Introduction

[kirkp]

Greetings fellow SD junkies. First off, I want to thank Al and all the members of Simply Discus that have allowed me to participate in the 2nd Challenge contest. I also want to thank Kenny and Forrest for supporting the effort and providing some absolutely fabulous discus. I also want to thank Ryan for taking on the control group and setting the standard that we'll all have to compete against. I feel like I'm truly privileged to be part of the contest.

A little bit about me. My name is Kirk Pfeffer and I live in Council Bluffs, IA with my wife Nancy, daughter Carly, and my lab Sammi. I work for the City of Omaha as a engineering manager. I'm 53 years old and have had aquariums off and on (mostly on) after getting my first tank when I was about 10 years old. I've tried most of the common types of fish but have mostly concentrated on cichlids. I got my first discus, actually they were heckels, about 25 years ago. This was met with limited success most likely due to lack of knowledge. My next attempt at discus was about 15 years ago when I had several tanks set up with heckels, blues and greens. This time I had more literature and exposure to others with discus and my luck was much better. Wish I still had them but for some stupid reason I sold them off.

For the competition, I have a 75 gal tank that's bare bottom with a sponge filter and a power filter. I'll be keeping the temp at 85 deg. My plan is to use aged tap water and a currently semi-auto WC system. My goal is to soon get it to fully auto. I had initially thought to go with 50% WC every other day but after reading all the other contestants intros, I may have to change to every day. Feeding will consist of 4 to 6 times per day with a variety of ON flakes, FBS, FBW, and beefheart. May even have to give Eddies super duper formula at try.

That's about it for now. I hope that I can make Al and all those who will be watching the contest proud and have no regrets about choosing me to participate.

Last but not least, I want to wish all the other contestants the best of luck with their fish. No matter the outcome, it's about doing our best and letting others see that there's a variety of ways to achieve our goals.

Let the games begin.

Kirk

[Eddie]

Thats what I'm talking about Kirk! It should be a great challenge!


Eddie

[Darren's Discus]

Kirk,
Once again i'm looking forward to the challenge this year should be great,I wish you all the best.


cheers

[Diamond Discus]

Knock 'em dead Kirk!!

[MRQuad]

Goodluck Kirk!

[calihawker]

Sounds like a great plan Kirk. Good luck!

[Scribbles]

Good luck Kirk. Looking forward to your posts.

Chris

[wgtaylor]

For the competition, I have a 75 gal tank that's bare bottom with a sponge filter and a power filter. I'll be keeping the temp at 85 deg. My plan is to use aged tap water and a currently semi-auto WC system. My goal is to soon get it to fully auto. I had initially thought to go with 50% WC every other day but after reading all the other contestants intros, I may have to change to every day. Feeding will consist of 4 to 6 times per day with a variety of ON flakes, FBS, FBW, and beefheart. May even have to give Eddies super duper formula at try.
Kirk

Covers all the basics of a well planned and successful year. The auto water changes insures that it gets done. Great plan, wish you the best. Bill

[hedut]

Good luck

[Chad Hughes]

Kirk,

Good luck to you!

best wishes!

[KJoFan]

Good luck to you Kirk. I see you are from my home area, I grew up about 25 miles east of C.B.

[kirkp]

Thanks everyone. Can't wait for the day to arrive when the discus get here. Karen, 25 miles east huh? What town?

Kirk

[KJoFan]

Shelby...little berg next to I-80...

[fishyj]

Good luck Kirk

[2075turner]

Hey Kirk

Just wanted to drop you a line and wish you the best of luck with your fish. Sounds like you have a nice system established.

TC, Evelyn