Miracles custom 120 rimless reef to discus

[Hart24601]

Not too much to report, I guess that is a good thing but makes for a boring thread!

Added some ram snails to clean off the plants, netrites are amazing but for some reason are not doing well, I think the pH might be too low. The African butterfly fish love the discus bio gold and I don't have to specifically target them. I found a Two Little Fishies feeding ring I had sitting around so I put that on the tank so the food doesn't go down the overflow as bad.

Instead of remineralizing the RO in the bute cans, I bought some calcium reactor media and put it in the sump. I hope this gradually dissolves and eliminates the need for adding seachem and baking soda. Since calcium reactors target 6.1-6.5 pH to dissolve my thought is when pH drops to that level the aragonite will keep pH at that level. So far so good...

[Musky78]

Hi,

What is the white substrate you have you used on the floor of your tank?

Thanks!

[Debow]

I believe he is using Starboard. It is a High Density plastic used in the marine industry and cutting boards. I use it too in my reef tank. Google "King Starboard"

[Musky78]

I believe he is using Starboard. It is a High Density plastic used in the marine industry and cutting boards. I use it too in my reef tank. Google "King Starboard"

Thanks! I saw sheets of flat white PVC very similar to the Starboard. I assume the PVC board is also safe?

[Hart24601]

Gosh I am sorry I did not see the questions! I must have accidently changed my email filters so I didn't get notifications. My apologies!


Debow is correct it's starboard, I don't really have much experience with PVC sheets, but I have no reason to think they are not safe. Some aquariums come with PVC bottoms, but I can't personally say that I have used it.


Tank wise not too much to update. The calcium reactor media seems to be working alright, but I still add some reminerlizer to the tank every so often as the pH still starts dropping in the low 6's, but I don't have to add as much so that is a mild win. I have not really touched the tank in a couple months besides the daily feedings. (Last I did anything was the calcium reactor media but that was just tossing some in the sump). Tested nitrates and were 5 or less via salifert test so the RO/DI drip seems to be working well even with feeding the tank almost every time I walk by. The corys, butterfly fish and discus all seem to be doing well. Still struggle with snails, the low pH doesn't seem to do them any favors and one of the amazon swords is just doing eh, but the others seems good. I do get a brown film on the plants that the nerite snails are good at removing, but as I said they seem to not like the low pH. I had BN plecos in there, but I noticed one of them, a big (for BN) male enjoyed eating the discus food off the bottom and chased the discus away from it so I took him out a couple months ago. I wonder if female BN would work better?

[Hart24601]

Update time!

When things are going well there isn't too much interesting to post! Growth rate looks good, 5.5" which is slightly ahead of discus hans posted growth rates so that is good. I really havent touched the discus or puffer tank in a very long time, besides feeding. The ro/Di auto change is still working well and the pothos and peace lillys must be doing something as they are growing and looking great. I just tested nitrate using salifert test - 5ppm. Heck that's far less than my tap! The sumps so have some build up and I think will clean them out next weekend as I don't use filter socks anymore.


I took a RRR out for a pic with tape measure but can't upload it for some reason.

[rickztahone]

No news is good news right? Way to go.

[Hart24601]

All continues to progress just fine. Most are 5.5" TL which is on par with discus Hans growth rate. Used Python to clean out sumps this weekend, always accumulate some detritus.

IMG_9573.jpg

[Hart24601]

I put this in a new thread, but I wanted to capture it here too.

https://youtu.be/KbxJITSL4dY

[Hart24601]

Ay least 2 pair now laying eggs and 1 of them have babies.

93738935-8D78-486B-8079-C837859EA427.jpg93FF19EC-57D0-4FE0-9132-6DD135EAE278.jpg

[Hart24601]

The latest picture. Nothing crazy to report, the tank is very little work still. I am dosing metracide 14 daily via a spare doser for the plants and to kill any black beard algae that pops up and I added some root tabs in the plastic pots. I also as an experiment am growing nephenthes pitcher plants in the external overflow. Just for fun as I love them. I have not really heard about anyone trying to grow them hydroponically, so I bought a variety of hybrids to try, and all of them have new growth and pitchers. You can't see them here though. I moved the pothos to the sump to make room.

I am using a kessil h380 for the pitcher plants that I had leftover from my reef and I angle it so it's mostly directed at the nephethes and I run it just a few hours a day while I am at work or the plants get a bit burnt. Been very happy with how the pitchers have done and while they are not mature yet (as they were tiny when I got them) based on the overwhelming positive results so far I am thinking this is a win. Traditionally with all carnivorous plants you must use RO or distilled water, which this is sort of.... and provide amazing drainage to prevent root rot. I took a gamble that the tank was low nutrient enough to not burn the roots while the tank water is oxygenated well enough to prevent root rot and because of the poor soil they are normally in they don't require physical media. Long term results I still don't know, but fun to try this out. I scoured the web didn't see anyone else that has tried this, so it's fun to see it working so well.


Discus2.jpg

[Hart24601]

It is also interesting to see the size between strains. The big male blues are now larger than the ruby reds despite being younger and the RRR's have smaller eyes. The big blues also have quite long streamers off the fins that only appeared in the past month or two.

[Hart24601]

Tested the water yesterday for nitrates as it's been a long time since I cleaned out the sump. With salifert test just a hint of color so nitrates are around 1ppm from what I can tell. For sure not more than 2ppm. Works for me. The aquatic plants have good growth since the addition of glut, but do show some mild nutrient deficiency like striped leaves. But that is ok, they are still pretty and the fish come 1st!

[rickztahone]

Looking very good bud.tfs

[Hart24601]

I wanted to measure one, so I scooped him out at night. He didn't even seem to really notice. The color is terrible because of the poor room lighting and flashlight, amazing what a difference that makes. I wonder if they will grow more.