125 Gallon Discus Community Tank Begins

[nvladik]

THE STORY:
I got into the "serious" aquarium hobby 1.5 years ago. Let me define "serious", I always had tanks, first with my dad a 55G when I was a kid, then my personal 10g in the teenage years. Always budget constraints, never enough money for the equipment and fish I want. Fast forward to fall of 2011, took my 1 year old son to our friends and his eyes lit up when he saw the fish tank. Right away I knew I was getting back into the hobby. I knew I wanted a discus tank, but I didn't think I was ready, so I decided on a planted tank to start with. I ordered a custom built 125G tank with center overflow, a 24G sump, custom cherry stand and got the tank up and running in late January 2012. Here are some pics of the setup from 2 years ago:

https://plus.google.com/photos/10174...COGr94DDl97xIA

THE PROBLEM
Stand wasn't build as nicely as I expected. Also once we have the setup was in place, we realized it's a bit low for our height. So, I rebuild the stand out of solid oak, and raised it by 6 inches.

The look of the black background and center overflow just doesn't do it for us. I would like to build a foam rock wall through the entire background with brown - light brown - sand color scheme.

PROGRESS AS OF 11/13/13
The Stand is mostly done, I send it off to get finished and it got delivered back last weekend. Should be moving it into the house this weekend and swapping out the tank. Here are some picture of the progress:

[nvladik]

I also started working on the foam wall a few weeks ago. I used egg crate and spray foam to build a structure that would go around the overflow, and then carved what I thought are mountains with steak knife. The plan for the wall is to use 6 layers of tinted drylock - 4 dark brown base coats and two lighter layers on top to highlight the texture. Here's some pictures of the progress over the last few weeks.

[nvladik]

I am not too happy with how real the wall looks, so I am planning to give it another shot. I found this video and this is the exact result I would like to learn how to get to:

[nvladik]

OVERALL PLAN, GOALS and ADVICE IF ANYTHING IS WRONG
Tank Volume: 125 Gallons minus rock wall and overflow - I estimate 100 gallons in tank
Filtration: 24G Sump with Bioballs and MAG 12 for water circulation. Filterfloss used for heavy particle separation.
UV: Aqua Ultraviolet 15 Watt UV 3/4" barbs
Total Water Volume: 125 Gallons
Heater: 2x Finnex Titanium 300 W with digital controller
Temperature: 82F
Lights: 2x Finnex Ray 2 raised 1 - 1.5 ft above the tank with a conduit mount (to be built)
Power: American Dj Pc-100A Rack Mount Power Switcher
Decoration: Foam Rock Wall and Manzanita Driftwood
Substrate: Mystic White Pool Filter Sand
Purigen Reactor: Innovative Marine MidSize MINIMAX Media Reactor - 250ml of purigen

Fish: 10 4"+ Discus
Feeding: 4+ feedings through the day, 1 before work, 2 automated flake feedings through the day (filtration will be on a timer and will turn off for 15 minutes during feeding), and 1 to 2 additional feedings at night.
WC: This is the trouble area for me. It's a large tank, and unfortunately plumbing on the second floor where the tank is sucks. 50% WC takes more then an hour. I am planning to do a weekly WC of 50% in addition to the Purigen Reactor mentioned above.

Plants - Don't have a final plant list yet, but I would like to add plenty of plants to assist with filtration, low light, undemanding plants that will not easily melt and create more mess then benefit. So far I am thinking plenty of anubias nana.

Really appreciate some advice and feedback here.

[Rudustin]

You are amazing!!! I could never do what you're doing but wow I really admire your artistry and your diligence in what will be a beautiful tank.

[Nick Klimkowski]

You are amazing!!! I could never do what you're doing but wow I really admire your artistry and your diligence in what will be a beautiful tank.

+1

[nvladik]

Thanks for the kind words Rudustin and Nick. Progress is very slow as a lot of it is trial and error, trying something, fixing it afterwards. The stand is going into the house this weekend hopefully, I will post a picture of it with the doors, should look nice. Will still have outside trim to finish, but that's not a show stopper - will be done when it gets done.

[BODYDUB]

I am not too happy with how real the wall looks, so I am planning to give it another shot.

Anything unfinished always looks like crap. Just picture it with paint when your done sculpting.............

[nvladik]

Anything unfinished always looks like crap. Just picture it with paint when your done sculpting.............

Thanks... thats exactly what I tried. After the first layer - not happy with the results.

[nvladik]

The tank is finally on the stand. Ohh boy how much fun we had lifting it to 44" height. It sure does look tiny on that stand, but it's perfect height at this point and plenty of room below the stand to work.

[Rudustin]

Great job. Congrats!!!

[nvladik]

Not too many updates due to the holidays. But foam is cut and carving has started.

[nvladik]

I also need a bit of advice from the exerts. I will have 1.5" of sand as substrate. Egg crate - stays or goes?

[Second Hand Pat]

If you mean egg crate on the bottom. It goes. You will not want to try and vac through that. Awesome built BTW and love the fact you are doing your own background. You have me thinking about trying that on my 230.

[nvladik]

If you mean egg crate on the bottom. It goes. You will not want to try and vac through that. Awesome built BTW and love the fact you are doing your own background. You have me thinking about trying that on my 230.

Thanks, it's deff a fun project, but a huge pain in the butt, especially if you don't have enough time. If you decide to make one, ping me and I will share some of my experiences, as I am on to my third prototype.