If you build it, they will come - Jims Discus Journal

[fishy_jim]

Well, I have some developments on the new setup. My plants arrived today (from Marcus Fish Tanks) thanks to a post I read on the forum. They all look to be in great condition. I however am not in great condition, as I tested positive for COVID today. Needless to say, I'm not feeling doing any aqua scaping tonight, so I just literally threw them all in the tank to get them in water. I cut holes in the bags of the moss so water can get in them. I am also seeing some movement with the water parameters where I am now detecting nitrite and ammonia is going down. Water clouded up some also. Plan to dose more ammonia tomorrow probably.

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[fishy_jim]

Here is a quick update on my cycle progress. Tank is 90% there and ammonia drops to 0 in 24 hours after a 2 ppm dose. Nitrite is still sitting a 2ppm (could be a little higher as the API kits are hard to see a color difference between 2 and 5ppm), Nitrate went up significantly and is sitting at 20 ppm so I would imagine I should start to see the nitrites go down and eventually zero out in a few days to the next week. Im just going to ride it out and let things happen without a water change till nitrites hit 0 and give "snack ammonia dosages every few days to keep the cycle alive until I get my fish after New Years. Another thing is, I went through about 7 days of cloudy water, but now it's pretty much totally clear again. My covid is also under control and riding that out as well. Here is some data on how things have been progressing and also a shot of my plants attached to the drift wood. Plants are doing great so far and have not added any ferts yet.

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[fishy_jim]

So my tank gave me a Christmas gift. After just a little over 3 weeks, my tank is cycled !! During the cycle my nitrites went up to 2 - 5 ppm (hard to tell) and stayed there with no movement for about 1 week. I noticed them starting to go down a tad a few days ago and when I tested yesterday they were 0 !! I am able to process 2ppm within 24 hours back to 0, I have 0 nitrite, and I ended up with approx. 20ppm nitrate. I'm calling it a done deal and will do small ammonia doses every few days until I am able to get my fish. I have my water aging setup ready, my water change process set, tank is cycled so I guess my fish are next. Trying to decide on foods at the moment and I posted a separate thread on that so hopefully that will give me some direction on that.

[Adamski77]

So my question is… can tank fully cycle in 3 weeks? My tank took around 5 months to cycle… so just wondering if this is real?

[Charlyc11]

My 90 gallon took 9 days with a little media from another tank.

[fishy_jim]

Its been a bit since updating my journal and I'm just about ready to make my discus purchase. I'm still debating on 8 - 3.5" - 4" discus or go with 6 - 5". This is not my first tank but is my first discus adventure. I plan to purchase next week, and I can't wait. My tank is fully cycled, and everything is staying stable, so I think I'm ready. It's taken a lot longer to get to this point than I expected. From the time I put water in my tank to now has taken almost 2 months, but I didn't want to rush it anyways. I also wanted to share my water change process for those interested or looking for ideas. I can do a 50% change in approx. 35 - 40 minutes and not lift one bucket. Here is what I'm doing:

I have a Sicce Ultra Zero 793 GPH pump. This thing will suck the water all the way down to a depth of 2mm!! It's awesome. When I'm doing a vacuum of the super thing dusting of sand and the bottom, I use a gravel cleaner and siphon it into a 5-gallon bucket. Because the bucket is within feet of the tank, the siphon is strong and picks up junk very easily. I then put the Sicce pump in the bucket and run a hose from it to the nearby drain. This way I can vacuum all I want without stopping to empty the bucket. When the vacuuming is done, I then put the pump with the hose still attached in the tank to drain the rest of the water quickly. This part all takes 15 minutes give or take. Once drained to the desired amount (in my case 44 gallons), I then put the pump in the aging container (44-gallon brute) in the garage and pump the clean water into the tank. I add my prime to the aged water at the time I am ready to do this, the water does not age with the Prime in it. The refill takes 15 minutes using the pump and all said and done a 50% water change including a through vacuuming can be done in under 1 hour. That is something I can deal with and maintain no problem. To refill my aging brute can, I put a 5 gallon bucket in a nearby bathtub and get the water close to desired temperature, letting it run into the bucket. I then take the same pump and refill my aging barrel in the garage. This all may sound like a lot, but it really is easy and pretty much effortless. My tap water is close enough to what my water ages out to so should I need to do larger water changes I can. My parameters after the water change were 5ppm nitrate, 0 nitrite, 0 ammonia. That probably will change a bit I'm sure once I actually have fish in there so I may have to up the water change volume till things settle in. I'm dosing ammonium chloride periodically to maintain my bio filter till the fish arrive. Here is a pick after the water change I did today.
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[danotaylor]

Looks great mate. Gonna be even better with a school of discus circling the center scape! What strain/s of discus are you planning on adding? Gonna add any dither fish? Nice journal

[fishy_jim]

Thanks Daniel !! I'm going with a mix of strains. I probably will do some dither fish later on. Just going to concentrate on getting the discus settled at first.

[danotaylor]

Thanks Daniel !! I'm going with a mix of strains. I probably will do some dither fish later on. Just going to concentrate on getting the discus settled at first.

Cool beans mate, looking forward to seeing how things develop!

[fishy_jim]

Tonight I did a complete drain and refill on my tank. Per Al's suggestion, by doing this I am testing the effectiveness of the biofilter and tests to ensure my filters are up to par to handle a fish load. Depending on those results, I will then make my decision whether or not to order my fish on Wednesday. If the test shows it's not quite ready, then we wait till it is.

[mleibowi]

I’m a fan of the wood! How many discus are you planning to keep? I really like cardinals and rummy nose tetras with my discus. I’d recommend starting with larger discus! Look forward to your progress!

[mleibowi]

Oops only saw page 1. How come you are going with canisters instead of a sump? You get great filtration with a sump and can hide your heaters in it! Plumbing can be intimidating, but you can soft plumb instead of hard plumb. I hard plumbed my second tank after I was more familiar with plumbing. Anyhow it looks great!

[fishy_jim]

Oops only saw page 1. How come you are going with canisters instead of a sump? You get great filtration with a sump and can hide your heaters in it! Plumbing can be intimidating, but you can soft plumb instead of hard plumb. I hard plumbed my second tank after I was more familiar with plumbing. Anyhow it looks great!

Hey Mike - yeah, I've always ran canisters and have had good success with them so I went the familiar route. I can always still set one up later.

[fishy_jim]

I’m a fan of the wood! How many discus are you planning to keep? I really like cardinals and rummy nose tetras with my discus. I’d recommend starting with larger discus! Look forward to your progress!

The wood I thought was perfect. It only sits on the bottom touching in 3 small points so no gunk can build up under it. As for the fish I went with 7, 4" mixed strains. I ordered the following:
1 Blue Diamond
1 Tiger Blue Panda
1 Red Melons
1 Solid Red Rafflesia
1 Leopard Snakeskin
1 Yellow Checkboard Panda
1 Striated Turquoise

Scheduled to pick them up at the airport Saturday morning at 8am. I hope all goes well and I dont screw this up, most expensive fish I have ever bought. LOL

[danotaylor]

I agree re the wood, such a great center piece and makes for easy maintenance as well. Nice list of discus strains. Whereabouts did you make your purchase?