Wilds

[damian_ireland]

Hopefully setting up a 6x2x2 wild tank(green tefe) soon and am scouring for more information. Do you guys have your tank setups posted somewhere here ?
Interested in getting more information on setups with sumps and if anyone uses rainwater. A guy I know has Green Tefes in a rainwater setup and they are thriving. Thanks in advance.

[plecocicho]

Look for my thread your wild discus setups, it has amny described setups.

[damian_ireland]

plecocicho,
I have looked through alot of your posts and cant find any details on sumps/rainwater which are my 2 main points of interest. Anyone else care to share ?

[Dan S]

Hello Damian,

Rain water should be good, as you get rain coming of the Atlantic it should be fairly clean. I havent tried it but thats because I live in East Anglia (UK) and Im guessing it will pick up pollutants as it comes across the country.
How would you collect it? If you collect of a roof you will have to be careful to make sure there are no contaminants in the roofing or gutting. Im guessing you can run carbon in it to take any impurities out. Also bare in mind that if it doesnt rain for a couple of weeks then how will you cover that period?

As for sumps, Personally I use big canisters (Eheim Pro 3) but there are plenty of sites around (particularly Marine forums) that have lots of info on them. Have you checked the filtration section on here?

Dan

[plecocicho]

Damien, regarding rainwater:
When collecting it, always dont collect first minutes of rain, so large part of small particles and inpurities of rain get flushed out. A mesh on the barrels, helps to collect the remaining larger particles. Then you slowly, by drops purifiy your collected rain water through active carbon. It is better to do it at leastz twice, The next stage is a use of water clarifiers, like easy life, to do the final touch. Then just add minerals, heat it and voila, you have instant discus water.

[damian_ireland]

Thanks for the replies. Still unsure which way to go. I have ordered my 6x2x2 aquarium which comes with a sump. The plan would be maybe to go with a mix of rainwater and HMA.
@dan , i see loads of ppl on marine forums with sumps but would like to hear from a wild discs setup.
@plec, I live in Ireland, it always rains here.

[wgtaylor]

Hi Damian, welcome to Simply Discus

I've heard people from around the world that have used rain water for wilds especially for breeding have really good success. Sediment filter than carbon filter and you have really soft water.
All water on our planet comes from the sky as rain. We get 90+ inches of rain and I plan on making a collection system, no sense letting it go to waste.

I like sump filters but found it difficult to keep the tds levels as low as I wanted for wilds using it traditionally. I now use sumps only for extra water capacity and to hide heaters and a couple sponge filters and extra power filter. I try to keep the sump easy to clean.
It does make it nice to do water changes through the sump without disturbing the wilds tank.
Good luck with your wilds and make sure you return with pictures of your new setup. :)
Take care,
Bill

[damian_ireland]

Bill, does that mean you use an external as well as a sump ?

[wgtaylor]

Bill, does that mean you use an external as well as a sump ?
I use the external for filtering. My (homemade) sump I use with no biological media but keep heaters etc. in it. I just found all the bio media in the sump would drive the tds higher when I was trying to keep it low for breeding. I can always put the media back in the sump and go longer without water changes not worrying about the tds when not trying to get them to breed. I spend more time trying to get them to breed. :o
The (sump) just gives me a place to hide and tinker with their water parameters, adding peat or ro, without them knowing I'm there. I can access the sump from the back of the tank. Just a way I found easy for me.
Bill

[kaceyo]

I use the external for filtering. My (homemade) sump I use with no biological media but keep heaters etc. in it. I just found all the bio media in the sump would drive the tds higher when I was trying to keep it low for breeding. I can always put the media back in the sump and go longer without water changes not worrying about the tds when not trying to get them to breed. I spend more time trying to get them to breed. :o
The (sump) just gives me a place to hide and tinker with their water parameters, adding peat or ro, without them knowing I'm there. I can access the sump from the back of the tank. Just a way I found easy for me.
Bill

Hey Bill,
Why would using a sump or trickle filter raise the TDS? As long as your not using a media that desolves into the water it should not effect TDS at all. I would use tricke filters if I could but, having neighbors below me, it would be one more place an overflow could happen.

Kacey

[plecocicho]

Damien, your home island is not called green island for nothing :)
You could use either
a) external compartmant filter under the tank like this:
http://www.aquanubis.com/datoteke/clanki/zunanji_prekatni_filter/104_0405_2.jpg
b) external compartmant filter beside the tank
http://diskus.slohost.net/akvarij/3/slike/Clasic%20z%20usedalnikom255.jpg
Typical external compartamnt filter, you need suction pipe
c) internal compartmant filter, which is teh same as the above two, but lies inside of the tank.
All three types are cheap to make and have large volumes (up to 20 % of tank volume).

[wgtaylor]

Hey Bill,
Why would using a sump or trickle filter raise the TDS? As long as your not using a media that desolves into the water it should not effect TDS at all. I would use tricke filters if I could but, having neighbors below me, it would be one more place an overflow could happen.

Kacey
Hi Kacey
Had a power outage here for 8 hrs, things getting back to normal, tank heaters are trying to catch up. My service provider finally came back on line.
I have pretty large sumps and had quite a lot of media, guess it was just a place for food and crud to accumulate and that's what drives the tds higher than I was aiming for. Maybe just poor maintenance on my part.
You know Kacey you can make those overflows and sumps really failsafe. If you lose power they restart immediately. I understand your concern though with your situation.
Take care
Bill

[kaceyo]

I'm pretty lucky here in that power outages rarely happen. I'm in the Seattle 'burbs, but close enough to the city to be among the first to get power restored when it does go down.
If I did use a sump I'd go with a drilled tank so restarting the overflow wouldn't be a problem. I want my system to be as failsafe as possible (flood wise) and a sump would just add too many possible problems. And with my luck, well...it's like the song. "If I didn't have bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all".:D

Kacey