150gallon xh tank and 40 breeder sump..and new to discus.

[Bigdave]

New to simply discus and new to discus..this is my 2nd post on here...I turned a 150gallon Xtra high community tank into an only discus tank...I had 3 sun sun 704B canister filters and I finally got rid of those and built me a 40 breeder sump that has about 30 gallons of water in it at all times...I actually had to take the 40 breeder completely apart in order to get it into the cabinet stand..I definitely was not going to drain that 150 and try to lift it with wet sand in it...so I found it easier to take to 40 breeder apart.. I also bought a 20 long and a 29 gallon tank from petsmart and took those apart to cut them up to make my baffles for the 40 breeder sump..it was way cheaper to buy those 2 tanks for 49 bucks then to pay around 150 bucks for cut glass from my local glass shop...now I have plenty of glass to work with...the sump and tank are work perfectly and the bio media is still maturing...I bought a total of 69 pounds of biohome ultimate and ultimate maxi...as soon as I can figure out how to post pictures I will....I am so happy with my discus and will never turn back lol...tank dimensions are 48"x24"x31 LxWxH..looking forward to getting advice from season vets..I been in the fish hobby for 40 yrs and this is my first go at discus and I'm loving it...

[Willie]

Welcome to the obsession. You should know that the amount of water you change can have a significant impact on the quality of your discus. Regardless of the amount of filtration, nitrates can only be removed with water changes.

I have a 110 gallon tank which is the same height as yours, but only 18" deep. Wiping down the tank, particularly the bottom, is a weekly task. But the fish look great in a tall set up.

Good luck, Willie

[Bigdave]

Yes I totally agree, I am so hooked on these discus..I siphon the bottom every day for about 25 gallons and do a 60% water change every Saturday..discus poop so much and so big...lol...

[14Discus]

Welcome to the obsession. You should know that the amount of water you change can have a significant impact on the quality of your discus. Regardless of the amount of filtration, nitrates can only be removed with water changes.

I have a 110 gallon tank which is the same height as yours, but only 18" deep. Wiping down the tank, particularly the bottom, is a weekly task. But the fish look great in a tall set up.

Good luck, Willie

With all due respect to Willie, I might suggest that his statement (imho) regarding WCs being the only way to lower nitrates be rephrased to say ‘nitrates best lowered w WCs’. One can help keep lower nitrates w biohome ultimate for anaerobic bacterial action, algae scrubbers, resin bags, pathos roots in water, and a nitrate reactor. In my multi-chambered sumps for my tanks, I employ the aforementioned strategies to help keep my nitrates between 5-20 between WCs. And yes.....vacuuming the gravel/sand is of paramount importance for nitrate reduction as well. Just sharing my thoughts.

[Moreetta]

With all due respect to Willie, I might suggest that his statement (imho) regarding WCs being the only way to lower nitrates be rephrased to say ‘nitrates best lowered w WCs’. One can help keep lower nitrates w biohome ultimate for anaerobic bacterial action, algae scrubbers, resin bags, pathos roots in water, and a nitrate reactor. In my multi-chambered sumps for my tanks, I employ the aforementioned strategies to help keep my nitrates between 5-20 between WCs. And yes.....vacuuming the gravel/sand is of paramount importance for nitrate reduction as well. Just sharing my thoughts.

I agree with your thoughts there.

[Bigdave]

With all due respect to Willie, I might suggest that his statement (imho) regarding WCs being the only way to lower nitrates be rephrased to say ‘nitrates best lowered w WCs’. One can help keep lower nitrates w biohome ultimate for anaerobic bacterial action, algae scrubbers, resin bags, pathos roots in water, and a nitrate reactor. In my multi-chambered sumps for my tanks, I employ the aforementioned strategies to help keep my nitrates between 5-20 between WCs. And yes.....vacuuming the gravel/sand is of paramount importance for nitrate reduction as well. Just sharing my thoughts.

Yes, I definitely have around 69lbs of biohome ultimate media in one of my sump chambers...its still maturing, I just built the sump..

[Willie]

I certainly agree with your comments regarding pathos roots, resin bags, algae scrubbers and general cleaning approaches. How these work are obvious. As was said, water changes are the most effective approach.

There are also a number of threads here and YouTube videos out there on anaerobic bacterial action and nitrate reactors. I have yet to see any actual measurements of nitrate reduction from these. As a Ph.D. microbial biochemist, I know the conditions described are not anaerobic. I don't intend to get into any arguments on how people have great results. If actual nitrate reduction data are presented, I'll be glad to be shown incorrect.

[Iminit]

With Willie on this. Still no solid proof. Pond guru is just a great salesman! Bio-home is no better and has less surface area than sponge. For anaerobic bacteria to develop it needs to be in an oxygen free and a dark place. Like in a canister filter that never gets cleaned. I change water weekly on my community tanks and every other day on discus. Never check nitrates. Api kit didn’t even have a nitrate test till 2000.

[pablos]

I certainly agree with your comments regarding pathos roots, resin bags, algae scrubbers and general cleaning approaches. How these work are obvious. As was said, water changes are the most effective approach.

There are also a number of threads here and YouTube videos out there on anaerobic bacterial action and nitrate reactors. I have yet to see any actual measurements of nitrate reduction from these. As a Ph.D. microbial biochemist, I know the conditions described are not anaerobic. I don't intend to get into any arguments on how people have great results. If actual nitrate reduction data are presented, I'll be glad to be shown incorrect.

For sure I read a paper about that.

Some papers are about heavy metals some about nitrate.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333843324_Novel_properties_of_Epipremnum_aureum_fo r_treatment_of_fluoride-contaminated_water

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345974914_Hydrophytic_plants_Canna_indica_Epipremn um_aureum_Cyperus_alternifolius_and_Cyperus_rotund us_for_phytoremediation_of_fluoride_from_water

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/350133478_Removal_of_Heavy_Metals_Cu_Pb_and_Cd_in_ Synthetic_Greywater_using_Water_Hyacinth_Erchhorni a_crassipes_Pothos_Plant_Epipremnum_aureum_and_Coc onut_Husk?_sg=KJMFByk3tIK_WeH4bJAsLGvy7vC3K94eWpLN 6avPYbzLauox89I0G6CX3RNpcMUJIR7pfNqWMsO2by8

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348693841_Antagonism_of_chloride_and_nitrate_inhib its_nitrate_reductase_activity_in_chloride-stressed_maize

[Bigdave]

With Willie on this. Still no solid proof. Pond guru is just a great salesman! Bio-home is no better and has less surface area than sponge. For anaerobic bacteria to develop it needs to be in an oxygen free and a dark place. Like in a canister filter that never gets cleaned. I change water weekly on my community tanks and every other day on discus. Never check nitrates. Api kit didn’t even have a nitrate test till 2000.

the key to biohome media for me was having the proper amount of it for the volume of water or tank size and bio load, before i got rid of my 3 sun sun 704B canisters I had 11 pounds of ultimate media in each canister and my numbers were all zero including nitrates and at that time i had a community aquarium for over 2 years with plenty of large angelfish...now i added a sump and got rid of all fish and got discus and I now have 69lbs of biohome media with another 6 pounds of biohome maxi on its way as we speak..the sump os only 2 months old with all the biohome media from my old canisters..i have added over 30 more pounds and more on its way. jpeg2.jpg jpeg.jpg

[Bigdave]

20210215_224842.jpg

[14Discus]

Well Willie......gotta give u credit. I just checked the water coming out of my nitrate reactor and it was the same NO3 as the aquarium. So.....I took the reactor out and added another floating algae scrubber where the reactor was. I will continue to rely on the scrubbers, Pathos roots, resin bags, and the Biohome/Matrix to keep my NO3 levels low. I honestly feel that Pondguru and SeaChem are reliable sources of information overall even though they sell the stuff. Respectfully, all I can say is that it works for me and has for years.

[Bigdave]

Well Willie......gotta give u credit. I just checked the water coming out of my nitrate reactor and it was the same NO3 as the aquarium. So.....I took the reactor out and added another floating algae scrubber where the reactor was. I will continue to rely on the scrubbers, Pathos roots, resin bags, and the Biohome/Matrix to keep my NO3 levels low. I honestly feel that Pondguru and SeaChem are reliable sources of information overall even though they sell the stuff. Respectfully, all I can say is that it works for me and has for years.

I 100% agree with you, if you go to greatwave home page they explain exactly how much biohome media you need to obtain zero nitrates...and I definitely followed their advice after speaking with them..right now my levels are all elevated because of the big change I made. Everything got disturbed with in the media by me removing Everything out of the canister filter and also added over 30 pounds on top of my established media. Unfortunately I bought the new bio media after I made the changes and ended up putting the new media on top of the already established media...the water flow goes downward..