John’s Planted Discus

[johnlfc]

Well it’s taken a while of reading and chatting with various people to get to the point of finally starting my journey.

So first actual activity is I’ve placed the order for my stand. I’m repurposing my current marine tank that I’m closing down but as this was built into the wall I needed a new stand that I will clad at a later date.

Looking at a 2 week lead time but it was enough to kickstart me into documenting things here.

Tank is made from 50mm Box section with a 3mm wall and will be powder coated in black. Dimensions of the stand are 78”x20”x35”.

I will get a picture up once it arrives.

Looking forward to the journey and will be sure to keep updated here with as much info as I can.

Thanks for checking in
John

[pastry]

John, can't wait to see! Question: what's a "box section"? Also, I know there are others than just me who love "before" pics! Love seeing the journey!

[johnlfc]

Box section is the shape and make up of steel used in construction. Will detail as much as I possibly can including a few before pictures :o

Here’s one to start off. This is the current tank location. The wall and radiator will all be coming down to extend the living room slightly. Please excuse the messy temporary work from home setup :blushing: this will be an unfiltered journey :grin::grin:131155

[pastry]

"...setup this will be an unfiltered journey"... YESSS! That's like project porn to me! Shoot, I'm still feel like I'm moving into our new house so it's still a mess for me... I haven't even put the doors on the cabinet stand I made (well, one is hung and makes it more irritable looking to my wife... lol).

I know you're moving the location of it, but are you going to trim it out (around border) like current location? I like how you crossed the corners with wood but wondering if you were going to use a router or trim molding to add some flare? (And I'm stealing your idea on crossing the corners! Making some picture frames right now and several frames of different sizes like that would look gooood)

[johnlfc]

No that whole wall and door will be removed and the tank left on the steel stand. I will clad this and add a matching pelmet to tank top so it hides the lighting.

[Iminit]

Sounds like you’ve got a project going! Good luck. Planted discus tanks are more maintance than a bare bottom tank. What I’ve been doing is moving my plants into planters. Makes for easy removal and cleaning.131157 in these tanks I have gravel but only a half inch deep. Planters are behind the rocks and wood.131158131159

[johnlfc]

That’s a good idea and looks great! I guess in an around about kind of way I’m trying to do something similar. I’m looking to have 3 islands along the tank with a big wood structure in each. Plants will be easy types that will mount onto the wood and those that are planted in substrate will be contained in each island by a brick border. I’m going to try to keep a large part of the bottom plant free and covered with a inch at most of sand.

[johnlfc]

Ordered my first group of fish today to go into grow tank. Will be a couple of weeks until collecting but I’ve gone for Stendker Discus and ordered 8 Marlboro Red. They are only 6.5cm so will grow them on and the best 6 I will transfer to the display.

I aim to have 18 adults in the display which will be made up of 3 groups of 6. I’m looking to grow one group on at a time.

Will soon see how that pans out.

[johnlfc]

So not much of an update but an update none the less. Today I received delivery of the tank stand. Made from 50mm steel box section powdered coated in black. Does weigh a bit :D

131220

[Shan_Evolved]

That stand looks gorgeous

[johnlfc]

Managed to get the sump for display sorted and ready for use. It’s 60x15x18

From right to left I will run:

Mechanical filter sponge tower
Matrix section
Plant bed for nitrate consumption
Crushed coral section to buffer water
Twin returns and Heaters in final section.

131268

Busy trying to get grow out tank sorted at minute for the first Discus Tuesday,

[johnlfc]

So that's the grow out finally in and warming up ready for fish tomorrow. Got filter sponges in another tank for last couple of weeks to gain some bacteria. Will also be adding ATM Colony along with Stability when the fish go in.

131282

[johnlfc]

So the first discus are in and the journey is certainly under way.

Getting warm

131284

Very early in tank but the gang getting to know the place

131285131286

[karmicwheel]

Looking good. Yep, we're on the same schedule it seems.

[johnlfc]

Poor pictures I know but today is the first day they have settled and eaten anything. Added a couple of plants to give some cover, a bag of coral sand to help buffer water as very soft and an additional heater to make it easier to stabilize tank at 88 to encourage feeding.

131309

131310

[johnlfc]

So I'm a couple of weeks in. Fish are feeding with gusto now after taking the best part of a week to really get going. Main food is Goodheart 3 times a day now and on occasion some blackworm flake or FDBW cube. All of which they feed on well.

Will pop a picture or two up later but my lights are quite blue so not the best. I really need to invest in some better tubes.

[Iminit]

I’d say invest in led and get away from tubes. No idea what’s sold over there but some good lights at cheap prices here are the Hygger 957 led lights and the vivagrow 24/7. You can get them here at 48” shipped for under a $100.

[johnlfc]

I’d say invest in led and get away from tubes. No idea what’s sold over there but some good lights at cheap prices here are the Hygger 957 led lights and the vivagrow 24/7. You can get them here at 48” shipped for under a $100.

It's a good shout it's just the fact I had the 3ft T5 unit already so thought I would put it to use. The Nicrew units on Amazon looks worth a shot so will likely switch over to those in time. As it's just the grow out and looks ok on the eye I've other things to do before that. I'm thinking of adding another grow out below instead of WC tank so I can get some more juivies going.

[johnlfc]

Not great but gives an idea and should be good for me to look back on in time to come.

131378

131379

[johnlfc]

Feeding 6 times a day. Goodheart x 3, BWFlake x 2 AFDBW x 1.

I am having to do daily 50% or possibly slightly more water changes at the minute to keep nutrient levels in check. I will continue like this and keep testing to determine my WC schedule. I'm certainly not able to rely on a weekly change as my filtration is just not good enough.

[Iminit]

It’s not just filtration. Even with the best filtration they still get so much out of new water.

[johnlfc]

Managed to get a shot of the gang altogether. Starting to seem some growth and colour now (admittedly not easy to see on picture)

131453