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Thread: Shan's First Discus Journey

  1. #196
    Moderator Team LizStreithorst's Avatar
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    Default Re: Shan's First Discus Journey

    Quote Originally Posted by Shan_Evolved View Post
    I'm blown away at how big the 125 is compared to the 55. It's massive. The discus are gonna love it once I set it up and cycle in a few months
    Shan, I remember when I was in my around 30 years ago, my best employee at the shop bought me a 29 set up for my birthday. As a kid I'd had 10's on and off so when I saw that 29 I thought it was HUGE!!!. Just wait until you get your first 90 gallon. The dimensions of my 2 90's make them my favorite tanks. They make wonderful grow-out tanks.
    Mama Bear

  2. #197
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    Default Re: Shan's First Discus Journey

    Liz, you use 90 gallons as grow out tanks? I tried doing 100% w/c's on them before, and it took forever for the water to drain and refill. But I do agree that the tallness of the 90's make them really nice display tanks. The extra 3 inches in height over the 75 makes all the difference in viewing pleasure.

  3. #198
    Moderator Team LizStreithorst's Avatar
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    Default Re: Shan's First Discus Journey

    My 90's are wide and long not tall. It's the large surface area that makes them good for grow out. I have my fish room hard plumbed from the water storage containers to each tank. I used to use an inline pump for draining but I have a good drainage to out in the woods so these days I siphon by hand.
    Mama Bear

  4. #199
    Registered Member Shan_Evolved's Avatar
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    Default Re: Shan's First Discus Journey

    @Tom

    Yeah I understand that idea - - but my anxiety over loss of cycle makes me feel better if I were to start a brand new cycle with fishless cycling method. It shouldn't take too long since I've done it enough times to get it down to a cycle. That and I also want to use ceramic rings as biomedia in my sump rather than rely on the sponges. From talking my understanding of sponges, unless you have the proper water and air flow pulling water through the actual sponges themselves, you are limiting your surface area for BB to grow. And with my shitty water and cleaning habits - I want to make sure that I have enough BB to keep everything in check. As well as drilling the tank to lower its value - I'm doing it because I have never dabbled in a sump before and I'm excited to do so, as well as increase the overall volume of water I have to 150 ish for my 14 discus + other smaller fish I plan on putting in it.


    @Brian

    I've reduced the water changes to every 2 days and my nitrites have fallen from rising up to 2ppm+ every 24hr to less than 1ppm every 48hr. So I know it's on it's way there. My fish are all still active and eating eagerly. I actually made my own batch of BH using BH, salmon, red spinach, vitamins, garlic, and banana. I accidently used way too much red lettuce and it turned out real green...The fish still gobble it up though so that's good. Just have random pieces of lettuce floating occasionally.


    @Liz

    That's awesome. Though I have seen 90's at my LFS but curious as to how wide your 90 is. My 125 is 6' long version
    Amateur discuskeeper, Professional doofus

  5. #200
    Silver Member Iminit's Avatar
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    Default Re: Shan's First Discus Journey

    I hear ya. I’m just not a fan of fishless cycling . For me with tank running it’s way to easy to take media to start new tanks. As to sponges and other types of media. Sponges have much more surface area. What other type of media are you considering? Sumps: for me I just don’t understand them. When the water moves from chamber to chamber how does it get to the bottom of each chamber? Me I use an old fashioned wet/dry system. Easy to understand. Water first flows through a sponge in an overflow than down into a huge media chamber. Water flows through this chamber goes through another sponge and into its sump through a hole in the bottom. Forcing the water through some stacked media I placed there than pump puts it back int the tank. DE823409-278E-4F96-95F3-C51C7ACCE06C.jpg87800A3F-23B2-454E-930C-2EEBF3AA1A70.jpg9CF3A0A5-6526-422E-AD30-CD9C5372C34F.jpg

  6. #201
    Registered Member Shan_Evolved's Avatar
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    Default Re: Shan's First Discus Journey

    Oh that's awesome. I also don't wanna move the media and discus at the same time because I only have 2 tanks to work with. I've always used ceramic rings as media and honestly never been steered wrong.
    Amateur discuskeeper, Professional doofus

  7. #202
    Silver Member Iminit's Avatar
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    Default Re: Shan's First Discus Journey

    Ceramic rings are fine. No better or worse than matrix or bio-home. Sponge does have the most surface area.

    For me drilling glass is not going to happen. I’ve drilled ceramic tiles with tile bits and still got a rough finish. That needs to be done by a professional. They have the right tools.

    Good luck with your new tank and looking forward to the build out. Did it come with a stand and cover/lights?

    Another filtering option is the fluval fx6 canister. I use this on my other 125. Works great and pretty quite.

  8. #203
    Registered Member Shan_Evolved's Avatar
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    Default Re: Shan's First Discus Journey

    Thanks Tom bro. I do plan on taking my tank to get it professional drilled by a LFS expert there. It did come with the aqueon stand but it only sits at around 30" and I wanted the tank to be higher around 36" so I'll be custom building this stand too
    Amateur discuskeeper, Professional doofus

  9. #204
    Platinum Member fljones3's Avatar
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    Default Re: Shan's First Discus Journey

    Shan,

    Have you given details on how you are setting up your sump? Size?
    I am looking at the 120-150g range myself.

    Frank

  10. #205
    Registered Member Shan_Evolved's Avatar
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    Default Re: Shan's First Discus Journey

    I saw a post here by @coralbandit about a freshwater style sump. Gonna probably keep it simple with 3 sections. Haven't looked to much into it yet but definitely researching and learning. I have some polarized filter paper coming in tomorrow to LCD test my 125 to make sure the glass isnt tempered before I have it drilled.

    Also big news!

    My nitrites finally read 0 after 48 hrs.

    First time in god knows how long that they've reached 0. Looks like the added biomedia and HOB filter helped! It's been weeks to recover my cycle but its finally practically there!
    Amateur discuskeeper, Professional doofus

  11. #206
    Registered Member seanyuki's Avatar
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    Default Re: Shan's First Discus Journey

    Just sharing plumbing parts for aquarium sump.

    https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/pumps.../plumbing.html
    Grasshopper
    Francis

  12. #207
    Registered Member Shan_Evolved's Avatar
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    Default Re: Shan's First Discus Journey

    Appreciate it. I'll be ordering everything after a few more weeks of research and drilling.

    I'm looking towards drilling 1.75" holes for a 1" bulkhead for a low turnover of less than 600gph.

    I will be using 2 inlets and 1 return. Should be able to test if the glass is tempered today
    Amateur discuskeeper, Professional doofus

  13. #208
    Moderator Team AquaticNerd's Avatar
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    Default Re: Shan's First Discus Journey

    Awesome news that your water quality seems to be getting back under control! I know it can be quite stressful when you've invested in some pricey fish and then all of a sudden you're panicking because of a spike in one of the two parameters.

    If I could provide a little bit of advice - I would consider adding two returns. Since the tank is 6' long, that would be a lot of distance to cover to make sure you have some level of flow in the entire volume of water. Just thinking about preventing dead spots where there isn't much flow that could collect detritus as well as keeping a consistent water temperature and keeping things moving. Just my two cents. I love my sump because I'm able to hide all the media and hardware away from the main tank and keep the display nice and clean apart from the overflow and two return nozzles. I'm not sure what you're planning on as far as a sump - whether DIY or pre-built, but I really appreciate having a place for a filter sock where I can put in some good mechanical means of removing debris before it reaches anything else in my sump. This significantly slows down the amount of "gunk" that can build up in a sump and keeps media, hardware, and sponges lasting longer without maintenance. My sump has a built-in compartment, but you can get something like this filter sock holder if going to the DIY route.

    Tom's Wet/Dry does something similar with that large roll of prefilter.

  14. #209
    Gold Member FischAutoTechGarten's Avatar
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    Default Re: Shan's First Discus Journey

    I would recommend 2 returns as well. In the smallish (by comparison) display tanks in my FishNook.. I have a single inlet of 1/2" (fed by a 3/4" line), and dual returns of 3/4". It is so easy to overwhelm the returns that I've had to turn down my sump pump a little. I'm also in the process of adding 1 wave pump to each of the display tanks (they are 30" wide) to make sure I have some movement at the lower depths. I have one model arriving this week and I will perform a trial on one tank with that model (a 240gph mini, which I hope isn't too powerful).. if I like it I will order 5 more. I fear deadspots with the way that I have my tanks drilled on the ends (rather than the back). 6' widths hold potential for some dead spots, so that's another good reason to consider a 2nd return.
    Peter
    Cuerpo en Green Valley, Arizona, USA y Corazón en Alamos, Sonora, Mexico

    learning never stops

  15. #210
    Registered Member Shan_Evolved's Avatar
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    Default Re: Shan's First Discus Journey

    Thanks for the input. I'm a little confused.

    1) How do you do 2 returns with 1 return pump?

    2) How are you having dead spots if the inlet and return are opposite sides of the tank? Is the dead spots vertically dead? Like the bottom of the tank gets no flow?
    Amateur discuskeeper, Professional doofus

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