New to site

[ben2988]

Hello everyone,
Looks like I'm in the right plkace for starting a new tank. I have currently shut down a 14 year old reef tank to go back to a fresh water tank. The tank I shut down is a 150 gal tall and is built into a wall in my home office. The reef tank was acrylic and really scratched up. I have removed the old tank and bought a new glass one of the same size. The tank has a corner over flow and is painted black on three sides and thats as far as I have gone. I would like to set up a show tank with discus and would like some suggestions. I have maintaned a really nice planted tank for many years and have experieance with that as well as the former reef. I would like to know if I could convert my refugium to to an effective filter for discus. I would also like some suggestions on substrate matarial. Is there unit available for automatic water changes(would like to automate as much as possible) I have an R.O. unit with D.I. run under the tank that was used for make up water on my refugium. I guess i'll start with those questions.

Thanks
Ben

[Roxanne]

Don't have any advice except the DIY technical threads have some great ideas...I'm lke a mad scientist trying to work out an auto wc change set up but can't get it right and, my bedroom has been a flood zone at least twice now...:D....I'm sure the others will have plenty of advice for you

Welcome to Simply Ben:)

Roxanne

[Consigliere]

Ben,

What do you have available for plumbing? Its probably not a problem to convert your refugium to a sump filter which may make it easier to automate a WC system depending if you have access to the house drain and water supply lines.

If you have the house drain available and can use gravity an drilled overflow system in your refugium converted to a sump with a drip system from the house supply will easily and effectively, fail proof actually, automatically change your water continually.

If you have the house drain available but can't use gravity to drain a pump with a float switch will do the trick as well. There are a few threads on this forum showing some good systems.

The design may have to take into account some holding tanks for water to acclimate to the correct pH if your supply water is very different from your tank.

[silent_thunder]

Welcome Ben...lots of help here...

[ben2988]

Thanks for the input. I do have gravity drainage right under the tank. Any suggestions on substrate I was thinking aquariumplants.com's substrate but, I see alot of folks like pool filter sand. I'am a pool guy pretty easy to come by for me.

[Consigliere]

Are you doing planted? You may want to include some tab fertilizers if you are having some plants and only pool sand. Another sand type option is flourite which is more expensive but can get some different colours.

[ben2988]

I was thinking a few plants unless I can come up with another idea that would really set the tank off. I use Florite in my plant tank but wasent sure if that would be a good choice for this tank with discus.

[thebigone]

Welcome to the site Ben. The first thing I might would suggest is to paint the back and sides of the tank a lighter color. The darker the color the darker the discus will be. If you go with a lighter color the discus will show its colors better. IMO.

[calihawker]

Hi Ben, Welcome!

I use flourite in my 300 gallon gallon planted discus tank. It wasn't cheap, but it's worked great so far.

As far as auto water changes, it's going to depend on how heavily planted your tank will be. If you go high tech, lights, c02. ferts, then you don't want to do more than a 50% water change once a week otherwise your just flushing ferts down the drain.





Steve

[rickztahone]

hello Ben, welcome aboard. like a member previously said, the black paint will make your discus turn darker and not show their full colors. the strain that you might consider would be some albino's since they do not turn dark at all. also if you plan on doing planted and full substrate then you need to look at getting adult discus rather than juvies since they need a lot of WC and maintinence and with your Auto-everything goal there's no way to automate gravel siphoning. consider those things, and read a lot here and you will be good