A monster journal...My 190g wild discus biotope!

[dpete9]

Amazing!

[Discus-n00b]

I was just thinking about this tank the other day Jose, how is it coming along?

[Rummy]

I was just thinking about this tank the other day Jose, how is it coming along?

Ditto

[jcardona1]

Hey guys! Been a long time since I've logged on!!

Long overdue mini update! Several months ago Aaron ('o2surplus') made me a new microcontroller for my LED fixture that includes a very cool LCD display. This is known as the "Typhoon" controller that is becoming more and more popular with the reefers, as it's much simpler to use than the Arduino boards. The controller has 4 built-in buttons to control all LED channels and intensity. It also offers on/off overrides. All this is done on the board itself and I no longer need to hook it up to a laptop and run the Arduino software to make edits to the LEDs, much nicer! Well today I finally took the time to mount the new boards in my project box and make the necessary cutouts.

Controller and LCD panel mounted to the inside lid of the project box


Designed by o2surplus


Revised project box, showing some Android love


LCD panel (current time and each channel's intensity) and input buttons: Menu - Select - Plus - Minus




Fish-wise, I recently lost two discus; one wild and the one domestic I had Not sure what happened, but some sort of flesh-eating bacteria killed them. Started off as a little pimple on the forehead and spread like wildfire in two days, all around the head and eyes. Never seen anything like that before. Didn't even have time to treat in QT. Soooo, I don't think I'll be adding any more discus anytime soon. Not because I'm giving up on them, but because I don't feel like dumping more money on them. These aren't exactly cheap!

So, I'll be adding some other fish that can get along with my current stock. Added some eartheaters a few days ago, I'll be on the lookout for some more.

Satanoperca Leucosticta and the little guys I think are Tapajos red-heads


Shot of one of my angels, currently 5 in the tank



And something a little more interesting. My roselines have developed long flowing fins over the past couple weeks, almost like a butterfly koi. Also, the yellow spots on their tails turned white. Who knows what could have caused this. Crossbreeding? Hybridization? Whatever it is, they look pretty damn cool!

[Rummy]

Sorry about the two that you lost.
Your other inhabitants look great, though. That angel appears to have a full stomach and still wants to eat!
It is always a joy to look at your photographs.
Thanks for the update.

Anik

[Discus-n00b]

Those Satanoperca are SWEET! And I really like that angel. I have some Geos growing out from Ryan here on the board. Such interesting fish, I really would like to keep some more species of them now.

[illumnae]

Love your eartheaters! Do you have a better shot of the Geophagus? From the angle of the shot, they don't look like G. sp "Red Head Tapajos"

[jcardona1]

Snapped a few new pics today, I'll just drop these off here

[jcardona1]

Sorry about the two that you lost.
Your other inhabitants look great, though. That angel appears to have a full stomach and still wants to eat!
It is always a joy to look at your photographs.
Thanks for the update.

Anik

Thanks Anik, appreciate it

Those Satanoperca are SWEET! And I really like that angel. I have some Geos growing out from Ryan here on the board. Such interesting fish, I really would like to keep some more species of them now.

Thanks Matt! They sure are some neat little fish. I can't wait till these guys get bigger.

Love your eartheaters! Do you have a better shot of the Geophagus? From the angle of the shot, they don't look like G. sp "Red Head Tapajos"

Thanks! No better shots yet, these little guys move so fast. Any other ideas? I was thinking either Tapajos or Altifrons perhaps?

[blkg35]

Gorgeous tank Jose. I like the added stones, looks real natural.
Very impressive build, still got the monster in you....

[hohm44]

Jesus H!

[BillyinNYC]

Love it! I don't know if I could personally resist the temptation to add some live plants--some vals or vesuvius swords in between the drfitwoods might look great--but then again the current theme is beautiful as is as well.

[Consigliere]

Wow what a great tank. Great plan and execution!

The pictures match the quality of the tank too! I read you have a D90. Any tips for an amateur on how to photograph tanks/fish so well? I have standard lens and a portrait lens for mine but don't even know where to start to get good quality photos.

Keep up the good work!

[jay973]

Great pics beautiful tank!

[Ken]

Really enjoying your build, on your LEDs what are your thoughts on the mix of LEDs, more warm whites less neutral whites, what do you think it would take to add a little red to the mix.



*
“The fixture uses 12 neutral white LEDs (4000k) and 12 warm white LEDs (3000k). They are arranged in two rows of 12, alternating each color in the two rows.

And you're right about the LEDs. They definitely do change the color of the fish. One thing about LEDs is that they don't have that nice color spectrum of a fluorescent bulb. I think I heard that it was due to the phosphors that fluorescent bulbs have, but I don't know enough about that...”
*