Jack's 140

[Jack L]

in tank for a week
look HOW SMALL the one is front left
Ds 1 week in tank.jpg

[Jack L]

thanksgiving eggs....they are more on the backside of wood this time
eggs 20151126.jpg

[Jack L]

male fertilizing them
eggs 2 20151126.jpg

[Filip]

They come a long way in a short time Jack. Congrats.
They gave you nice thanksgiving present.
Is this their first time?

[Jack L]

thanks. and you are right, seeing it gradually I don't notice, but looking back on photos it is a lot of change
eggs...no, they keep eating them. this is probably about the 6th attempt. at first she ate them within hours, last couple times she has let them go 24+ hrs, so i'm just seeing if they will get the hang of it.

[rickztahone]

wow, that is a lot of growth for 5 months! Congrats.

[strawberryblonde]

Hi Jack, the fish are looking great!! If they stay on track they're going to end up being some jumbo discus. =)

About your lighting and the algae issues. I had a problem a few years ago with BBA and went nuts trying to figure out what was causing it. I never did cure it, so at that point I decided to change lighting, pulled out my driftwood and SCRUBBED the crap out of it, let it dry, then soaked it in my jacuzzi for 2 weeks while checking for any signs of the danged algae. When I was sure it was clean, I put it back in the tank.

And in the meantime, I added my new lighting and removed all leaves on my plants that had algae on them. The plants looked pretty sparse for awhile there...lol

So the lighting I chose is the USA Satellite LED strip, but not the pro one. It's the cheap one. It still comes with a nice remote and plenty of lighting options, but it's not as bright and isn't as "good" for plant growth.

Since my plants are all low light plants, that sounded great to me! I also have a 32" tall tank, so even less light actually hits my plants than would happen with a normal sized tank.

And I haven't had any algae in two years! None - zip, zilch, nada. It doesn't even grow on the back wall of my tank.

Organics in the tank like the beefheart you use do create a great growth medium for algae, but with a less powerful light strip and one that isn't specifically designed to grow plants you still should be fine.

The last thing is my little wood pieces attached to the top of my tank. The first set is 2" off the top so it raises the lighting just that little extra bit, but doesn't cause a huge light spread. The other set is uprights so that I can toss my lighting up there (10" above the tank) when I'm doing water changes and also for those times when I want to do a more offset lighting in the tank - especially useful when they are feeling stressed, but I still want to see them, or for when my pairs are laying eggs and would fight like crazy if the lights are out at night. I just raise the lighting and dim it and voila, no more night time stress during egg laying.

[farebox]

Here's what I been using for the last year with negative issues: http://www.americanaquariumproducts....umpTubing.html

[rickztahone]

Here's what I been using for the last year with negative issues: http://www.americanaquariumproducts....umpTubing.html

I will just quote this to clarify the fact that I believe Roland meant that there were NO negative issues. Correct Roland?

[Jack L]

Here's what I been using for the last year with negative issues: http://www.americanaquariumproducts....umpTubing.html

thanks, i'll look into it, the thicker wall might just be what is needed.

[Jack L]

algae, so based on feedback, i did a bunch of reading, some PMs, now i'm doing an experiment. which is going to be a bit hard as i'm used to seeing a glowing bright tank.

the light lets me set every channel, Red, Green, Blue and White. so i have reduced the white output by 50%. i have been using the sunlight mode (uses all red and 1/2 green, no blue, not full spectrum which is 100% of every channel)

the val is covering the top more than before, so with the val, and my setting change, there is significantly reduced lighting.
i will give it a few weeks and see what happens, if it helps, i'll creep it back up to 75% and see what happens and go from there.

thanks all for ideas. now onto messing with the sump, i have a lot of matrix in there, but i don't think its getting much water flow.

[Jack L]

the matrix was in bottom 1st chamber, on down-flow shelves, and in pump chamber. now its all together where i think it will get more water flow, bottom area gets less flow, top gets more flow, so put regular matrix on bottom, and larger pond on top, based on seachems information on. also put it all on block of poret 10ppi to allow upflow and place for mulm to accumulate. will let this run for a while and see if the costly matrix does anything to make nitrates go away as advertised. the way i had it before, i don't think i was giving it enough of a chance. the water was not going through it all as much.
poret and matrix update.jpg

[Jack L]

Dec '15 (ish) update
the BBA is on the decline, i have reduced the light as recommended. i configured it to run at about 50% power on the sunlight spectrum
val still isn't spreading much, have root tabs on way, will see if that helps
sag is still spreading and crypts still doing well, but as this fills in, i like the idea of all "grass" and no crypts, but probably won't toss them

the spawning has stopped, i am not sure if it is due to now using 50/50 water, or the fact that the pair was chased off the piece of wood that they were using by another (now larger) discus. it stands guard on the wood, but doesn't have a mate.

the blue diamonds WERE the biggest, but they have been passed up by the snakeskins and a couple turqs.

more shrimp, ottos and farlowella in q-tank

the particles are from feeding with my last batch of BH. its makes a HUGE mess. the main thing i did different was i had it pre-ground and it lost a LOT of blood. when i ground the chunks w/ flake before it seemed to hold together noticeably better

IMG_20160104_205006.jpgIMG_20160104_205051.jpg

[Jack L]

someone wanted to see how i had the overflows in the back. i had it pulled away from wall and took a pic
when filled with water, the water in the chamber is up to the emergency tube top on the right and completely over the lower tube on the left make a quiet siphon
i have the coupler on the right and another small PVC pipe on top so i can adjust the water height in the chamber w/o messing with the main tubes

overflowsback.jpg

[Fish Tank Travis]

Hello,

I just read through your thread. Very impressive!!!

I am also going to start looking into a planted discus tank, but I plan on growing out the discus in a bare bottom tank and then transferring them into a mature planted tank.

I wanted to mention about the flexible PVC you are using. I know that you, and others have mentioned that it is pretty stiff and doesn't bend too easily. I believe that if you heat it while you bend it you can shape it how you want and then it will harden back up when it cools. You would be best to use a heat gun (basically a hair drier on steroids) and heat up the tube where you are wanting to bend it. You still can't bend it extremely sharp but you should be able to bend it a bit sharper than what is in your pictures.

Thanks for the great write-up and all of the pictures. I will definitely check back to see your progress.