125 gal B-Day Present, Going Discus

[yikesjason]

I have been into aquariums for a few years now and really into planted tanks for the last almost 2 years. But I have always wanted discus but settled for angelfish instead. I have a wife and two little boys, so hobbies don't get top priority. But for my birthday last January, I got $500 from my mom to set up a big tank in our new home. That along with what I already had saved for a nice aquarium I have built up this.

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/4768/ftsz.jpg

I have even gotten good enough at planted tanks that I could start selling some plants and then used that money to make some more investments and my fish fund, along with my aquarium keeping confidence are finally to the point of venturing out into discus.

So, here we go!

[ChloroPhil]

Woot! Good choice Jason. :) We shall conquer the planted tank world with images of gorgeous plants and dinner-plate fish! :gossip:

The tank's looking good too!

[yikesjason]

Tank Stats

Size: 125 gallons
Lighting: 4x54w T5HO
co2: aquariumplants.com best regulator and 5lbs tank
Filter: xp3, looking for another to add
Substrate: soil caped with turface, now adding pool filter sand to brighten it up
Ferts: dry EI dosing

Flora: (abbreviated list)
-blyxa japonica
-blyxa auburtii
-aromatica
-ludwigia brevipes
-oselot sword
-various crypts
-various anubius
-various ferns
-christmas moss
-HM
-hair grass
-downoi
-marsilea quadrifolia

Fauna:
10 juvie wild peruvian angelfish (some of these are leaving to make room for discus)
3 sub adult gold veil angels that I raised from another pair I have (also leaving)
2 blue gouramies (temporary occupants)
2 odessa barbs (very pretty but need to go)
6 congo tetras
5 rummy nose tetras
30+ cardinal tetras
3 SAE
2 albino long finned briselnose plecos
3 standard briselnose plecos
bunch of common oto
few black otos
bunch of chocolate otos
3 zebra loaches (they are on snail duty)
3 bronze cories
6 julii cories
2 german blue rams
and an apparently infinite number of trumpet snails

[dbfzurowski]

Wow!
need i say more?

[cmich]

Beautiful tank. Well done.

Blake

[Scribbles]

Absolutely gorgeous!

Chris

[MikeF]

Nice tank. I am hoping to get into the planted tanks sometime soon also.

[rickztahone]

very nice, i'm surprised you are only running one xp3 however. i am running 2 in my 125 and i still wish i had more filtration. beautiful tank btw, i plan on starting a good partial planted tank soon.

[yikesjason]

very nice, i'm surprised you are only running one xp3 however. i am running 2 in my 125 and i still wish i had more filtration. beautiful tank btw, i plan on starting a good partial planted tank soon.

I am in the process of finding another one.

[yikesjason]

I did end up getting a new canister, a C-360 NIB for $80 on craigslist. I like it a lot. But my tank split at one of the seams on Friday night. It was bad, but not as bad as it might have been. I was able to catch it right away and have my wife hold the seam mostly closed while I bailed out the water and put the fish and plants in big rubbermaid totes.

Saturday I was able to find an odd shaped 90 gal aquarium to replace the 125. I hate losing the 35 gallons, but it was the best I could find on cl in a day. It only cost me $150 and it is in really good shape. The stand needs some touch ups, but he glass it great. The dimensions are kind of weird, but they work. It is 60x14x24h. 4" of depth is a big loss too.

Trying to reuse mineralized soil is messy. The tank is still very cloudy. I have been planting by touch since I couldn't see much. This morning was the first time I could really start to see much. I will try to get some pictures up soon. But this gives me a chance to make the tank a little better for discus. I caped the substrate with sand and still need to paint the background. It will not be black this time. And the added hight and more open scape will give more swimming room.

I had to cash in early on some Christmas/discus money to buy the new tank. I hope I can still get some discus soon. I am disappointed about the whole fish king thing because I was hoping to drive up to their place next month, but that is not going to happen now. Kenny has one heck of a shipment for January though. I will just have to wait and see what santa brings this year.

[DiscusKev]

Amazing planted tank Jason! I really like how the Anubias is growing out of the water haha.

[DonMD]

Beautiful tank, Jason!

Can you explain the dry EI dosing? Since I attended the Aquafest here in Maryland a couple months ago, I got sort of hooked on trying out an aquascape. I've got a 30g tank with co2 ready to go, aquasoil, manzanita and rock, and the plants arrive tomorrow from aquariumplants.com.

They're sending me "beginner" plants (well, I told them no difficult ones) because that's what I am:D I figured I'd just use Flourish. But I'd like you to explain the dry dosing. Thanks!:)

[yikesjason]

There are much better comprehensive guides out there about this dosing method. But basically you use dry powder ferts that are very cheap to get, and you dose more than the plants can use so there are never any deficiencies. Then once a week you do a 50% wc to dilute any ferts that are getting too high concentrations. It is referred to as "resetting" your tank. If you want to know more details, just go to plantedtank.net. It is one of the "simplys" of the plant side.

[GrillMaster]

Sorry ta hear about the 125G blow out! I am sure you can silicone it back in shape! :)

Glad you have the 90G up an running! Wish you all the luck with it! :thumbsup:

[Scribbles]

Sorry to hear about the leaky seam, but at least you should be able to repair it. Post pics of the 90 when you get a chance.

Chris

[DonMD]

OK, thanks!


There are much better comprehensive guides out there about this dosing method. But basically you use dry powder ferts that are very cheap to get, and you dose more than the plants can use so there are never any deficiencies. Then once a week you do a 50% wc to dilute any ferts that are getting too high concentrations. It is referred to as "resetting" your tank. If you want to know more details, just go to plantedtank.net. It is one of the "simplys" of the plant side.

[yikesjason]

So, here are some pictures of my 90 gal replacement tank. It is still pretty cloudy, but it is getting there.

FTS
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/593/img9478j.jpg

Left Side Detail
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/9599/img9497cm.jpg

Center Detail
http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/3751/img9499t.jpg

Right Side Detail
http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/6025/img9502w.jpg

[discusjoe27]

sorry to hear about that blow out, that tank looked very very lovely.
just look out for those angels, because angels can care illnesses that the discus can catch.
so might want to look for a Qt/hospital tank, just to be safe. buddy.

[smiley]

Am sure those angels would feel like spawning pretty soon :D

great tank mate

[calihawker]

Awesome tank dude! Great job!

[ChloroPhil]

Am sure those angels would feel like spawning pretty soon :D

great tank mate


Yeah, they should. They just got a huuuuge water change. :) Tank's looking awesome Jason! What kind of plant is that growing out of the left rear corner?

Cheers,
Phil

[Eddie]

Lovely tank! I am really liking that big piece of wood with plants on them. Super nice job!

Eddie

[yikesjason]

Yeah, they should. They just got a huuuuge water change. :) Tank's looking awesome Jason! What kind of plant is that growing out of the left rear corner?

Cheers,
Phil

That plant is some type of anubias. I don't know any more specific than that. I have some growing off a piece of the same ribosomes on the other side of the tank, but it is no where as big yet. If you want some, I have cutting in the tank that is about 2" or 3". It hasn't started sprouting yet though.

[Eddie]

That plant is some type of anubias. I don't know any more specific than that. I have some growing off a piece of the same ribosomes on the other side of the tank, but it is no where as big yet. If you want some, I have cutting in the tank that is about 2" or 3". It hasn't started sprouting yet though.

I think he means the one with the leaves coming out of the tank. :o

Eddie

[yikesjason]

Yeah, the leaves are an anubias. I have a piece of rhizome for him if he wants it.

[Eddie]

Yeah, the leaves are an anubias. I have a piece of rhizome for him if he wants it.

Not the anubias, I have giant anubias also. In the picture on the left, there are tall stalks and leaves are heart shaped.

Eddie

[yikesjason]

Yeah, that is an anubias. The tall plant on the left. That is the one I am talking about.

[Eddie]

Yeah, that is an anubias. The tall plant on the left. That is the one I am talking about.

Crazy looking stalk for Anubias and all the leaves out of the water, thats a first. I have plenty of Anubias and some leaves come out of the water but now all of them and havent seen leaves like that on Anubias either. :o

Cool

Eddie

[yikesjason]

I will get some more detailed pictures. If it isn't an anubias, I would love to know differently.

[ChloroPhil]

Jason,

Thank you very much for the offer. I may take you up on it in a few weeks when the tank's set up and settled in.

Regards,
Phil

[yikesjason]

Here is a picture of the big anubias that I have growing up out of the water.

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/9906/img9956h.jpg

Here is another anubias growing from a rhizome off the same plant. I don't really know why the leaf shape is different.

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/4469/img9962r.jpg

[yikesjason]

Here is an updated picture. I still have some plants that are trying to get reestablished.

http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/8870/img9953.jpg

These are some discus that I got a couple of months ago from someone local. They are pretty stunted and I am pretty sure they had some type of internal parasite. They were skeletons when I got them. I did a round of prazi and they started to put on some more weight and get some better coloring. I don't know much about them, so I would love to get any type of info on them. The price was right for starter discus. But I still would like to get some nicer fish to replace them and most of the angels.

They aren't the best pictures, but they aren't the best discus either.

http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/1491/img9987.jpg
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/4124/img9982a.jpg
http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/9788/img9996j.jpg
http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/369/img9988z.jpg

[William Palumbo]

They are for the most part SnakeSkin Discus. Since you know they were sick and stunted...they are VERY poor specimens, and probally will stay that way. They are in a very nice tank antways...Bill

[yikesjason]

I had read that the 14 bars indicate snakeskin. Are they just a mix of a lot of things though? Or would these have had pattern across their whole body if they had grown up under better circumstances?

[William Palumbo]

It's hard to tell Jason. I'm thinking even stunted and sick, they should have full body pattern. I am thinking they may be a cross, maybe from a Brown, or some other pattern-less red/brown based fish...Bill

[Eddie]

It's hard to tell Jason. I'm thinking even stunted and sick, they should have full body pattern. I am thinking they may be a cross, maybe from a Brown, or some other pattern-less red/brown based fish...Bill

+1 on this, the fish look to be stunted and suffering from internal worms. The tank looks amazing though. I love how the leaves of the anubias are taking off out of the water.


Eddie

[Scribbles]

Your tank and plants look great but discus are jumpers, you might want to rig a top for the tank.

Chris