Starting up my 120Gal.. here goes.

[FischAutoTechGarten]

OK, I've particpated for a bit, now it's time to start publishing a few photos of my rebuild of my 120 Gallon Planted Discus Aquarium. I'll post everything from equipment I will use, to flora & fauna I will acquire to home construction necessary to accomodate it. Goal is to have the tank operating by end of September, so this will take a bit.

We start with the tank, canopy & stand chock full of junk and sitting in my basement.

[FischAutoTechGarten]

This is the opposite corner of my basement where I will setup the two 80gal tanks I'm getting from Glen and my 20 own 20gal tank. These will be used to cultivate plants and grow out Discus (unsure of variety--though you know by now I prefer the RSG and Red/Blue Turqs), Cardinal Tetras, German Blue Rams, Panda Corydoras, Ottocinclus Affenis and Zebra Plecos. I'll add them to the 120 in stages from mid Sep to November.

I have all my basement windows open, de-humidifier and two fans running and it's still this damp. I have foundation drainage (obviously it's ineffective). One of the big items on phase III of the house remodel is the removal of the snow slides and replacement with seemless gutters to take water far away from the house.

[chinoz]

wow what a great place for a hatchery ODwyerPW ;), keep us updated.

[bikhu]

Hey Peter,
When do you plan to go to Rochester for the 80 gals? Maybe we could work something out....
e-mail or im me...
peter

[Ardan]

8)
Keep us posted!

[RichieE]

Peter, Use Drylock on those walls. 2 coats with a brush to get into the pours. That should cut the humidity in half. Rich.

[ChloroPhil]

Very nice! One day when I've got money again I'll have to do something like that. Thanks for the great pictures too. Could you get a close up of your media suspension system?

Thanks!

[FischAutoTechGarten]

Extreme Closeup of my 20gal Wet/Dry Filter.

Here you can also see how the spray bar (swear I'm removing that thing...just don't want to use my other dispersion device that I'm saving for the new Wet/Dry I'll build for my 120gal) hangs from the lid.

You can also see how the dividing glass stops about 2" shy of the bottom.

I have approx 5 gallons of bio balls in the media chamber.

[ronrca]

Very nice! ;) Tell me more about the pipe you used, the clear pipe and also the black pipe. Its hard to tell from the picture what kind of pipe it is! ;D

[Chris.L]

Hope you come to NZ soon :D!~ Then you can help me with some of that :P

Nice!

[luke_potts]

Very cool set up!!!!!!

i particulary like the idea of having the pump from the filter on the outside of the tank. i have only ever used submersible pumps and never considered this type of set up. Is this your own idea or is it commonly used?

Cheers
Luke

[crazy4discus]

gl on your setup looking good so far

[barron]

Hi Pete

They look good, I see your not wasting any time.

Good luck

Barron :)

[chinoz]

nice setup Pete, awesome fish too ;D

[daninthesand]

Best part is...my wife thinks they're cute. She goes down to the basement to check on them quite a bit.


Next time she goes to check on them, see if you can get her to do a w/c ;)

Nice set up Peter. Best of luck with all those new babies!

[crazy4discus]

yep very nice cant wait to see the finised product i know its gonna look great

[edgeguy]

Next time she goes to check on them, see if you can get her to do a w/c ;)

My wife does not even feed the discus in fear that it will lead to other things with the tank. She has just started turning the lights on (making progress)! ;D

I like all the room you have in your basement for expansion.

[FischAutoTechGarten]

Here are the Temp, pH and ORP Probes placed in the Sump portion of my Wet/Dry. Eventually I'll place the Temp, pH, ORP and Conductivity In-Line between the Sump and the shutoff valve just before the Pump. The Conductivity Probe needs to be some distance from the others so it means a little bit of plumbing work.

[Chris.L]

I like your set out ;) You know to get citizenship in NZ, you have to be here for like 3 years unless your born here :o

You thinking of coming over after October ;) :P

[crazy4discus]

discus looking pretty healthy to me

[luke_potts]

discus look gr8!

your setup seems to be progressing very nicely. im with you, i thought the foam would have absorbed the slight swelling of the ply ??? how thick is your foam???? i had a similar prob a few years ago though mine was because the steel stand had skewed slightly when we welded it, however i put thicker foam down and problem solved!!!!! ;D might make things easier if you want to try this before you go to all the trouble of shaving the ply.
anyway for your thoughts.

Cheers
luke

[chinoz]

ODwyerPW, where is DiscusBob located in NJ? i live here in MD which takes about 2-3 hours to get to NJ.

[sony]

that sucks, keep your head up.

[crazy4discus]

that sucks to lose some of your babies discus but dont worries everything will work out

[crazy4discus]

sucks well at least it wasnt the bigger ones and now you know not to use those tanks anymore so that the rest of the babies will grow up big and healthy keep us updated with everything

[ChloroPhil]

I'm sorry to hear about your fish Peter! That really sucks and apparantly so do home made aquariums. :'(

[Wolf]

Survival of the fittest. Anytime you have a problem like that the weakest will go first which I consider a good thing anyway. You remaining fish will be the stronger ones so it's really not all a bad thing although I know it sucks to loose fish. Good Luck with the rest.

[luke_potts]

hi all,

Sorry to here about your fish peter, it seemed as if everything was going well with the 1 tank.

Anyway here is a bit of info that i have learnt though a similar experience.
Peter, i realise that the last thing you want to do is keep the damn tanks that killed your fish!!!!
BUT
if you want to, you can remake the tanks from the very beginning (only the glass has already been cut).
This is a fairly lengthy process......... but if you already have the tanks, why not give it a go?
The first step is that you lay the tanks on their side and mop out any water/moisture that is left. and then leave them there.
The next step is to take to the tank with a razor blade. Slip the blade into the silicone joint, and separate the joint. You will need to do this right around the entire side (ie. up the 2 short sides and along the bottom).
Once the silicone bean is broken all the way around lift the side off the tank and put it down on a table with a blanket under it (to stop it cracking) then get to work cleaning ALL the silicone off the glass.
When you have done this repeat the process for 1 of the sides, then the bottom and the remaining side, preferably in that order. Then all glass needs to be cleaned. NO RESIDUE LEFT AT ALL, to get this use metho as your final wipe down.
One all glass is cleaned, reglue all the sides together using an aquarium safe silicone in the opposite order to which you took them appart. Only apply a small amount of adhesive along the end of the piece of glass (not to the large flat surface).
Leave to dry in this position, on it's side, for about 3 to 4 days in summer, Longer in winter.
After this leave the tank on its side and apply a bead of silicone along all the joints, use your finger to smooth the silicone into the joints. This will give you a smooth, flat and clean seal, but only if you apply enough silicone. This might take a few goes to get the right amount, but it is worth it.
When you have sealed all joints leave tank for about 10 days in summer to cure.
Then you will be ready to fill and cycle your tank.

Sorry about the Looooooooooong post but i thought you or who ever gets your tanks might find this info useful

If anyone has any questions please ask them, because the only stupid question is the one that is not asked.

Cheers
Luke

[chinoz]

hehe..i must admit it too...BB tank is boring but you will get used to it..espescially when those babies are big..you will enjoy BB tank more. ;D

[FischAutoTechGarten]

Been running in my UV filter to see if I want to use it in the Planted 120. Works good. Picked up on Ebay for about $45. It's a big 25Watt unit.

[jun]

odwyer,

on your wet and dry. have you though about using an egg crate(the one they use for light fixture) to hold the bio balls. it will be more sturdy.

jun

[FischAutoTechGarten]

Yes,
I'm going to. I have a 2X4 piece of eggrate for that purpose. Remember, the 120 running right now is temporary. It's in use only because I had trouble with a few other tanks earlier this summer and had to deploy it on an emergency basis. So the piping is sloppy, everything is dirty, nothing's fastened down, etc.. This thread was originally intended to be about my 120gal Planted Tank, not my last resort 120gal Discus holding tank.

[jun]

i see! kool.

[heckelcrazy]

peter you my friend are the king of gadgetry...next u are going to have a nuclear powered tank?
awesome thread mate. buggar bout the littlies that didnt make it. Still the rest look good...no worries mate:)
aran

[FischAutoTechGarten]

I decided to introduce the 16 Otticinclus Affenis I've had in Quarantine for a while. The Sacrificial Ram (pun intended..he's a lone male Ram that I test my quarantine tanks with.) that I placed in with them showed now signs of illness, so I pronounced the Ottos clean and added them to the 120. The idea is to get them to clean up the 120 for me so I don't have to do as much bleaching and scrubbing to remove algae before moving the tank upstairs.

Unfortunately, the Discus are torturing these guys. They've pecked 3 of them to death already. 10 of the smart Ottos went over the overflow where they were safe. The other 3 ottos I rescued and put in my Ram breeder tank. I've still got to pull out the 10 from the Overflow.

Decided not to introduce my 6 Japonica shrimp to the 120 yet...so they live with the Rams too.

So, so much for letting 'Nature' clean up this tank before setting it up upstairs for the plants!

[FischAutoTechGarten]

I pulled down the 120 as a Discus grow-out tank some months ago. Because we are staying put in the NorthEast for a bit longer, I'm going to go forward with putting the tank upstairs. I'll post a few pictures soon.

[swvadiscus]

I had the same problem with my otto's......They were murdered.....I started with 6 and now I'm down to one.......