Son of Kahuna (56K warining!!!)

[scolley]

So......When we gonna get together again an have a few beers?

Any time pal. Just lemme know and come on by. In fact, I'm having a beer now as I grill steak, burgers and chicken. Not as good as you and Al do it, to be sure!

And as I walk between the deck and the kitchen getting stuff (clean plates, more food do grill, etc.) I keep going by the Son of Kahuna and also my quarantine with my new 3R2's from Al, and I'm tickled pink each time I look at both of them. Sorry you're not here too. Gimme a yell and we'll do it.

[subcooler]

Steve,
It was really a pleasure meeting you/wife/son @ NE Discus Mtg. a few weeks ago.
I also got a basic lesson in planted tanks from our discussion & Al's beautiful upstairs tanks!
Your tank looks beautiful & definately shows all the work pays off!
I'm really interested in starting a low tech planted tank(with Tetras @ first) not trying to learn as I go with Discus in there!
I've got loads of questions about inexpensive(but satisfactiory lighting,best substrate without CO2,plant selection, etc...)
I was greeting with a wakeup call -in the form of an outrageous summer electric bill already(minimal AIR COND. usage).Which is got me rethinking idea of setting up any new tanks!
Know anyone who wants a nice lizard(I'm sure it's his heat light running up my electric bill!)
Just kidding he stays along with the many fish tanks!
Rob

[scolley]

Hey Rob! It was good to meet you too! We didn't talk much though... but next time we can do more.

And yes, looking at Al's tank upstairs was an education for me too! Al's a pretty modest guy, and IMO he knows more about plants than he lets on.

But his low tech formula was simple... Soilmaster Select substrate, warm water tolerant plants, slow growers (no stem plants), shrimp for algae maintenance, and not too many discus. You could do it pretty easily IMO. But there are some missing pieces to Al's magic formula that we don't have, and you should go get...

1) The light. Mark (Bastalker) said he was running an AH Supply kit. That makes a BIG difference. He's no doubt got a retro-fit kit for his hood, with one of their HO fluorescents outfits with a VERY, well effecient AH Supply reflectors. If I were you I'd get the same thing, only adjusting wattage so that your tank has the same WPG as Al's.

2) Fertilization schedule. I thought he said something about micros. Possible something else like Seachem Excel (liguid CO2) peridically. I'd query Al.

Send Al an note and find out. Or maybe it's in his thread.

Give it a go! I don't know much about low tech, but shoot me a PM if you get in trouble!

[IAMTHOMAS]

how's the tank been so far? Post some more pictures soon thanks

Thomas

[scolley]

The tank's good Thomas. I've been remis in not publishing more pics. But now that you ask, I can't very easily. My main PC died this week. It's got all my photo and FTP tools on it. But I should have a new PC up in a week or two, and will post then.

Here's a few pics in the interim.





You can see that the tank doesn't have much that you would call an aquascape anymore. It's barely more than a what I call JABOP - Just a Bunch of Plants. But right now my focus is on algae and finding the right plants for the conditions. Once I get the tank's balance dialed in with the right set of plants, then I'll scape it. But this year is definately going to be my first - ever - to not enter in the AGA Aquascaping Contest. I just will not be ready.

But I can give news in text form. Here's a nutshell...

1) I got 5 Wayne Ng 3R2's from Al while at the discus meeting at his house in June.
2) At the same time I cut my photoperiod back to 7 hours, with siesta, and also cut back macros and micros. Only small amounts of K and tiny doses of Tropica Master Grow.
3) So now my algae problem is almost gone. I've to do a small wall cleaning every week, and trim old leaves. That's not so bad.
4) The 3R2 went through 6-7 weeks quarentine and then went in the tank.
5) With the exception of one or two of the 3R2, in the month that they've been in the tank I've never seen them eat. The constantly hide in the weeds.
6) I was contacted by someone the works for Tropica, and he sent me some really cool plants. I've posted more about that over at my Son of Kahuna thread at plantedtank.net and at my blog.

So, the tank's good. But I've got a real problem with these new fish. Not sure what to do. I'd take them out and put them back in my 29g, but that's not a good solution. That's a temporary tank. I can't put them in there for 5-6 months to grow them out and fatten them up. A few weeks sure. But they were already in there for a good while and were eventually eating well. And I can't leave them there for months on end - again, it's a temporary tank in a temporary tank, as per the boss (my wife).

So natures gonna have to take it's course. If they are hungry, they'll have to come out to eat.

That's all the news at Son of Kahuna.

[*Polka dots roc*]

Looking really good hopefully they come out and eat for ya...

[GrillMaster]

I didn't know you got fish from Al! They look great in your tank bud!!

Your tank looks great as well!

[IAMTHOMAS]

Hey nice tank!

What small fish is that on the bottom left corner? The last pic

[scolley]

That's a male orange Apistogramma cacatuoides, or Cockatoo Dwarf Cichlid. That's actually a pretty nice specimen too, acquired from a hobbyist in the area that raises them. There are two males and a smaller female. No breeding though. I don't think.

They get along with the discus well. Though having them means not being able to have smaller shrimp, as they will definitely eat them.

[scolley]

I haven't posted pics in forever it seems. So here's a few from the tank yesterday. It has looked worse lately, through a number of mishaps. First I changed my two filters at the same time. Wow! How stupid. That massively reduced my biofilter, and algae was the result. Still getting over that little bit of stupidity. And then I put in some new 3R2's. But I didn't medicate them while they were in quarantine, and they got sick in the big tank. So I had to medicate the big tank and THAT hurt my biofilter too, with another minor algae outbreak.

But all that was two or three weeks ago, and this is the tank today.
















In the low pots above you can see two of some Tropica plants I received a little while ago. They are both supposed to work in discus temps, and I've never seen them anywhere in the sates, so I'm anxious to see how they work out. They both came in their terrestrial form and it has taken a while for them to change over. The one in the middle still shows dark green through the green leaves on top. That's the aglae that took hold on it's leaves before it started putting out it's aquatic leaf forms. And I got a third - HC like - plant, but it did not root well, and kept getting pulled up by my corys and loaches. Fortunately I have all three growing out in a terrarium for extra stock. once I figure out what kind of light they prefer, I'll bury the pots to you won't see them.


And these little guys are some 3R's I got from Kenny a couple of weeks ago. They are in my quarantine now, waiting to go into the tank in a month or so. And BTW - they are pretty red. But my Adobe software (or my camera's white balance) has made them look a bit more red in these pics than they do to the naked eye.

[ashaysathe]

Very very excellent Steve. The best is the small grass like plant in the right front corner.

I have a question/ observation - your main tank is heavily planted. Your QT is BB with sponge filters. Plus all these new fish in QT have seen nothing but BB tanks and sponge filters in their life till now. What I am getting at is - when they make the transition from this BB world into plant world - can they handle it? Remember your 3R2's were in hiding and not eating when they moved to the big tank. It may be that they are intimidated not by fish or anything just the environment. To my observation, small discus when given a chance to hide will and for sure hide than not.. its the nature of the fish. These guys may or may not do that but look similar sizewise to 3R2.

Just as a test, when you finish QT and ensure sanity with a test fish, after that instead of adding the full set can there be a trial by adding one of this QT'ed fish and see how he behaves something like QT for "environmental sync".

By no means I am challenging your judgement. A thought that came to mind...

[digthemlows]

Beautiful as always! Man, I wish I had a house that could take a tank this size! You are keeping that bar high!

[tacks]

Hi Steve as always the tank looks great. You also have some great looking fish in there. take care Ed

[scolley]

Thanks digthemlows! I get discouraged sometimes, thinking about how much better it should look. So thanks pal!

Ashay - That kind of test is unnecessary. I've put four separate multi-fish (3-5) sets of fish in my planted tanks now, and they always react the same. They hide. And then they hide a little longer. And then they come out. After a while they stay out - except when something scary happens.

The 3Rs will do the same. The only question at all is "How long will they hide?"

The 3R2's - on the other hand were different. I had four (out of five) that came out of hiding pretty soon, but then did what no other batch has ever done - after being out for a week or two, they starting hiding again. That's not plants. That's sick fish. And the fact that it changed immediately and dramatically after the week of medication (actually before it was over) is proof.

So, assuming the 3Rs aren't sick - I will prophetically medicate these in quarantine (I didn't for the 3R2's) - when I put them in with the plants, they will hide. But I'll wager now that within 2 days 3 out of 4 of them will be out all the time. The 4th is a wimp, and skittish. He may spend his days hiding with the 3R2 that's still hiding - but that was easy to predict too, just from its behavior before I too it out of quarantine. It's behavior in quarantine was so bad I almost culled it instead of putting it in my main tank. Al talked me out of it.

Also, there is EVERY possibility that my 3R2's picked up hex (or whatever it was) and worms in my tank, and succumbed (unlike my other fish) because they were stressed. I do not think this will happen to the 3Rs as they are much more vigorous than they 3R2s ever were. Just different genetics I'm sure.

Thanks for the suggestion though. But it will be fine. I'm pretty sure.

[pcsb23]

Looks very nice my friend. Looks as though have have made it slightly more formal in style, maybe that's just me though . Either way it is a stunning tank.