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

[Second Hand Pat]

Nice Jose...just one thing...need more fish. Super good job on this build. I will need to crawl through your first post when I have more time.

[rave 2468]

very nice set up, simply amazing.

[target]

That is an awesome set up! Thanks for sharing.

[CORVETTE70]

Simply out standing, one of the nicest i've seen, i might have to save up money for a flight and have you come up here and help me build one like this...lol

[2wheelsx2]

I really like the water change setup and was planning on something similar in the future in my basement. Now you just gave me all the technical info to do it. Thanks for posting so much detail. Tank and fish are awesome. Can't wait to see what you'll add to it.

[jarret8x]

Awesome setup you did a great job. Love the water change setup.

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[laborelch]

love your setup!


nice, nice, nice!

[MKD]

very nice and neath. I wish i have that ability to do all that, very talented.

[Dave B]

Jose, no wonder you haven't been around much. You were busy! I wish I had been that dedicated to my tank. I had it well before yours and I'm about 25% of the way through setup.

It looks awesome. I really like the lighting. I can follow all the rest, but the Arduino stuff totally flew over my head.

Two questions:

How'd you secure the vertical pieces into place? Particularly that one very straight one on the right. (Edit: Ah, I see, it's part of a tripod-like piece. Looks like a lot of self-supporting stuff then?)

Your pressure regulator is after the filter? Isn't that backwards?

As many people here will tell you, the water aging system probably ends up being better for discus than a straight drip (not that there's anything wrong with a straight drip)...


My only gripe might be that it seems that those LEDs seem to de-emphasize a lot of the red/orange of the wilds. But that comes from a guy with bulbs that brings them out unnaturally. I just like orange, I guess... (I should just keep goldfish and save myself thousands of dollars!)

Love the shadows and natural look in this one though:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5183/...93faeeb0_b.jpg

[Vee]

I really like the blue fish with the red striations. What are they?

[baarda]

love it.

[jcardona1]

Jose you put my tank to shame! WOW! You've got me thinking about tinkering with my setup more, in the lighting area and that background. Really really considering a background like that now. Love that light fixture I notice you don't use lenses for your LEDs, do you ever notice any real bright light spill in your eyes coming from the fixture when looking at the tank? Unless I have the lenses on I get blinded when approaching the tank in the gap between the splash shield and heatsink. Experience that with yours? I think I want to tweak my whole light system and add in some more of the cool whites, they really give that nice touch of blue to the striations on the fish. I might just remake the fixture LOL

Thanks! Yes, you're right. You definitely get a lot of light spillover w/o lenses. Since I didn't use that many LEDs, I didn't want to use lenses, since I would create a very focused beam. I may have to build a "shade" of sorts to avoid being blinded as you look at the tank!

Amazing setup. Love the fish too!

Thanks, appreciate it!

simply love it well done

Thanks, appreciate it!

All your thought and planing sure did pay off. A real credit to you. Please keep us updated.

Thanks, I sure will

beautiful tank and love it

Thanks!

That is one awesome amazing looking tank and yes you put in a ton of work on that thing. GREAT JOB!!!!!!!!

Thanks, appreciate it!

Your tank is a league of its own. Nice attention to detail Jose- tank turned out beautifully!

Thank you much

Very nice. are you running dual Di filters in your canisters for stripping chloramines etc. and if so how long ar you finding they last before having to change them without using a membrane and a flow restrictor. The reason i ask is i tried this one time and the DI cartridge was spent in a matter of days.

Thanks! No, I'm using granular activated carbon in both canisters. Those get rid of chlorine and chloramines. The carbon last for a really long time. I have a buddy who's had the same cartridges for nearly a year and they're still working good. I anticipate getting 8+ months if doing 35g per day. I have a chlorine/chloramine test kit I can use to verify if they're still doing they're job.

Wow, jcardona1, awesome job! I know a lot of pre-planning, experimentation, time and effort went into that setup, and the results are stunning. I can't wait to see it full of wilds

Thanks, appreciate it!

WOW






thats all i could say

Ha thanks!

wow
wow
wow
really man...what a tank..!!!
i wish too get one like this but man the work thats gone into it ...!!!!

can u come and set it up for me ????
lol

man awesome job on this ..!!!

Haha thanks! You covering my travel expenses?

I'm running out of adjectives! So I'll use icons instead:

Thanks Herb!

[Vee]

Could you describe the fish in the tank? What are they and where from?

[jcardona1]

Nice Jose...just one thing...need more fish. Super good job on this build. I will need to crawl through your first post when I have more time.

Thanks Pat! Yeah as soon as I sell my old rimless tank I'm getting more fish. Spent too much on the tank, and have none leftover for the fish ha!

very nice set up, simply amazing.

Thanks!

That is an awesome set up! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks!

Simply out standing, one of the nicest i've seen, i might have to save up money for a flight and have you come up here and help me build one like this...lol

LOL thanks!

I really like the water change setup and was planning on something similar in the future in my basement. Now you just gave me all the technical info to do it. Thanks for posting so much detail. Tank and fish are awesome. Can't wait to see what you'll add to it.

Thanks, glad you found it helpful

Awesome setup you did a great job. Love the water change setup.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

Thanks!

love your setup!


nice, nice, nice!

Thanks!

very nice and neath. I wish i have that ability to do all that, very talented.

Thank you!

Jose, no wonder you haven't been around much. You were busy! I wish I had been that dedicated to my tank. I had it well before yours and I'm about 25% of the way through setup.

It looks awesome. I really like the lighting. I can follow all the rest, but the Arduino stuff totally flew over my head.

Two questions:

How'd you secure the vertical pieces into place? Particularly that one very straight one on the right. (Edit: Ah, I see, it's part of a tripod-like piece. Looks like a lot of self-supporting stuff then?)

Your pressure regulator is after the filter? Isn't that backwards?

As many people here will tell you, the water aging system probably ends up being better for discus than a straight drip (not that there's anything wrong with a straight drip)...


My only gripe might be that it seems that those LEDs seem to de-emphasize a lot of the red/orange of the wilds. But that comes from a guy with bulbs that brings them out unnaturally. I just like orange, I guess... (I should just keep goldfish and save myself thousands of dollars!)

Love the shadows and natural look in this one though:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5183/...93faeeb0_b.jpg

Thanks Dave, yeah I've been super busy getting this tank ready. As to your questions,

most of the pieces are self-supporting. There were three larger stumps though that were still floating, so I secured them with a 12x12" tile. Just drilled a hole in the tile, and screwed them down.

The pressure regulator really isn't needed IMO. I had it rigged that way from a previous setup when I was using drip emitters. Those need a low PSI. But the filter will work fine, as long as it's flowing less than 15gpm (and that's to remove chloramines, which I don't have in my tapwater). I can close off the valve feeding the filter to get a really slow flow rate. Also, the float valve I use flows a max of 19gpm, with an operating range of 0-100psi. So the whole system keeps its self in check really.

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...

I really like the blue fish with the red striations. What are they?

Thanks, I believe the one you're referring to is actually one my little captive discus, a Turquoise...

love it.

Thanks!

[Stussi613]

I agree with everyone else. Wow. I thought my tank was nice until I saw this one...