caldwell
09-07-2006, 04:11 AM
Hi all! I'm a new member here and the following is a repost from something I put up on one of my local forums. I'm looking for additional input so any help you could give is appreciated!
I'll start by giving all of the background info first..
As a kid/teen I had multiple fw tanks and all were quite successful. Recently after a 18 year absence from the hobby my wife told me she wanted an aquarium for our home office. After a few trips to various LFS it became clear that she wanted a saltwater tank full of "nemos".. ugh.. Ok anyway I had never been down the saltwater road before and had always been put off by the stories of difficulty. Fast forward a few months and we now have a 90gal FOWLR tank that is doing well, no serious issues other than a couple of plumbing issues and the demise of 1 of the mollys I used to break in the tank (a long story..)
At any rate, I'm feeling confident and would like to persue something I couldn't afford to do as a kid and build a nice discus setup.
I live in New Hope and as such we are on Mpls water. PH out of the tap seems to hit about 8 (although I havent done a long term trend or tested "aged" water. I'm a little uncertain about GH/KH as the test kit I used seems pretty subjective (what exactly is "bright yellow"???) and I'm a tad colorblind anyway.
I plan to build my rig in the basement and due to the jacked up plumbing in my house there are no drains on that level short of the sump pump pit (which I won't touch - another long story...) I have 100" of wallspace that I can dedicate to fish, with an adjoining closet for some additional plumbing. I also plan to run feed and return lines to a nearby utility room where I can locate a water storage container and a waste line to the outside of the house. There will be ample room directly under the tanks for a good sized wet/dry sump and I think I may feed that into an additional large sump in the adjoining closet. This sump would be serviced with additional filtration, etc such as canister filters, UV, possibly fluidized bed and this is also where the heaters would be stored. My thought is that for doing water changes, I could simply isolate and "dump the sump" and replace it with preconditioned water from the storage tank.
I am thinking about a 125/150/180 gal tank (125 is nice, but I like the look of a taller tank) as my main tank for adults / grow out / display (add a dozen+ neons and a couple plecos for cleanup, plants are iffy as I really dont want to mess with co2) and should have room for 2 40 breeders above that. I would like to centralize filtration and automate water changes as much as possible. I understand that I ought to isolate the breeders from the main and can certainly do that if necessary, but would still like to include those tanks in the water change plumbing if possible. I'd also like to avoid having to use an RO system if possible due to the plumbing difficulties I mentioned earlier.
I'll also add that I'm not a cheap person, and I'll put $$ behind something if it's truly worthwhile, but I'm very happy to DIY as long as I can turn out a quality solution and I do hunt for the bargains where I can get them.
With all that said, here are my questions..
1. I have a choice between 125/150/180 tanks for my space. Im inclined to go 150 depending on price due to the taller stance. I've also read that discus like the extra vertical space although some have told me otherwise. Thoughts? Ideas on an initial # of discus for stocking it? 6? 12?
2. Are my thoughts about adding the large sump (50+ gals) and housing filtration and heating there realistic and/or beneficial? Or is this just overkill? Remember I'd like to automate this as much as possible...
3. What's the real story on my water quality? Does anyone have personal experience with New Hope water and what do I REALLY need to do to be successful?
4. Once these guys are breeding, what do I do with all the kids? Do local LFS buy these from individuals if you're producing quality fish? And if so, what is a reasonable price to expect? I certainly wouldn't mind seeing some return on investment from this project and would like to build a relationship with a retail outlet (drop off fish, collect $$) vs chasing down assorted private party buyers to sell a couple fish here and there. At the same time, I don't want to have to expand to more and more tanks to house fish I refuse to "flush".
5. Any ideas/plans for my plumbing setups? Ideas are appreciated!!
Thanks in advance for your comments and advice!
I'll start by giving all of the background info first..
As a kid/teen I had multiple fw tanks and all were quite successful. Recently after a 18 year absence from the hobby my wife told me she wanted an aquarium for our home office. After a few trips to various LFS it became clear that she wanted a saltwater tank full of "nemos".. ugh.. Ok anyway I had never been down the saltwater road before and had always been put off by the stories of difficulty. Fast forward a few months and we now have a 90gal FOWLR tank that is doing well, no serious issues other than a couple of plumbing issues and the demise of 1 of the mollys I used to break in the tank (a long story..)
At any rate, I'm feeling confident and would like to persue something I couldn't afford to do as a kid and build a nice discus setup.
I live in New Hope and as such we are on Mpls water. PH out of the tap seems to hit about 8 (although I havent done a long term trend or tested "aged" water. I'm a little uncertain about GH/KH as the test kit I used seems pretty subjective (what exactly is "bright yellow"???) and I'm a tad colorblind anyway.
I plan to build my rig in the basement and due to the jacked up plumbing in my house there are no drains on that level short of the sump pump pit (which I won't touch - another long story...) I have 100" of wallspace that I can dedicate to fish, with an adjoining closet for some additional plumbing. I also plan to run feed and return lines to a nearby utility room where I can locate a water storage container and a waste line to the outside of the house. There will be ample room directly under the tanks for a good sized wet/dry sump and I think I may feed that into an additional large sump in the adjoining closet. This sump would be serviced with additional filtration, etc such as canister filters, UV, possibly fluidized bed and this is also where the heaters would be stored. My thought is that for doing water changes, I could simply isolate and "dump the sump" and replace it with preconditioned water from the storage tank.
I am thinking about a 125/150/180 gal tank (125 is nice, but I like the look of a taller tank) as my main tank for adults / grow out / display (add a dozen+ neons and a couple plecos for cleanup, plants are iffy as I really dont want to mess with co2) and should have room for 2 40 breeders above that. I would like to centralize filtration and automate water changes as much as possible. I understand that I ought to isolate the breeders from the main and can certainly do that if necessary, but would still like to include those tanks in the water change plumbing if possible. I'd also like to avoid having to use an RO system if possible due to the plumbing difficulties I mentioned earlier.
I'll also add that I'm not a cheap person, and I'll put $$ behind something if it's truly worthwhile, but I'm very happy to DIY as long as I can turn out a quality solution and I do hunt for the bargains where I can get them.
With all that said, here are my questions..
1. I have a choice between 125/150/180 tanks for my space. Im inclined to go 150 depending on price due to the taller stance. I've also read that discus like the extra vertical space although some have told me otherwise. Thoughts? Ideas on an initial # of discus for stocking it? 6? 12?
2. Are my thoughts about adding the large sump (50+ gals) and housing filtration and heating there realistic and/or beneficial? Or is this just overkill? Remember I'd like to automate this as much as possible...
3. What's the real story on my water quality? Does anyone have personal experience with New Hope water and what do I REALLY need to do to be successful?
4. Once these guys are breeding, what do I do with all the kids? Do local LFS buy these from individuals if you're producing quality fish? And if so, what is a reasonable price to expect? I certainly wouldn't mind seeing some return on investment from this project and would like to build a relationship with a retail outlet (drop off fish, collect $$) vs chasing down assorted private party buyers to sell a couple fish here and there. At the same time, I don't want to have to expand to more and more tanks to house fish I refuse to "flush".
5. Any ideas/plans for my plumbing setups? Ideas are appreciated!!
Thanks in advance for your comments and advice!