my 100g sumped discus tank

[cuprajake]

hey guys,

back after a marine adventure that saw me loose alot of fish to whitespot, i decided to come back to tropical, discus in fact

my tank is a 500l tank with a custom 100litre sump,

water is pumped with a eheim 3000compact, heated with a 500w hidom heater and a 300w backup hagen, both run off a stc1000 currently set at 28oC.

filtration takes the form of foam pads gping from corse to fine and finally alphagrog before returning to the tank via a glass lilly pipe.

lighting is provided by an evergrown it2080 led unit, the light has night lights, which gradually raise to a mid day peak and then ramp back down.

substrate is fine pool filter sand, then some bog wood and a few plants, easy low light stuff as this tank wont be co2 injected. i will dose it though.

ive been messing about getting the bulkheads set up amd the tank wet, been wet a week now and started to cycle the tank.

here it is in current form.



i was going for open swimmkng space with the tsll plants eventually hitting the surface for shade and colour.

fish wise im thinking 8 or 9 fish, 3 or 4" in size.

ive seen a few breeders on line, but have been talking to richard hanson and hes been super helpful in setting the tank up for discus.

any tips or comments are highly appreciated.


jake

[scrappinjaime]

Very nice! Keep us updated. Jaime

[Doc Andrew]

Looking really good! It'll be even nicer with fish in it. Eight to nine fish should be no problem. Any idea which strains you're considering?

[cuprajake]

yeah i dont want to overstock as it will be weekly water changes, tbh bit concerned over the water change side of things,

some are going in right from the tap, others a hma filter, then theres those who use ro/tap blend.

im not sure what to do tbh in terms of that

fish wise i prefer ones that do show the stress bars, but it all depends upon the dealer stock. i reallu want a cobalt blue one though.


jake

[cuprajake]

left is my he supply right mybworl supply,

i also have a ro machine at work, for my old marine tank.

[Doc Andrew]

I understand your concern about water changes, but if you are getting juveniles you'll need to change more than once per week. The key is setting yourself up for an easy task. Do you have a sink or tub near the tank? Is there anyway you can put an aging barrel on a dolly or next to the tank? That way you'll just need a hose to syphon the tank to the sink/tub, the same hose to fill the aging barrel and a water pump/safety syphon to refill the tank. No buckets whatsoever. This is how I do my water now and it takes me about 30 minutes to swap out 40-50 gal of water.

Mind you, you'll also need a bubbler and heater for the aging barrel.

[cuprajake]

Yeah i can do, this is why o was thinking bigger fish, at what sort of size do would i be able to do a weekly waterchange?

the other question i have is about introducing the fish to a fairly new system, if i add 6 or more as reccomended thats hell of a bio load for the filter to cope with, i plan to do it with the aid of atm colony or the like, but unsure which is my best option,

one i dont want to harm the fis
two i cant dedicate to daily or bi daily changes, thats when the hobby becomes a chore

jake

[Doc Andrew]

I have some fully grown Stendker discus 5.5-6.5 inches that are around 2 years old that I do an 80% weekly water change on. They seem totally fine with it. All are healthy and eat very well. Mind you - I do not feed them beefheart anymore. If you're feeding BH to grow your juveniles you'll need to change the water much more regularly.

Here's a link to "Discus Paradise" - a Canadian supplier of Stendker discus. Hans is the main American supplier - a sponsor here. In this link you will read " They need a water change only 10-20% per week or 30% every two weeks."
http://www.discusparadise.com/en/acheter/. This may sound appealing to you.

Regarding your beneficial bacteria - you can try a bacteria in a bottle product like Dr. Tim's One and Only (+ ammonia product) to see if you can get the cycle started ahead of time. I did this recently and didn't have a lot of success but others here claim they have done very well with it. Regardless, you'll need to do frequent water changes just at the beginning until the cycle establishes itself.

I hope this info helps.

[cuprajake]

yeah im currently cycling now, ive used live bacteria to do this aswell, thinking add mkre with the fish to give the sump a head start.

my local fish supplier also doesn't recommend beef heart. he has a mussel mix which i will use.

[cuprajake]

heres the new sump


i have two heaters 500w/300w connected to a stc1000, then corse/med/fine foams, topped with alphagrog, seachem matrix, ceramic rings and eheim filter balls, this then gets returned.

added the first fish today, some cardinals along with atm colony.

jake

[cuprajake]

so i decided to go bare bottom,wasn't happy with the sand, or the plants, and i was right

the water/sand mix stunk coming out.

so heres the new scape



theres a tiny bit of sand left which ill get on the next wc

the tanks doing well now bare a bit of a bactraia bloom.

jake