of the last 12 years hopped in the truck and drove across town to have a look. It was obvious from the get-go that this tank was in desperate need of some TLC. The tank was full of around 300 pounds of live rock and a nasty looking 8'' layer of sand that had never even seen a siphon. The stand and canopy had paint peeling off from every side and the metal halide lights were full of salt. The wiring looked like a fire waiting to happen.

My girlfriend kept giving me side looks and I knew what she was thinking " This thing sounds like a waterfall in the middle of this house, no way is it going in ours". The tank had dual overflows with durso stand pipes that led down to a very noisy trickle tower. For a return, He had a single mag drive 9.5 pump that teed off into two return lines. The pump and tubing was full of salt and it's being generous to say that this thing was pushing maybe 300 gph..... tops.

I knew that this was going to be a huge undertaking but I was determined and I saw the potential. Much to the dismay of my girlfriend, we settled on an even grand for the whole set up which in hindsight was way too much. The fun began that Saturday when I called a few buddies and some family members to help move the beast. I arrived early to start siphoning the water and to prepare the storage containers. We siphoned the saltwater into an empty lot next door and threw all the live rock into multiple 30 gallon containers that I had brought. The sand was also thrown into the lot as I had no need for that nasty smelling stuff. There were a few small wrasse and crabs in there as well which I removed and donated to my local saltwater store along with the live rock. The tank, stand, canopy,and sump were all dis-assembled without incident and safely transported across town into my garage. Having strong friends and family members always has it's benefits.

From there, The project started to take shape. I tossed all the plumbing, returns, pump, lights, and the bio balls which were of no use going into my prized discus tank. I started by giving the tank a good washing and then scrubbed every last surface with micro fiber cloths and some barkeepers friend to help remove all the staining. I then turned my attention onto the stand and canopy. I sanded and sanded and then sanded some more to remove all the old paint and then filled all the nail holes and dings with wood putty. It's hard to portray into words just how badly this thing looked when I began. I picked a paint color which closely resembled my dining room table as the tank was to sit on a wall that separated my master from the dining room. After two coats of primer and three coats of paint, the stand and canopy took on a whole new look.

I knew that with this much water sitting on my brand new laminate floors, That I would have to do everything in my power to keep the water in the tank and off my floors. I called my local sheet metal shop and had them build me a metal drain pan with two inch walls to fit inside the entire length and depth of the stand. I then placed several water leak alarms through out the pan which has already saved my butt once.

After I was satisfied with the stand, glass, and canopy, I then started on the sump. i removed the trickle tower and redesigned the baffles to fit my needs. With my set-up, I have two sumps that are plumbed together and at the time there was only a 1 1/2'' bulkhead adjoining the two sump tanks. I quickly found out that the small bulkhead could not handle the 2,200 gph that I was running through it, So I drilled and installed a 2'' bulkhead and piping besides the existing 1 1/2'' bulkhead which connected the two sumps. Drilling a 2'' hole through that acrylic was more nerve wracking then carrying that glass tank through my house. Once completed though the sump ran as intended and is completely silent.
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I decided to ditch the noisy durso style stand pipes and went to a Herbie style overflow. Each corner overflow has an independent full siphon drain along with a trickle emergency drain. Once the 4 drainage pipes reach the sump, they then run through 4 separate 200 micron filter socks with the very end of the piping terminating about an inch below the water line. Once the water exits the socks, it then travels past some matrix media, then over 900 watts of heaters which is controlled by an inkbird thermostat, through the newly added bulkheads to the second sump, over some additional matrix and even more bio-media. Finally it then reaches my return compartment which houses two separate DC pumps which have an adjustable flow rate and is currently returning about 2,200 gph at the moment. Each pump is plumbed with 1'' braided vinyl tubing and then splits into 2 returns with a wye fitting that splits off into 3/4'' braided vinyl. This setup gives me a ton of bio filtration as well as mechanical filtration. Everything was of of course piped with unions and gate valves for easy cleaning and precise flow controls. All through out the sump, I have multiple temperature alarms and standard temp sensors.

I decided to also paint the entire right hand side of the tank in black and also painted the overflow section of the left hand side since my particular tank locations viewing areas are from the front and left side only. Choosing a background for the tank took me nearly a week, I looked at every website known to mankind and I finally settled on a custom 3D background from Aquadecor. While very pricey, It was completely worth it. Every single person that has seen it has thought that it was real wood and rocks that I cut and assembled together. The background was easily siliconed in place with plenty of areas for the water to circulate into and out of the background and into my two overflows.

It was at this point that I was ready for water, I added around 70 pounds of Aqua quartz white sand and began by filling the beast from the overflows first to check all of my bulkeads and piping for any leaks. Once I was satisfied, i then filled the tank until my sump reached it's max water level and fired up the pumps for the first time. I spent the next 30 minutes fine tuning the gate valves on the drain lines and am so glad that I changed the overflows into a Herbie style drain. There is zero noise from this tank other than an extremely light hum of the pumps which is just white noise at this point.

After several days of fine tuning and testing, I reached out to a local corydora breeder and purchased 15 Sterbai cory's for 75 bucks. I then proceeded to do 75% daily water changes straight from the tap as the tank went through a mini cycle as I had already had some seeded media. i quickly realized that my entire house smelled like chlorine from 265 gallons of tap water sitting in the middle of my dining room and that discus would not tolerate this at all ( Yes, I do use Prime ) I scoured craigslist for a few days trying to find a large enough storage container to age my water. Everything I found however had housed some sort of chemical or nasty compound and I was not willing to take that risk. Eventually i saw a 300 gallon IBC tote sitting in a warehouse bay of an auto mechanic that rents out a warehouse bay near where I work. He had planned on using it to store oil but had decided against it and the lids were still shut with the factory zip ties. I gave him 150 bucks for it and drove a forklift over to him and loaded it into the back of my truck. Once in my garage, I knew that filling this thing with a hose to replenish my daily water changes was too much of a burden. I ended up running a 1/2'' PVC line from the cold side of my water heater to the top of the tank with a ball valve at the end to quickly and easily refill the tote. I then placed several air stones into the bottom of the tote which run 24/7 along with a 1,000 gph submersible pump which I use to refill my display tank during water changes. After aging for 24 hours, the chlorine dissipates and my Ph stabilizes at near 6.9 - 7.0. I also decided to install a reverse osmosis unit to the 1/2'' PVC line and plumbed it into a float valve at the top pf the tote. I can now control my TDS and have a way to obtain pure RO water for any future breeding purposes.
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Once my tank became fully cycled, my moment of fruition began to take shape. i was finally going to purchase my first discus! I called up the same company that was featured in that first youtube video and ordered a red eagle, a snow white, and a blue scorpion. I find it a little ironic that I had bought red, white, and blue from a company called Uncle Sam's. I eagerly watched the Fedex truck on a tracking app on my phone and saw them pull onto my street and deliver them at my door while I was at work ( I'm an A/C guy in Florida and there is no way that I can take off during the Summer ) My father was able to run to my house within 5 minutes of delivery and with my very detailed instructions, He got them acclimated and into the tank. I couldn't help but grin when I saw all 3 fish swimming around the tank when I walked through the door after work. After nearly 3 weeks of of a trial period and watching the same 3 fish swimming about, I knew it was time for more. I was able to successfully change a minimum of 50% of the water per day and from start to finish I only had about 15-20 minutes of my day invested into a water and filter sock change. Time well spent.

While completely happy with the fish that I received from Darwin and Wes at Uncle Sam's, I couldn't help but notice the trillions of rave reviews about this particular guy in Daly City, California named Kenny. I sent Kenny an email containing my wish list and he quickly called me and answered all of my questions and was one of the most genuine people that I had ever had the pleasure of talking to. We put together an order of 18 fish and picked a delivery date for a Friday morning. I decided on a selection of 2 blue diamonds, 3 neon sapphires, 2 fuji reds, 2 golden lollipops, 2 penang eruptions, 2 mosaic turquoise, 2 giant flora's, and 3 checkerboard pigeons. This gave me a rainbow/starburst candy selection of color to enter my home. After an agonizing 2 weeks that Friday I had been waiting on had finally arrived. My girlfriend was able to go into work late that particular day and took delivery of the fish for me. She called me up when they arrived and I immediately left a job site to get them settled in. I quickly realized why Kenny had those trillion rave reviews. His packaging and care of prepping this shipment was extraordinary. Each fish was wrapped in multiple bags with layers of newspaper in between. As i unwrapped every bag and saw each individual fish, my smile got bigger and bigger. This was money well spent. Every fish was alive and well and there was not a single leak in any of the bags. As i placed each fish into the tank, it would immediately school with the others and start exploring their new home. I was expecting the fish to be lethargic and to lay on their sides at the bottom of the tanks after such a stressful journey from California to Florida, but that wasn't the case. These fish were literally eating from my hand a mere hour after arriving. Kenny being the swell and caring guy that he is, called me a few hours after arrival to ensure that everything went smoothly. i couldn't be happier about my decision to buy from Kenny and he has earned a customer for life. By the way, That Friday was two days ago.

Here is a complete breakdown of equipment and material costs in no particular order

265 gallon tank, stand, canopy, and sump $1,000
Cleaning materials $40
(3) 300 watt Eheim jager heaters $96
Inkbird heater thermostat $30
Stand/Canopy paint and primer $88
Painting supplies $22
Mesh bags for filter media $36
(2) Jebao DC pumps $202
200 micron filter socks $77
Bulkheads $25
Suction strainers for drain line $9
Return jets/nozzles $30
Custom 3D background $560
Water leak alarms $40
Emergency drain pan $130
Felt pads which are under my stand $40
Gate valves $20
Braided vinyl tubing $72
Surge protectors $45
Wye fittings $10
Misc. Pipe and fittings $51
Ball valves $44
Matrix media $35
(2) Current LED lights $230
2'' bulkheads and unions $42
Python siphon $40
Temperature alarms $20
Temperature probes $16
API test kit $30
Aging tote $150
Pump for aging tote $61
Air pump and stones for tote $27
Transfer pump tubing $70
Reverse osmosis unit and float valve $185
Power head/circulation pump $43

Total material cost $3,616 ( This excludes the cost of livestock )


Monthly maintenance/running costs

Additional utilities bill $30
Additional electric bill $55
Food, frozen bloodworms, freeze dried black worms, beef heart, discus chow, bio gold.. approximately $ 80-110

I had also set up a breeding rack with four tanks,heaters, and filtration for around $400

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And last but not least....... This view below, Priceless

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Wow very nice setup worth every penny!

Looking really nice.

Thank you both, It's certainly a lot of work and money but I honestly haven't even turned my T.V on in months. I rather watch my fish swim around than watch anything on T.V anymore.

Yes... you have the bug bad! :) lol But the tank looks great. Im looking forward to following along on your journey Kevin.
Also glad the forum was able to help get you started. Keep the great work up!
al

Really awesome detailed and intriguing story ! I love the background.

Really really sweet tank! Can't wait to see them grow and get huge!!

You really did dive headfirst and come out with a killer setup!

Well done man!

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Originally Posted by brewmaster15

Yes... you have the bug bad! :) lol But the tank looks great. Im looking forward to following along on your journey Kevin.
Also glad the forum was able to help get you started. Keep the great work up!
al

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The bug has bit me so bad that I've already bought two potential pairs from Kenny and have some golden checkerboards on hold for next month!

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Originally Posted by Phillydubs

Really awesome detailed and intriguing story ! I love the background.

Really really sweet tank! Can't wait to see them grow and get huge!!

You really did dive headfirst and come out with a killer setup!

Well done man!

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Thank you Phil, I definitely would recommend checking out some of their other backgrounds. They have some really neat stuff.

http://www.aquadecorbackgrounds.com/en/

Really beautiful setup you have there Kevin! Thanks so much for the kind words I greatly appreciate it! Hope you enjoy the new group that's one colorful group you got there my friend!:)

Kenny

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Originally Posted by Kenny's Discus

Really beautiful setup you have there Kevin! Thanks so much for the kind words I greatly appreciate it! Hope you enjoy the new group that's one colorful group you got there my friend!:)

Kenny

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I'm amazed at how quickly they're adjusting. They even beg for food during water changes.

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I’m surprised you chose to go with a sand bed instead of painting the outside bottom of the tank with textured white paint. It must be a ton of work to vacuum such a large tank. You really did a great job ressurecting that tank and got some beautiful fish.

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Originally Posted by ssevasta

I’m surprised you chose to go with a sand bed instead of painting the outside bottom of the tank with textured white paint. It must be a ton of work to vacuum such a large tank. You really did a great job ressurecting that tank and got some beautiful fish.

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I was actually intending on painting the bottom when I first started the project. I had even bought the textured paint and everything but I didn't have an easy way of flipping the tank onto it's top to paint the bottom. The sand is extremely thin and I sometimes have to smooth it out to keep from seeing the glass underneath. I painted all of my breeding tanks and they are definitely much easier to clean than the display tank.

Jumping in with both feet into a massive tank....lol, I thought I was bitten bad by the Discus disease. Love it!

Beautiful

Love all the colors. They stand out so beautiful with the white sand.