120 Gallon Tank as Footboard to Cedar Bed

[slicksta]

You got lucky... That's great!
There's a lot of inexpensive water/leak monitors available these days.
It's nice to have a few set up, especially in such a nice setup as yours.

[Nate454]

I will check into a monitor as you suggest. Having a dripping ceiling below the tank is probably not the best way to discover a leak!

[LizStreithorst]

You can get them any Loews or similar place. They make a sound loud enough to wake the dead.

[JamesW]

I've sometimes found that over-tightened bulkheads leak worse. They compress the gasket to an extent that they buckle and no longer form a good seal. Sometimes very slightly loosening can help them seal especially if was tightened by a person that has the hands-on ability to build a custom cedar bed.

[slicksta]

I've sometimes found that over-tightened bulkheads leak worse. They compress the gasket to an extent that they buckle and no longer form a good seal. Sometimes very slightly loosening can help them seal especially if was tightened by a person that has the hands-on ability to build a custom cedar bed.

I concur :-D
Though at this point I'd leave well enough alone.

[Nate454]

Too funny No, despite what you might think, there is no way for me to get enough mechanical advantage to crush the thicm rubber gasket with the tight space I'm forced to work within. Since its been 3 or 4 days without any dripping I'm calling it fixed. Thank you all for your comments and suggestions.

[jeep]

Good deal!!! If it starts again, do you have access from straight down? From your photo's it looks like it's solid under the tank with zero access, or did you drill a hole? If there's any access from underneath, maybe a basin wrench could work???

[Nate454]

Yes jeep, I can access it from underneath. On another thread it was suggested I use a strap wrench. If I have any more issues I will give that a try. In the next few days ill post pictures of the cabinet so you all can see clearly whats going on under there.

[Nate454]

Here is a brief update on the discus:
-18 discus - 1.5 weeks in the tank
-3 pairs formed.
-2 of the three pairs are on their second brood after eating their first batch of eggs/wigglers.
-3rd pair ate their eggs on day 3. About to lay again at any moment.
-2 of my tiger turqs are dark in color, hide, but are eager to eat. Any explanations for this? Are they simply low on the pecking order? I'll be curious to see how they respond when I move them to the 120 gal grow out tank.
-Plan on moving the 12 unpaired discus to the 120 gal grow out tank in a week or so.

[Nate454]

Since I have been using RO water my pH is slowly dropping. Noted it was 5.4 today. My plan is to add some declorinated aged tap water (pH 8.2) in small doses (1 gal) each time I perform a water change. What do you all think? What would you do in my situation?

[LizStreithorst]

What was your pH before you started adding RO? How fast has the pH been dropping. Please tell us the kH in the tank and from your tap.

[Nate454]

Hi Liz - The pH of the RO water is 6.8, the tap water pH is just over 8. Lets see...before adding the discus the pH was 6.5, so over a 2 week period it has fallen to 5.5. I went to test kH and discovered my testing solution tipped over and all spilled out. Bummer. My guess is the kH in the tap is pretty high as it is quite alkaline and the tank kH is next to nothing.

[Nate454]

I've been feeding the discus frozen Hikari blood worms since Kenny was feeding them the same during their quarantine period with him. I decided to switch them over to a more balanced diet, so 5 days ago I researched various recipes and ended up making the following:

1.5 lbs fresh and some frozen salmon
.5 lbs fresh tuna
24 medium raw peeled and cleaned shrimp
2/3 cup Tetra cichlid pellets (crushed)
2/3 cup flake food
2/3 cup freeze dried blood worms
6 Tbs boiled frozen peas (crushed and strained to separate the shells)
6 cloves garlic minced and crushed
3 tsp Agar Agar
1 tsp vitamin powder

I used a meat grinder for the fish and shrimp, then mixed everything else together by hand. After putting the right amount in a 1 gal freezer ziplock bag, I used a rolling pin to flatten it out thin before freezing.

At each feeding I introduced a small amount of the new food with their beloved frozen blood worms. On day one they pecked at it and totally rejected the new recipe. On day 2 one discus ate a tiny amount. On day three, they would eat from the new food, but didn't seem to care for it as long as there were enough blood worms to consume. On day 4 I only fed the new food - at first the just looked at it in bewilderment. Then one discus pecked at it and a full on feeding frenzy ensued.

[Second Hand Pat]

That is great news Nate There is nothing better then healthy hungry discus.
Pat

[Nate454]

My Red Eagle/Tiger&Carnation Turq pair ate all their wigglers by day 2. My Giant Blue pair spawned for the third time today. All eating well, pH is hanging out at 5.3-5.4.