Hi everyone I've been building this since August and it is finally ready to share with everyone.
15 years ago I had a 5x2x2 which I converted to a saltwater tank for my parents when I moved out. I took the lessons I learned from reef tanks to try and apply them to a freshwater planted discus tank.
Fast forward to 2016 and the tank is 3x2x2 rimless tank from glasscages.com. The tank is drilled with a corner overflow with a herbie setup so the tank is silent. The sump is a standard 29 gallon tank and has seachem pond matrix and three 3" pieces of poret foam (essentially three hamburg mattenfilters) I also have red cherry shrimp and scuds in the sump that eat any food that goes into the overflow. Substrate is a mixture of fluorite black and super naturals aquarium sand. I don't do any water column dosing, the plants are all fed with osmocote plus buried in the substrate.
Fish stocking is:
20-25 (have to re-count) cardinal tetras
2 German blue rams from yunite rams
5 Bristlenose plecos (3 males, 2 females) I've just been able to sex them (they have their adolescent moustaches growing in) and will be getting rid of two of the males.
10 Discus from DiscusHans
-2 Blue turq's
-2 Flachen
-2 Pidgeon Blood reds
-2 Pidgeon Blood blues
-2 Blue Snakeskins
I feed with frozen brine shrimp, frozen blood worms, Omega one super color flakes. I tried to get them to eat NLS pellets but they are not interested and are still too small to eat omega one super color cichlid pellets but they are definitely interested, (they suck them up and spit them out to break up the pellet then they go crazy over the fragments).
Water parameters:
pH 7.8
Temp 29C
NH3/NO2 0
NO3 5-10
TDS 250
Can't remember KH or GH right now.
Lights: Current USA Satellite Freshwater LED Plus Pro, whites are at 50% as I was getting a lot of algae from not adding CO2.
Now pics:
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This morning's full tank shot!
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The tank and fishes are shaping up very nicely. Just one suggestion/advice, you can move the right hand side front plant to the back of the tank, thus it will give those cuties more space to roam, and the viewing area will also increase. But then, it's totally, personal preference
Your plumbing looks huge for such a small tank, nice and deep and tall though. I like your Herbie System in a box like that, better than a sump IMO, and I prefer the look of it without the cover on.
Plant (and log) placement for me is about water flow and circulation. I have my flow pushing to an empty space so that it makes it easy for the Discus to find the food, and me to clean up the mess.
Love the big Java. I could never keep the water lilies going though, they went gang busters and then seemed to burn themselves out, I think it was too hot.
Thanks jason, where are you in australia? I grew up in redcliffe just north of brisbane. If I had the choice again I'd do 1 inch plumbing all around. They do 1.5 inch as standard. The banana plants ditched their bananas and were looking very sad for a while but seem to be adjusting to the higher temp.
The herbie system works great and I went with the box as I wanted to maximize space for the fishes. The sump is super simple and seems to be working quite well. I've got a pond snail issue in the sump and am thinking of getting a few assassin snails to curb their population. I like the mts in the main tank though they would be sump only.
I live on the NSW Central Coast.
Banana Plants, I never knew what they were called.. mine always seemed to do really well too, but after about a month or so, they just dissolved away, never could understand it so I gave up on them.
I used to like having snails too, the problem is they get so infested that your substrate is constantly moving, in the end this just means higher nitrates in the tank. I'd just get rid of them altogether. A dose of Wormer Plus with Flubendazole will eradicate them without a problem, if you want. I'm very careful what I introduce to the tank now.. getting anything out of an 8 footer is a pain.
Better to have the plumbing overdone than underdone! I'm a little underdone.
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Most recent full tank shot.
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Close ups of the two bosses of the tank, a flachen and blue turq.
Most recent full tank shot. I had a three week vacation and with an auto feeder and auto top-off with R/O the discus were OK but certainly appreciated the return to normal operations! Lost a few cardinals and the shrimp population in the sump took a big hit. I also added a Hydroy Koralia Nano 465 into the bottom left corner of the tank as the detritus tended to collect there. That's why the tank is a little cloudy in the photo. Hopefully it is sweeping it all up into the sump now! Two of the discus have been slow growing but I'm happy with how all the others are looking! Maybe not to the monster size some of you are capable of but I'm satisfied. I'll try and get some close-ups and post them here.
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I've attached some close ups of the discus as they continue to grow. I hope you enjoy them.
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Your tank looks super sophisticated, James! Congratulations. I recently started my tank and I think my fish are about same size as yours ... it will be fun watching them grow, I have found some truly inspiring work on this forum.
One question: I keep wondering about the eye to body ratio? My fish looks similar to yours and I do wonder about that ... just not sure what is the right age to do that analysis ... mine are 2.5 - 3 inch in size and my guess is that they are 3+ months old, so they are juvi's.
I don't know about eye to body ratio except that if they are out of proportion then it means the discus is stunted. Any options on the most recent photos? Eyes too big for their bodies? I know I haven't done what is necessary for massive fish so I'm just looking for honest feedback.