240 Planted Discus Community

[Jack L]

Sweet, will stay tuned to see how it comes along. Is it drilled?

Now go back and take pics of the 900 gallon discus tank! : )

[nofearengineer]

Sweet, will stay tuned to see how it comes along. Is it drilled?

Now go back and take pics of the 900 gallon discus tank! : )

The back is drilled for my ghost overflow.

I wanted to take some pics, but I wasn't sure if there was anything hey wouldn't want me showing the world...OSHA and all that jazz.

I picked up the driftwood early this morning. It was a pretty good coincidence that it came in the same day as my tank was ready. I got to use the rented U-haul trailer for both. I got a 6x12 trailer for a day for only 30 bucks. Felt like a great deal.
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This is the first time I've actually had everything in hand. Despite knowing the measurements, I was still sweating the sheer scale of the piece. It looks like it's going to work great. What amazes me is that while this piece is so tall and wide...but for the most part, it is only 12-15 inches front to back...fish will have plenty of room to beg at the front glass.

The silicone was only put in on February 16, so I am not supposed to put water in it for 4 weeks. That should give me enough time to paint the stand, drill, section and boil the driftwood. I'm thinking about getting one of those 4-foot long metal stock tanks for watering livestock. I think once the wood is sectioned it will fit, and I can set the tank up on concrete blocks and make a fire underneath it. I figure when I'm done with it, I could even put a liner in it, and do a mini "pond" on my back patio just for fun.

This project is taking up all of my free time, and that's good.

[Phillydubs]

Loving this read.. Great stuff and nice tank! Care to share about how much that ran ya?

That is one monster bad a$s piece of dw!

[nofearengineer]

Loving this read.. Great stuff and nice tank! Care to share about how much that ran ya?

That is one monster bad a$s piece of dw!

Normally, I would be hesitant to comment on price on a public forum, as my admittedly extravagant spending habits have in the past been taken by some as an elitist thing. But on a discus forum I am probably safe from that!! Lots of big spenders around here HAHA!

The tank, stand, canopy, and 65 gallon acrylic sump (not shown) ran me $2650 (Starphire glass sure is expensive!), and the gas/mileage to go pick it up were probably another $150 The U-Haul trailer rental was $30. The pizza/bribe for the heavy lifting was $20 (I do cost estimates for a living, so I always count ALL expenses haha).

My Ghost overflow ran me $250.

My BML lighting I have coming ran me about $950...controllers, etc...the whole shebang.

My paint (Behr 2050 pure ultra white eggshell) and tools cost me another $75.

The driftwood was $600, and cost another $314 to ship via USF Holland.

So at this point, I'm in for about $4,175.

I'm not sure about pumps and plumbing yet. I'm going to budget say...another $1,000...I hear all the unions and valves I need are pretty pricey (especially the gate valves).

Another $1000 for heating. The reason this number is so high is because I am probably going to have to go Electrician on this project and run another dedicated circuit from my panelboard to the tank location. Good Lord, talk about chasing the rabbit down the hole, Alice... Plus, I plan on using a heater controller with multiple heaters. Not really sure how many 250-watt heaters it will take to keep an 82F tank in a 70 degree room yet. I have a question about heaters I'm going to post after this, so it doesn't get buried in my long-windedness.

I'm going to build another CO2 system especially for this tank. I have run CO2 tubing through my house to remote tanks, but it just doesn't seem right to skimp on this tank. Ball park $1,000 which includes a new dual-stage regulator, Griggs-style reactor, and another 20 lb. cylinder, as well as a pump to create a separate loop in and out of the sump (I don't want the CO2 reactor dependent on main tank loop flow rate. I want to be able to tune it perfectly.) I'm pretty thrilled with how well my other reg has performed...so I'm going to go with another Parker H3L metering valve and SMC VDW21 solenoid valve. Right now, I sure wish I had bought the other new Linde regulator the guy had for sale way back when.12741895_1041747665885726_3013266871848517263_n.jpg

Which brings me to livestock. At this point, I am just guesstimating $500 for plants (I already have some of them to transplant after suitable QT) and $2,000 for fish.

I'm sure I have forgotten something, but it's already reaching stratospheric levels of cost so maybe that's for the best haha.

Thanks for asking. As you can see I love talking about it.

[nofearengineer]

Question about submerged heaters in an acrylic sump...

Um, a dry sump would be extremely bad, right? Like melt the sump, burn the house down bad....

Any suggestions for making it fail-safe?

[Markv]

The first compartment in most sumps stays wet even with evaporation. The return pump is in a final chamber where water level will drop due to evap. Not sure what brand sump you have, but I typically put the heater in the first compartment that will stay wet. And it's good to have a float switch with autotopoff for the final compartment. www.autotopoff.com has good setups for that.

[farebox]

Nice, Nice, Nice....man that will be some tank when you done with it all! Please continue to keep all us posted on your progress. If I were a single man I would go for an set up like your's right in my living room, no other stuff but an couch to sit and stare at the tank. Also recommend autotopoff float switches, I just got one for my tank the other day and they have excellent customer service.

[Jack L]

Question about submerged heaters in an acrylic sump...

Um, a dry sump would be extremely bad, right? Like melt the sump, burn the house down bad....

Any suggestions for making it fail-safe?

don't have it touching the acrylic

[Jack L]

why only 250 watt heater?

[rickztahone]

why only 250 watt heater?

yeah, get larger heaters and keep them on controllers. As far as the touching acrylic part, don't let it touch the acrylic, lol. However, you can put them in horizontally in the first chamber. I have mine in the return section simply because I have about 12g of water in that section and it would take forever for that water to evaporate. I planned that section around the heaters, lol.

[nofearengineer]

Okay, thanks guys. My sump is nothing but a 65 gallon acrylic aquarium right now. It has no baffles or anything put in it yet. Looks like I need to think about the heaters too when designing it. Maybe I could even silicone in a piece of glass for the heaters to sit on. Anyway, boy are my shoulders tired from all that moving yesterday! And let me tell you one thing...that driftwood is a real shin buster haha.

[nofearengineer]

why only 250 watt heater?

I was thinking multiple heaters. I like to do that, because if one of three 250-watt heaters stick, the fish are fine. But if a single 750 watt heater sticks...you get the idea.

[Jack L]

For a non scientific point of reference, a 500 watt heater heater was unable to get my 160 gals of water over 91 and I was trying.

[Jack L]

Oh the room was between 72 and 80

[Jack L]

Okay, thanks guys. My sump is nothing but a 65 gallon acrylic aquarium right now. It has no baffles or anything put in it yet. Looks like I need to think about the heaters too when designing it. Maybe I could even silicone in a piece of glass for the heaters to sit on. Anyway, boy are my shoulders tired from all that moving yesterday! And let me tell you one thing...that driftwood is a real shin buster haha.

How much did driftwood weigh?