120 gallon build idea

[Madcow42]

I recently have been offered a job in another city and will not be taking my fish with me.
I have a 120 gallon tank, currently I keep angelfish, 2 schools of tetra, cory's, otto's, and ghost shrimp. (my angelfish population has slowly been reduced to 1 by a butt-hole angelfish that is VERY aggressive)
But with an increased salary and a move in the near future, I decided to start a planted discus tank... :D
Here's a proposed shopping list

Fluval fx5 - $250
Coralife 77070 3X UV Sterilizer - $100
Dr. Foster & Smith CO2 - $450
CO2 tank- $100
Eco-Complete - $45
Canopy - $320

Alternanthera Reineckii - $25
Amazon sword - $25
Java moss - $25
Amazon frogbit - $25
Large rocks- $10

Discus – 2xAltum Flora cross 3.5" $35
2x Diamond snake 3+" $40
2x Heckel cross 3.5" $55
1x Red Melon 3" $35

--or—

Rafflesia Melon 5" $105
Snakeskin 5+" $95
Turquoise 5.5" $95
Leopard 5" $65
Blue Diamond 5" $85
Pigeon Checkerboard 5" $85
Leopard Eruption (LPH) 5" $75


German blue rams – 2X $10
Whiptail Catfish 3X $10
Cardinal tetras- 20X $3
Ghost Shrimp 10X $0.33

I was thinking of making cover from the lights with "floating driftwood" (really just screwed into a 1x2 that sits on rim of tank)
I am planning to take my time and start with a fishless cycle and allow the plants to establish before I add fish.
I have never done a fishless cycle (thou I wish I had), I was wondering would it help reduce aggression if after the fishless cycle I added all seven of the discus at once? (fishless cycle should, in theory have enough bio-filter to handler the load)?
Does anyone have any experience or advice?

[Psionic]

I can't tell you about the fish, but I can tell you about the plants. All but the Red Temple can be put into low light and still be ok. That means you could put them under your driftwood and they'd be ok. You wouldn't need eco complete or co2 for the rest, but you can root tabs or osmocote+ under the plants to give them a boost also. You can use Flourish excel and comprehensive for it also. That's if you want to go low tech and use stock lighting.

If you want to go with standard lighting for now, but want some red plants, you can go with red tiger lotus or ludwigia 'sp' red. The tiger lotus will grow as tall or short as you want and will also spread if you let it. The ludwigia is really nice because that one stays red even in lower lights. You can go over to The Planted Tank forums and check them out in people's tanks.

If you do want to keep the eco complete and co2, you might as well go high tech and get t5ho's and fertilize the water column to keep everything in balance.


-Val

[Madcow42]

Thanks for the reply. I'm still debating about going high tech or not. I don't think I'm gonna try the hanging driftwood Maybe I'll try to make a hill and have a piece of manzanita driftwood sticking out creating an umbrella like tree sorta thing. And probably no ghost shrimp they will def get eaten vampire shrimp maybe?

[random-cichlid]

id say if u could afford it definitely get the larger fish as apposed to the smaller ones it takes a lot more to grow out discus your plants wont like all the water changes u have to do for juvies
Just my 2 cents thou

[Madcow42]

Yea thats what I've heard. IDK looking at my budget it might have been a little ambitious. lol maybe 7 adults instead of 9 juv. Off topic but has anyone used fishless cycle/ clear ammonia to help plants establish before adding fish? And where would I go to find information on building an automatic co2 system with a ph monitor?