My Minimalist Tank Setup

[ksuyen]

Thank you! I will keep the photos coming, especially after the introduction of my fish. The driftwood position is temporary, I am going to move it to the middle after I buy some rocks and when it's not floating anymore.

BTW if you are from Australia I really recommend to get a tank from this guy. I am in no way affiliate to them, but I think I just want to share that they really make very good tank, with the quality of ADA and the price half of it I'd say. I am using one of the FireAqua series, highly recommended.

[ksuyen]

Did water test again. Basically I made blood worm mix last night, measured it and registered at 2-3PPM Ammonia. Poured the mixed into the tea bag and then to the water this morning, and I measured the water 8 hours later. Results are: Ammo/NO2/NO3: 0/0/10. The lack of NO2 after 9 days are a little bit suspicious, but looks like my cycling is ending soon. I will give it another 2 weeks.

[ksuyen]

Updated:
So I got my first colony yesterday: a school of Rummy-nose. After acclimation, they now swimming happily in the new tank. It looks majestic with a school of them swimming in group fro and back and around the driftwood. I also bought two new Pagoda stones and arranged them around the wood to hold it down I kinda say the driftwood now looks pretty cool.

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[ksuyen]

Did water test again.
PH: 6.7
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: <7
Hardness: 12 dH
CaCO3: 200 mg/L

note: Should I buy peats to keep the PH down and make the water softer? I really hate to play around with PH, and I abandon my initial idea to get buffer. But I read that peats are all natural that gives off valuable tannic, fulvic, and humic acids that reduce pH and acts as a natural ion exchanger and reduces carbonate hardness in the water. Peat will also bind up some of the heavy metals and other toxins that may be present in the water. The active compounds in peat are also present in the natural black waters of the discus. If it is all-natural and does wonders in the discus aquarium, I think I might add some inside the filter. At the moment I already had Purigen.

[ksuyen]

Big spent yesterday! I replaced my old Tuna Blue with a brand new Tuna Sun. I must say I really like this green-yellow colour better, it looks more natural like sunshine shimmering in the river or pond. My next investment is going to be this baby: Eheim ReflexUV, to quickly and efficiently reduces both harmful bacteria and fish parasites in their infectious stages in the water. An extra layer to protect my discus later. The problem is I already have Hydor external heater attached to my outlet. Do you think I can daisy chain the connection from filter to UV to heater then to tank without reducing the filter efficiency?

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bad news: just discovered that one of my rummynose jumped out of the tank at night, as it now lays on the floor lifeless Now I am really thinking about some sort of cover...

[rickztahone]

You can just ditch the UV plan. If you do as many WC's as discus require, you will not have problems that need a UV.

[rickztahone]

You can also buy some rimless cover clips from Amazon or ebay. I got some shipped in and they were like $1 including shipping. Just add a glass top and you are good to go.
http://www.marinedepot.com/Mr._Aqua_...FIAQAA-vi.html

[Kyla]

i love the ripple effect of the light. def want to see a video once its all set up

[chandy168]

Tank is looking very nice! Can't wait to see the discus you put in there!

[ksuyen]

Thank you all, I am still waiting for the discus from local breeder. Hopefully they will come next week! I will take a video later tonight to show the ripple effect. After the jump-out incident, nothing much really happened except that now all the rummy nose tetras has very bright red face and coming / gathering to me whenever I am close to the tank - with or without food. I am being very careful in feeding them at the moment, not trying to overfeed and caused bacteria bloom.

@rick, do you think UV is not worth for keeping discus in addition to regular water changes? I have been doing some researches and I got two strong contradicting opinions regarding the benefit of UV filter. On one side there are people who swear by it and another who think it's a waste of money.

[chandy168]

Thank you all, I am still waiting for the discus from local breeder. Hopefully they will come next week! I will take a video later tonight to show the ripple effect. After the jump-out incident, nothing much really happened except that now all the rummy nose tetras has very bright red face and coming / gathering to me whenever I am close to the tank - with or without food. I am being very careful in feeding them at the moment, not trying to overfeed and caused bacteria bloom.

@rick, do you think UV is not worth for keeping discus in addition to regular water changes? I have been doing some researches and I got two strong contradicting opinions regarding the benefit of UV filter. On one side there are people who swear by it and another who think it's a waste of money.

Just realised you're in Sydney! I'm from there as well with a similar project as you!! So happy to see another Aussie on this forum around the same stage I'm at with my tank!

[ksuyen]

As promised
https://youtu.be/iy4ICg8F_6s

[rickztahone]

Thank you all, I am still waiting for the discus from local breeder. Hopefully they will come next week! I will take a video later tonight to show the ripple effect. After the jump-out incident, nothing much really happened except that now all the rummy nose tetras has very bright red face and coming / gathering to me whenever I am close to the tank - with or without food. I am being very careful in feeding them at the moment, not trying to overfeed and caused bacteria bloom.

@rick, do you think UV is not worth for keeping discus in addition to regular water changes? I have been doing some researches and I got two strong contradicting opinions regarding the benefit of UV filter. On one side there are people who swear by it and another who think it's a waste of money.

I would be in the camp of "waste of money" in my current application. I do daily water changes on my 75g tank. A UV sterilizer would be pointless in my setup due to all the water I change. YMMV

[ksuyen]

I understood. Daily water changes is better than any UV, but any "good" UV filter is better than doing only large weekly water changes (at least that's what I believe). There is also the benefit of Redox. My concern, if price is not the problem, is more superficial. I am interested with the inline UV from Eheim, but since I already have inline Heater attached to the output of filter, the addition of another inline equipment might (or might not) affect the filter effectiveness. I probably will get one anyway in the long run, just so as precaution since Discus is pretty finicky regarding their health. Or maybe I am wrong, that once Discus acclimate to your water they are actually pretty hardy?

[Kyla]

As promised
https://youtu.be/iy4ICg8F_6s

i could watch that for hours. my fav time of day is when the sunlight hits my tanks just right and creates ripples everywhere. it usually happens when im at work so its a nice treat on days off.