Tweet
My name is Chad Hughes and I live in San Diego, CA. I am honored to have been selected as one of this year's SD hobbiest challengers.
I have kept aquariums since I was 6 years old. When I was in high school I started an aquarium cleaning service with the help of my grandfather. He was a realestate agent, so in no time I had a slew of contacts and customers! He used to run me all over town in he afternoons to clean the tanks of the customers he got me. When I left high school to attend college I quit keeping fish and abondoned the business.
Well, my softmore year of college the bug hit again. I was doing really well with school and work and had some extra cash, so I went bigger than I had ever gone and bought a 180 gallon tank, set up a marine tank and had a 2foot nurse shark in it until I graduated. Naturally, my house was the coolest with the big tank and a shark! LOL!
After college I, once again, shut down the aquarium and joined the U.S. Navy and toured four about 7 years. Most of my time was spent in Japan and San Diego, CA. After the Navy, I began a job as an electrical engineer in San Diego, CA. Since that time I also spent 2 years in Iraq working with the Navy, Army and Marine Corps. It was a proud time for me working with all those sailors, soldiers and marines. Iraq is a god for saken place, especially where most of the US troops are. I spent those two years between Mosul, Tikrit and Balad. I traveled all over the Middle East, Asia and Europe. It was good to return home.
Today I have 18 adult discus living in a variety of tanks throughout the house. I have a 150 and a 110 that are my discus show pieces. Spawning has gotten so frequent that I am building on our property to start making space for a new fish room. I hope to have it completed this summer and hopefully start filling it with tanks and discus then. I am slowly developing my hobby of discus keeping in to discus breeding. It's been a lot of fun and I have had excellent success!
I learned about SD late in the game. I had no idea what a great source of information and experience was out there. I read things on this site that I would have probably never been aware of, especially the disease section. I had no idea that discus could have such complex problems. I have been one of the lucky (few apparently) people that have not had to deal with any disease, but I'm glad I have you all to come to if and when I do. You're like my extended discus loving family!
For this years challenge I'll be utilizing my own tried and true methods of raising discus. The stock that I receive will begin their grow out process in their own, dedicated 110 gallon tank. The tank will be planted with a play sand substrate bottom. Filtration consists of a fluval 405 and possibly a sponge filter or two. Feedings will be kept at 4 daily with a variety of foods. I make all of my own foods with the exception of blood worm (obviously). Water changes for fry in this size tank are typically twice weekly at 50% changeover. More may be done if circumstances dictate.
All of this will be accurately recorded and reported through this thread. I look forward to posting results of this challenge step by step! It should be exciting. Best wishes to all of you!
I have kept aquariums since I was 6 years old. When I was in high school I started an aquarium cleaning service with the help of my grandfather. He was a realestate agent, so in no time I had a slew of contacts and customers! He used to run me all over town in he afternoons to clean the tanks of the customers he got me. When I left high school to attend college I quit keeping fish and abondoned the business.
Well, my softmore year of college the bug hit again. I was doing really well with school and work and had some extra cash, so I went bigger than I had ever gone and bought a 180 gallon tank, set up a marine tank and had a 2foot nurse shark in it until I graduated. Naturally, my house was the coolest with the big tank and a shark! LOL!
After college I, once again, shut down the aquarium and joined the U.S. Navy and toured four about 7 years. Most of my time was spent in Japan and San Diego, CA. After the Navy, I began a job as an electrical engineer in San Diego, CA. Since that time I also spent 2 years in Iraq working with the Navy, Army and Marine Corps. It was a proud time for me working with all those sailors, soldiers and marines. Iraq is a god for saken place, especially where most of the US troops are. I spent those two years between Mosul, Tikrit and Balad. I traveled all over the Middle East, Asia and Europe. It was good to return home.
Today I have 18 adult discus living in a variety of tanks throughout the house. I have a 150 and a 110 that are my discus show pieces. Spawning has gotten so frequent that I am building on our property to start making space for a new fish room. I hope to have it completed this summer and hopefully start filling it with tanks and discus then. I am slowly developing my hobby of discus keeping in to discus breeding. It's been a lot of fun and I have had excellent success!
I learned about SD late in the game. I had no idea what a great source of information and experience was out there. I read things on this site that I would have probably never been aware of, especially the disease section. I had no idea that discus could have such complex problems. I have been one of the lucky (few apparently) people that have not had to deal with any disease, but I'm glad I have you all to come to if and when I do. You're like my extended discus loving family!
For this years challenge I'll be utilizing my own tried and true methods of raising discus. The stock that I receive will begin their grow out process in their own, dedicated 110 gallon tank. The tank will be planted with a play sand substrate bottom. Filtration consists of a fluval 405 and possibly a sponge filter or two. Feedings will be kept at 4 daily with a variety of foods. I make all of my own foods with the exception of blood worm (obviously). Water changes for fry in this size tank are typically twice weekly at 50% changeover. More may be done if circumstances dictate.
All of this will be accurately recorded and reported through this thread. I look forward to posting results of this challenge step by step! It should be exciting. Best wishes to all of you!
Sue 
Comment