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Thread: Rio Negro Heckel Project

  1. #1
    Registered Member jawfish's Avatar
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    Default Rio Negro Heckel Project

    I decided to start my own tread on this Heckel Project.

    As I had previously mentioned, in the Heckel breeding tread, that I wanted to start with a group of small Heckels to grow-up and try to breed, when I saw that snookn21 had some available last month I jumped on the opportunity and ordered 12. I'm a few years late since I wanted to do this 3 years ago, but better late than never.

    Right now I have them in a 65 gallons quarantine tank. Although I had originally set up the tanks at a low PH 5.0. I raised it to 6.4 when I noticed the water they came in was at 7.1..., raising is a lot easier than lowering. I just added 2 gallons of age untreated water to the aquarium. I should have checked with John, that's my fault. I will be bringing the PH down to 5.0 for the next 2 weeks and then I'll bring it lower to 4.0-4.5 slowly after.

    Right now that tank is filtered by 2 double sponge filter and a small aquaclear. I'm replacing the aquaclear but I'm debating between a wet dry or an eheim 2217. One thing is for sure I'll be hooking up a small UV to the output.

    The discus came in pretty good. I have to admit that John did a very nice job packaging them, one of the best I've seen so far.

    I received them this morning and they are still very skittish, yet the are constantly picking at the sand. They were looking for food so I decided to try some frozen blood worms. They started picking at them and finally eating the whole cube...





    Here's a lousy phone video of them tonight eating.


    Cheers,



    Fred

  2. #2
    Homesteader Altum Nut's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rio Negro Heckel Project

    They look great Fred...lucky you early Christmas package.
    I am very positive that this group will not let you down. Are they eventually going to be housed in your plywood tank.
    Going to be a challenge keeping that low ph stable but know you have this all covered with lots of research under your belt.

    ...Ralph
    "Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming."
    -John Wooden

  3. #3
    Registered Member rickztahone's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rio Negro Heckel Project

    Very cool Fred. I saw John had these on sale and I figured they'd get snatched up quick! Good luck with the project.

    Click here to view my 75g Acrylic Tank w/ Bean Animal Overflow with 40g Sump Thread

    Also, click here for my 25 group of discus grow out thread


    http://i3.cpcache.com/product/162117...ht=75&width=75
    Want to look like Al did at his ACA talk with his white Simply Polo shirt?(You can catch Al's awesome Discus talk HERE)
    You can get this and many more items such as T-shirts/Polos/hoodies/cups from our merchandise shop:
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  4. #4
    Registered Member jawfish's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rio Negro Heckel Project

    Thanks Ralph... yes they will be moving to one of the plywood tanks in a couple of months. Yes the low ph is going to be interesting, I have several options and I'll be sharing them here.

    Indeed Ricardo that group is nice. I was tempted to take the mediums but I've always wanted a group of small Heckel..

    With the import laws here mean I need to wait 90 days before bringing another group from the states... just enough time to finish the plywood tanks and their filters

    Cheers
    Fred

  5. #5
    Registered Member rickztahone's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rio Negro Heckel Project

    Oh right! Your plywood tank! Any progress pics?

    Click here to view my 75g Acrylic Tank w/ Bean Animal Overflow with 40g Sump Thread

    Also, click here for my 25 group of discus grow out thread


    http://i3.cpcache.com/product/162117...ht=75&width=75
    Want to look like Al did at his ACA talk with his white Simply Polo shirt?(You can catch Al's awesome Discus talk HERE)
    You can get this and many more items such as T-shirts/Polos/hoodies/cups from our merchandise shop:
    Cafepress.com

  6. #6
    Administrator and MVP Dec.2015 Second Hand Pat's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rio Negro Heckel Project

    They look great Fred. I would suggest to keeping up with water changes on these guys even if you need to bump the ph up a bit. I am very careful to not cross over 7 with the young altums and their ph ATM is 5.65 and they are doing great.
    Pat
    Your discus are talking to you....are you listening


  7. #7
    Registered Member jawfish's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rio Negro Heckel Project

    Quote Originally Posted by rickztahone View Post
    Very cool Fred. I saw John had these on sale and I figured they'd get snatched up quick! Good luck with the project.
    They took a little break. Building those two was a pain without proper work space... So I built the stand for them now I can continue working on them on their stand. This is my biggest stand to date. its 126 inch long by 32 inches wide and 28 inches high... There's 12 legs, made of two 2X4 supporting this guys. between the tanks I have some space to put two 26 inch by 4 inch diameter Siporax towers. You can also see the 40 gallons sumps underneath each plywood tanks
    don't mind the mess, just part of trying to do a fish room reorg while some fish are still there
    12006612_894934047250357_5571698289032465315_o.jpg

    Because my basement floor is a joke and so uneven I decided to build adjustable bases out of 1/8 steel, 1/2 bolts and nuts... This is overkill when I compare my 130 gallons stand with six 3/8 adjustable feet, but I'd rather be on the safe side. the nut is welded on the plate, and the plate screws in the bottom of the doubled 2X4. But I love just having to take a wrench and making the adjustments to get my stand level.
    11885221_884164164994012_2642059612446904160_n.jpg

    11896112_884164118327350_4616503063886092460_n.jpg

  8. #8
    Registered Member jawfish's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rio Negro Heckel Project

    Quote Originally Posted by Second Hand Pat View Post
    They look great Fred. I would suggest to keeping up with water changes on these guys even if you need to bump the ph up a bit. I am very careful to not cross over 7 with the young altums and their ph ATM is 5.65 and they are doing great.
    Pat
    Thanks Pat, I like them alot.

    I agree, that PH needs to come down. I just didn't want to try to acclimate them in a couple of hours from 7 to 5. The PH is at 6.4 right now, but the conductivity is at 55us, Tonight I'm doing a 30% water change and going to start bringing it down. I really want to keep them below 5, but go just a little higher for the conductivty.

    Cheers,

    Fred

  9. #9
    Registered Member John_Nicholson's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rio Negro Heckel Project

    Nice.

    -john
    Please check out http://forum.discusnada.org/

    SOS Crew Texas

  10. #10
    Registered Member rickztahone's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rio Negro Heckel Project

    Looking really good Fred. Keep the updates coming

    Click here to view my 75g Acrylic Tank w/ Bean Animal Overflow with 40g Sump Thread

    Also, click here for my 25 group of discus grow out thread


    http://i3.cpcache.com/product/162117...ht=75&width=75
    Want to look like Al did at his ACA talk with his white Simply Polo shirt?(You can catch Al's awesome Discus talk HERE)
    You can get this and many more items such as T-shirts/Polos/hoodies/cups from our merchandise shop:
    Cafepress.com

  11. #11
    Registered Member jawfish's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rio Negro Heckel Project

    Thanks John,

    Ricardo just for you buddy

  12. #12
    Registered Member Jack L's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rio Negro Heckel Project

    very cool, jealous, we only have carnival fish.

  13. #13
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    Default Re: Rio Negro Heckel Project

    Nice heckels indeed. That plywood tank will be a real monster, cant wait how it will look fully decorated.

  14. #14
    Registered Member jawfish's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rio Negro Heckel Project

    Thanks JackL,

    Plecochio, thanks I've been wanting to get a batch of small Heckels for 3 years... Just concentrated on domestic discus instead... my mistake, but I'm correcting this now.

    Yhea the plywood tank is going to sweet. it will only be decorated with some nice wood and sand plus a few roots os some pothos at the top. After discussing with NanDiscus, I feel I may need an even bigger tank, but that was the reason to build those two to learn from them. This will only happen when I move wich should be within the next 12 months.

    on another note these guys love FDBW, I just soak them a few minutes and release them on the output of the aquaclear, they need the food at the bottom of the tank, anything on the top 2/3 is simply not considered as food. once they started taking the FDBW they started eating some pellets once they went down with the worms...

    I did do a 30% water change last night, PH is still at 6.4 and the conductivity at 65us, but tonight they will be getting another 40% but with a lower PH to bring it down in the 6.0-6.1 range...

    Cheers,

    Fred

    I was going to putthe eheim, but I'm going with the wet dry instead.

  15. #15
    Administrator and MVP Dec.2015 Second Hand Pat's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rio Negro Heckel Project

    Fred, you can acclimate them to eat in the upper reaches of the tank. Allow the cube to roll in the current where the water returns from the Aquaclear. The water flow will roll the cube and discharge the worms in the water column.
    Pat
    Your discus are talking to you....are you listening


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