Up and running! My 8ft 240g planted discus tank.

[Saverio]

My previous thread was here. http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?112191-My-planted-125g

My 240g upgrade came in and as of yesterday it is up and running! Sooo much room for more discus now! :D

Anyway, here are a few pics. I'll apologize now for the shoddy quality. lol

60 gallon wet/dry sump. I had originally wanted 100g, but unfortunately, it would have taken up too much room in the stand.
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Here's the tank at the builder's shop, just before they were loading it up to deliver, it's 8ftx2ftx2ft:
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Freshly placed in the living room! We placed it directly on the concrete slab, which is why the carpet is ripped up around it. Part of selling this project to my wife was to make a deal. New tank for me = new flooring for her. The decision was made to put the tank on the concrete, and trim the new flooring around it. I have affectionately dubbed this tank "My Precious". haha! That's the old 125g sticking out on the right.
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Beginning the planting process. I had intended to take a more sequential progression of pictures, but I got too into my work! ;)
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More to follow!

[Saverio]

Freshly planted and all occupants moved over! The tank is seeded with all the water from the old 125g, and all the filter media and mulm from the (2) fluval FX5's are in the sump. Needless to say, I'll be monitoring water parameters like a hawk to make sure I don't encounter a mini-cycle. The discus hid for about an hour, but after that, they were out exploring and back to reaffirming their pecking order.
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Misc tank shots. Filtration is 60g wet/dry, pressurized CO2 with EI dosing dry ferts. EcoComplete Fine grade for substrate. (2) 72" 10K LED's for lighting:
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[Saverio]

More tank shots:
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Link to the short facebook video I took: Hope it works!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10203622799914755&l=457232914962445286

[Elliots]

Beautiful tank. Your pigeon strasined fish will probably pepperr more and your fish will darken with black gravel. If that black on the bottom is a substrate for plants you can cover it with PFS and it will not affect you fishes colors.

[sholvey]

Nice set up! You definitely need more fish! lol Good luck with the new set up.

[evabug1]

All looks fantastic! Really like what you did with the plants on and around the driftwood! That is some massive driftwood.

[jmf3460]

gosh I with my fiancé would let me have something like this. I have to defend myself now for having a 75 gallon and it not being to big. your tank is beautiful, I agree with the above who mentioned adding some sand to break up the uniformity of the substrate might help, or white/tan colored gravel. what maintenance schedule will you follow for a tank of this size??

[mooncon]

That's one bad a** tank

[redman1221]

nice tank

[musicmarn1]

Wonderful tank and set up! What substrate is-that Eco complete?

[Saverio]

Wonderful tank and set up! What substrate is-that Eco complete?

Eco-complete, fine grade. =)

[Saverio]

gosh I with my fiancé would let me have something like this. I have to defend myself now for having a 75 gallon and it not being to big. your tank is beautiful, I agree with the above who mentioned adding some sand to break up the uniformity of the substrate might help, or white/tan colored gravel. what maintenance schedule will you follow for a tank of this size??

The old 125 I was doing 50-70% water changes every 7-10 days depending on how lazy I was. I plan to keep about the same schedule with this tank. We'll see though, that's a lot of water. lol

[Saverio]

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Oh jeez.

Well, just 24hours later, and I've already found my first passenger to ride the overflow waterfall slide.

Was doing a quick eyeball of things and was rooting around in the sump, when I saw him swimming around the center chamber.

Which means he had to go through the overflow, down the drain, through the prefilter tray, through the bioball tower, then over two sump chambers. lol

Looks like I'll have to get some mesh to put over the overflow grills.

[sgchick]

Beautiful set-up!

[Pnorton]

Your tank is very pretty. In the beginning I had o cats and cories in the overflow box. Now I retrieve shrimp out of the filter sock every morning. I do have a mesh chamber built around my overflow box. I did not put the mesh directly on the box. You probably know this but You have to be very careful not to restrict the flow with the mesh and also realize plant leaves can clog up the mesh. Good luck with your tank.
Pam

[BigT]

Nice tank mate. Love the set up. So neat & tidy :)

[Tres]

You can look for a 'comb' type screen as well, and just place it low enough so if that clogs the water still goes over the top edge of it.

I found a missing kuhli loach happily living in my canister filter a month later... and it made it past the impeller there somehow even!




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Oh jeez.

Well, just 24hours later, and I've already found my first passenger to ride the overflow waterfall slide.

Was doing a quick eyeball of things and was rooting around in the sump, when I saw him swimming around the center chamber.

Which means he had to go through the overflow, down the drain, through the prefilter tray, through the bioball tower, then over two sump chambers. lol

Looks like I'll have to get some mesh to put over the overflow grills.

[n8rdms]

Loving the tank and stand. Even better that you were fortunate to be able to put it on concrete!

[Saverio]

Hiya again peeps. Been a while since I've posted an updated pic. Here's the latest full tank shot of this tank, taken yesterday. 13 of the 15 discus are from Kenny. The other 2 were rehomes locally. =)

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[Mihai Boldor]

Nice tank mate.

[jmf3460]

holy smokes, more pics more pics!

[Saverio]

holy smokes, more pics more pics!

haha coming right up! =)

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[jmf3460]

whats the non discus fish close to bottom in first pic....bolivian ram??

[DiscusLoverJeff]

Rams are good tank-mates for discus.

Great looking tank. Your plants seem to be getting thicker and reducing the space for the discus. I will take your trimmings, Lol.

[Saverio]

whats the non discus fish close to bottom in first pic....bolivian ram??

Yes, there are 3 bolivian rams in there. As well as 1 german blue, 1 gold ram, and 2 Apistogramma pebas.

[rickztahone]

Very nice looking tank. You got some nice looking dinner plates swimming in there too :-)

[jmf3460]

good lord that bolivian looks huge, how big would you say he is??

[Saverio]

good lord that bolivian looks huge, how big would you say he is??

He is a big guy. Biggest bolivian I've ever seen anyway. He was also a rehome. I'd say nose to tail, he's pushing 4".

Here's a pic of him/her. Not sure how to sex them.

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[jmf3460]

OP while your discus are beautiful and I mean beautiful, I am more impressed with the fact that you have a 4" bolivian ram. I love rams, all types but I love how the bolivians get bigger. He must be male to be that big I would guess. Ive got one pushing 3" but my other two are still only 1-2" Yours is huge! Does he flirt with all the ladies??

[pcsb23]

ime with rams the females tend to be bigger than the males, both in terms of length and bulk - females have a muscular chest whereas the males tend to be quite slimmer - I'd guess that the one pictured is female but like discus often the only way to be 100% sure is to watch them spawn.

Nice tank.

[sal3011]

Eight feet!! Lovely....

[tj_718]

beautiful,i like it

[jbop65]

Love the tank looks great, my wife just got me a 150 gallon tank and custom stand for a Valentines gift, I'll be honest I dont understand the whole sump idea been trying to watch videos, I am going with about 10 plants some driftwood and some rocks, what color did you decide to paint the back of your tank? I've asked various people about this some suggest black (I will have white sand) some say lite blue, your looks lite blue, again great job on the tank and the discus its a attention getter.

[Saverio]

The background is actually black. I think the lighting in some of the pics might have made it look blue. =)

[Frankr409]

Delightful. Lovely use of plants.