180 Reef to planted Discus tank

[fullmonti]

Thanks, but probably only thing I'm going to do until my wife finds another job is fill the system to do a leak/flow test & clean all the pvc shavings out of the pipes. I have enough credit at my LFS from trading him corals from old tank to set it up with every thing but the Discus, but just doesn't feel right when money is tight.

Jim

[blkg35]

This is going to be good. Can't wait to see it planted and discus swimming around.
Also very interested to see the spring/fountain in action. +1 for originality!!

[walt3]

will be waiting!

[fullmonti]

I went to a Discus meeting at Larry Bugg's house in Atlanta & it made me realize how much I've been missing my tank. So I decided to go ahead & get it started.



Got the rocks, sand & driftwood in. When the water clears up I'll take a FTS & photo of the spring in action.



The water in the sump drops from 25" deep where it comes in, down to about 10" deep where the return is. I thought there might be a problem with bubbles, splashing & noise. It was worse than I thought. After much head scratching, I made a acrylic chamber to hold bio-balls for each of the two drops to break up the flow & stop the bubbles, splashing & noise. It worked great, A PITA thought.



Got the UV in.



I have a small pump for flow through UV & when the water comes out of UV unit it goes through the CO2 diffuser, then to the return intake.

That's about it for now. Will be getting a few fish next week, then plants soon after. Discus will have to wait till my wife get another job, but at least the tank will be stabilized by then.

Jim

[NINHFLHORN]

Wow How much$ do you spend so far. Good luck

[fullmonti]

All of the new equipment for this freshwater set up was paid for from sales of saltwater livestock & equipment. This set up is Definitely Not the cheapest or simplest way to do a planted Discus tank. Partly do to using some of the saltwater gear I already had & partly because thats just the way I am. Truth be known, most of us don't really want to think about how much we have spent on our tanks.

I once saw a thread on Reef Central asking how much have you spent on your large reef tank (equipment & livestock)? The ones that could or would say averaged about $10,000. So freshwater seems really cheap & simple by comparison. I suspect you didn't really want to know though.

[fullmonti]

It's been two full days now & there are still bunches of tiny bubbles coming out of the sand. I have stirred it several times. They have eased up some, so maybe they will all be out tomorrow?

[scottthomas]

Wow. What a great set-up. Thanks for sharing. I cant wait to see how it all turns out.

[walt3]

patiently waiting....

[fullmonti]

Tiny bubbles from sand are done, but when I cranked up the CO2 for a test it puts bunches of bubbles in the tank. As the pix show I'm using a inline diffuser/atomizer. It feeds straight into intake for return pump. Any ideas on a fix, or do I need a different type diffuser?

[tonytheboss1]

AWESOME!! The CO2 diffuser is above my pay grade so can't help there but I'm sure there's a plant expert here somewhere. Mine is moderately planted & just about ready.
Question, if you don't mind, is that Manzanita stump from Rich in Borrego Springs, CA.? He has some really nice stuff. "T"

[fullmonti]

Yep, thats where I got it. Thought I would have pix by now. But the water still looks pretty cloudy. Some of it is from the spring washing fine gunk out of the sand (I think) & partly the tiny tiny bubbles. I've been doing a WC every day & turning one thing off at a time try to find a way to make the cloudy look go away. I do know the CO2 puts a little less tiny bubbles in the tank though & lots of them.



Photo of the filter/sump with foam in.

Jim

[fullmonti]

Well the water was not clearing up, so I thought I'd tried turning off the spring. It cleared up. I have no idea why. Well maybe one idea, but i don't know how it could be. The only thing I can think of is some how it's putting bubbles in the water so small they don't even look like bubbles but cloudiness. Anyway One rather boring FTS.



I really don't know where the spring could be pulling air in from to make the extra tiny bubbles. It is a closed loop, it draws water from the pipe on the left, then pumped up there the sand. It looks really cool. I have a video, but will have to figure out how to post it.

I ordred a CO2 reactor, hopefully that will solve the not so tiny bubbles.

[Rummy]

Wow! Gorgeous! It is not boring at all! I wouldn't change a thing.

[fullmonti]

Thanks, guess I keep thinking what I want it to look like with plants & of course Discus. Friday after next for plants. After plants & CO2 gets settled in start looking for Discus. The wait has been a killer.

Jim