# Our 155 gallon planted aquarium with AquaTerra 3D background.



## Herbicidal

*Started assembling it in July, 2010.* 
155 gallon aquarium with black 4-door stand and matching black 4-door canopy.
Lights installed within each of the four under tank cabinets so I can see!
AquaTerra Tanganyika rock 3D background.
1 – Rena XP3 canister filter (filled with peat, pads, and various bio-media).
1 – Rena XP4 canister filter (filled with peat, pads, and various bio-media).
2- 300 watt heaters.
1 - Koralia water circulation pump mounted behind the background.
160 lbs of Eco-Complete.
2 – 48” dual bulb, low-tech Lowes florescent shop hoods with a total of 4, 6500k bulbs mounted to the inside top of the canopy and on digital timers. Soon to be replaced with some Catalina T-5 HO retrofits.

*Fish:*
5 – Rams
4 – Clown loaches
3 – Yoyo loaches
1 – Upside down butterfly catfish
5 – Ottos
8 – Rummy Nose Tetra’s
?? – Discus, waiting for tank to cycle and stabilize

*Driftwood:*
Several pieces of Malaysian driftwood to help maintain the pH.

*Plants:*
Work in progress, some Anubias to start.
************************************
That's the basics to get me going. I've kept both fresh and salt water fish about 15 years ago. This is my first foray into a planted tank. Wow! Aquarium technology has so changed over the years! My wife and our two wonderful kids are my motivation behind this project, gotta love the support! roud:

Here's some pictures to get started. I've enjoyed the journey so far! :icon_smil

The background has arrived! Just sitting on top for the picture. Now to get it into the aquarium.









Angle view to try and show a little more detail. We are very happy with this background. It is quite stout and very detailed.









Sitting on the floor to show the undulations:









Had to cut it into 1/3's to get it to fit. THAT was a bit nerve racking! The pink high-density foam on the bottom will lift up the background so that it is snug against the glass supports at the top of the aquarium. Obviously the pink foam will get covered by substrate.









More pictures to follow as I reassemble it in the aquarium. Feels like building a ship in a bottle, but on a larger scale. :tongue:


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## nr85

well, i was all excited to see pictures...but there isn't any!


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## problemman

yah i know right! pictures please?


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## Herbicidal

*My bad!* Can you see them now?


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## nr85

Yes, looks like a good start! Can't wait to see the hardscape next.


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## switcharoo

that backround is going to look real nice, GL. and im watching this


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## Herbicidal

Thank you! Just received a piece of (what I think is unique) driftwood from AquariumPlants.com. Hopefully I can find a good place for it. :smile: Tomorrow, I pick up some Catalina T-5 HO, 36 inch, twin bulb, retrofits with a 6,500k and a 10,000k bulb in each unit. The Catalina aquarium lighting company is only 20 minutes from work, so that makes it real easy to make a lunch time run! Plus no shipping! I'll put the Lowes shop lights in the garage.


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## VadimShevchuk

This is gonna be a cool tank. love the journal and background so far. Do you still keep saltwater?


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## Herbicidal

VadimShevchuk said:


> This is gonna be a cool tank. love the journal and background so far. Do you still keep saltwater?


Thanks! No saltwater. I gave it all up when my wife and I had our daughter about 14 years ago. It was only fish. Some moray eels, a Lion fish, some other kinds that I've since forgotten. They were in a 135 gallon aquarium with a few other in a 55 gallon. At the same time I was running several fresh water tanks, the largest being a 120. The whole house just hummed from the air pumps, filters, etc. It was pretty cool! But a lot of work!!!


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## problemman

I'm excited now!


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## Herbicidal

*More pictures!*

Reassembled the three pieces into the tank successfully! Whew!!! I thought long and hard about how to "glue" the pieces and then hold them in place. I used black silicone sealant, T-pins and rubber bands. I stuck the T-pins in at about a 45 degree angle before gluing up and down each section. Then siliconed the two pieces together and then strung the rubber bands across the seam to the T-pins, thus holding it all together! Waalaah! Waited 24 hours and repeated on the remaining section. Prior to that I cut a rectangular opening that allows water to pass from the front to rear and covered it with some included plastic mesh, glued from the backside. That black blob looking thing is where the mesh is, see second picture for a front view.

First sections re-joined:









Front, medium-close view of the pass through. Cut it high enough to allow for about 3 inches of substrate.









It took awhile to figure out where to place all the equipment. Two filter intakes and returns, two heaters and a circulation pump to move the water around behind the background. My goal was to have as little equipment showing as possible. Facing the back of the aquarium, this is to the right.









This is the view to the left, again when facing the back of the aquarium. The 'looping' return line has an opening through the "rock" wall out to the front. The return line at the top of the picture is for the 2nd filter and I had to run the return to a spray bar that sits in the upper right hand corner and streams water out right to left down the entire length of the aquarium.









This is a top view looking straight down on how I routed the return line from filter #2.









This picture shows the spray bar return and the black circle (to the right of that flash flare) is the return end of filter #1. The spray bar is the only piece of equipment in front of the background. Since it's tucked way up and to the right, it's barely noticeable. Still trying to maintain that "clean" look.









Finally the background and equipment issues are sorted out. Ready for the Eco-Complete! 8 bags worth all ready to go.









Next, add Eco-Complete and will it hold water without leaking??? Did I do a thorough enough job figuring out the placement of everything? I think I have...I think I have...


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## nr85

Awesomeness right there! Love the setup with the heaters and stuff, hope its not too hard to clean behind there if you need to.


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## TeamTeal

that background looks great!


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## ridewake210

Awesome looking set up so far!
Cant wait to see more


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## switcharoo

TeamTeal said:


> that background looks great!


 roud:


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## VadimShevchuk

I would return the eco and look into getting some ada soil. I have eco complete and it works okay but i you have hard water then i would get amazonia because it lowers ph.


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## The_Finglonger

don't forget to level the thing before you add water!  tank is looking real good


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## Herbicidal

slapnutz said:


> Awesomeness right there! Love the setup with the heaters and stuff, hope its not too hard to clean behind there if you need to.


Thanks! It will be a little tricky. I'm thinking about some smaller diameter plastic tubing zip tied to a wooden dowl that I can use to siphon off any detritus.



TeamTeal said:


> that background looks great!


Thank you!



ridewake210 said:


> Awesome looking set up so far!
> Cant wait to see more


 Thanks for the compliment. Working on it!



switcharoo said:


> roud:


 :smile:



VadimShevchuk said:


> I would return the eco and look into getting some ada soil. I have eco complete and it works okay but i you have hard water then i would get amazonia because it lowers ph.


Too late, but thanks for the feedback. :fish:



The_Finglonger said:


> don't forget to level the thing before you add water!  tank is looking real good


Absolutely and thanks!


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## kwheeler91

background is saweeet!!  looks like the grand canyon


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## rountreesj

ahhhhh.....black the sides out.....and put some needle leaf jf on some dw and hairgrass lawn


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## RipariumGuy

This is an awesome start Herbicidal! I mean, _awesome_! The only thing I would change would be to make this a South American blackwater biotope. But heck, thats me!


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## lauraleellbp

Have you filled it yet?


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## Dave-H

Wow!


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## Herbicidal

kwheeler91 said:


> background is saweeet!!  looks like the grand canyon


Thanks! I found the 3D backgrounds purely by accident, showed them to my wife and she said "go for it!" Man, I love her! 



rountreesj said:


> ahhhhh.....black the sides out.....and put some needle leaf jf on some dw and hairgrass lawn


We're on the same wave length! Already have the black paint and driftwood. Probably would need to step up to co2 for the hairgrass lawn and add more lighting? Not out of the question, just down the road. I've already been prepping my wife regarding co2. She's already been looking at complimentary black cabinets that could go on one side or the other to house the co2 tank, etc. Then we could place a nice big potted fern on top! :biggrin:



JakeJ said:


> This is an awesome start Herbicidal! I mean, _awesome_! The only thing I would change would be to make this a South American blackwater biotope. But heck, thats me!


Thank you! roud:



lauraleellbp said:


> Have you filled it yet?


Yes! After leveling it front to back by using wood shims under the feet of the stand. It was fine, left to right. Need to post some new pics! I will try to do that this weekend.



Dave-H said:


> Wow!


Thanks, man!


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## hydrophyte

That's awesome...can't wait to see it with plants and fish.


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## Centromochlus

That background is hawt!


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## switcharoo

Updates please!!! :d


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## VincentK

Herbicidal said:


>


So much Eco-Complete.... So *tear* beautiful

Eco-Complete is like the best substrate


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## Herbicidal

hydrophyte said:


> That's awesome...can't wait to see it with plants and fish.


Thanks! Soon....!



AzFishKid said:


> That background is hawt!


Thank you! We're very happy with it.



switcharoo said:


> Updates please!!! :d


Working on it!



VincentK said:


> So much Eco-Complete.... So *tear* beautiful
> 
> Eco-Complete is like the best substrate


I happened to catch a sale so it was more affordable, I think I got free shipping to boot! Good thing with that much weight!


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## Herbicidal

More pictures. 

Eco-Complete is in. This is looking down the entire length, right to left:









Oh yeah, in anticipation of getting fish, my daughter found a bunch of pictures on the internet and printed them out. She then taped them to the inside of the aquarium. Basically telling me to '*get busy*' Dad!!!









My first attempt at lighting. These are 4' shop lights from Lowes, with a total of 4, 6,500k bulbs, also from Lowes. They are mounted to the underside of the canopy. I painted the interior white, and now I realized I should have painted the backs of the canopy doors too! I'll get to that one day.









The water is in and the canopy is on. I have handles I need to install on the canopy doors that match those on the stand. Let there be light! I know, a little overexposed. Still working on my aquarium photography skills. :wink:









Next comes plants, driftwood (soaking in a bathtub for two weeks now with almost daily hot water changes) and then some fish! It's FINALLY coming together!


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## cah925

I love projects like this. It's fun to watch them come together.


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## Herbicidal

cah925 said:


> I love projects like this. It's fun to watch them come together.


Thank you! It will be fun to look back on the pictures as time goes by to see the changes. :smile:


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## Centromochlus

Woooowwww. :O I wish i would have gotten a foam background now. Jealous!


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## Herbicidal

AzFishKid said:


> Woooowwww. :O I wish i would have gotten a foam background now. Jealous!


Thanks! Decided to try something different and I was fortunate to be able to afford one. Plus a LOT of overtime hours at work didn't hurt anything either. :wink:


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## Herbicidal

*A few more pictures...*

Driftwood piece from Aquariumplants.com. It's about 22" tall and again about that wide at the base. I have a couple of other smaller pieces that I'm trying out. This piece is soaking since it wanted to float.









My water changing equipment. High angle view looking down. Pond pump with hose attachment, Rena XP3 with peat in one chamber to reduce the pH, air pump with two air stones for aeration and three short lengths of tubing to flow water from one 32 gallon trash can to the other for water circulation between both cans. Two, 150 watt heaters are coming so I can leave it overnight and keep the temperature up to 85 degrees. I take the lids and set them on upside down so that the water drips back into the cans and not down the outside. Works great!









Under the stand view. Since both the left and right most cabinets have a pass-through hole in the back, I installed plug strips (for the filters, heaters and lights) and a short florescent light fixture held to the underside with Velcro. The two center cabinets don't have electricity, so I'm using battery powered LED lights instead. Now I can easily see inside.









I'll try to get a few pics of the aquarium with the starter plants (Anubias) and driftwood posted soon. I have some Rams, Clown Loaches and some Rummy Nose Tetra's in there now. My camera can't handle the speed of the fish moving around, they are all a blur.


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## shewolfgeo

how exciting. Loving everything so far.


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## Herbicidal

shewolfgeo said:


> how exciting. Loving everything so far.


Thank you!

Here's a few pictures with a couple of plants from a LFS. Gotta start somewhere right? :tongue: I'm working on getting more plants too, of course! roud:

Finally filled with water, substrate, some driftwood, some plants and fish. More plants coming and another piece of driftwood, then I'll redo the plants and driftwood. I had to get the driftwood out of the bathtub! There is a blur about a 1/3 of the way over from the right that is a Clown loach zooming by.









Semi-close up of the left hand side. More fishy blurs!









Semi-close up of the right hand side. Looks like a Ram is barely visible beneath the driftwood in the shadow.









Angled view of entire aquarium.









Corner end view showing a partial view behind the 3D background. I had to add some brown weather stripping to fill a small gap between the background and the glass. The Clown Loaches were slipping behind the background. Sneaky guys! I plan to paint the glass black from the edge of the background to the back of the aquarium.









Small Anubias in Eco-Complete substrate. C'mon! Grow, baby grow!









Discovered the light level is too low to even be considered 'low light'! I bought a pair of 36" dual bulb fixtures from Catalina Lighting with two 6,500 k bulbs and two 10,000 k bulbs. Now I need to remove the Lowes shop lights from the canopy and install the new ones. I still have a number of things on my 'to-do' list, but don't we all? The water is tinged a bit yellow from the driftwood and it will probably take awhile for it to clear even with regular water changes.

I've got my eye on some Discus at the LFS, so hopefully I'll have some in the aquarium soon! All the water parameters are looking good and the pH is stable @ 7.3 - 7.4. Maybe a little high for ideal conditions for Discus, but it is stable. Water temp is @ 85 degrees and drops only a degree during the cooler overnight hours. So far so good.


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## VadimShevchuk

the dark substrate with your background is epic! BTW don't plant the rhizome in the substrate on anubias. Only bury the roots or the plant will rot.


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## malaybiswas

Sweet! Discus will be great in this tank. remove the question mark against them in your first post :hihi:


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## malaybiswas

BTW, how can this material be cleaned off algae?


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## Herbicidal

VadimShevchuk said:


> the dark substrate with your background is epic! BTW don't plant the rhizome in the substrate on anubias. Only bury the roots or the plant will rot.


Thanks for the compliment and the tip! I'll carefully raise them up a bit.



malaybiswas said:


> Sweet! Discus will be great in this tank. remove the question mark against them in your first post :hihi:


I will have to do that! I went back and forth for a couple of weeks on whether I would make it a Discus tank. I have finally decided *I am! :biggrin:*



malaybiswas said:


> BTW, how can this material be cleaned off algae?


Long term, I'm not really sure. I have three Otto's in there now and I may need more. I'm hoping the cleaning crew will help. We'll see where the algae grows and I may let it do it's own thing. If I opt to clean it, I would probably use a fairly soft brush of some kind. The background and color is pretty stout, so as long as I'm careful, I should be able OK. For now, I'll let nature take it's course and see what happens.
:fish:


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## efface

Good stuff herbicial!

Impressed with home clean it turned out.


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## cah925

I agree, that background with the dark gravel looks incredible.


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## Herbicidal

efface said:


> Good stuff herbicial!
> 
> Impressed with home clean it turned out.


Thank you! I was trying very hard to make the "install" as clean as possible. The devil's in the details! I would do it this way again in a heartbeat. The *only* difference would be maybe getting a 180 gallon, same length, just deeper from front to back. The background I selected doesn't project too far into the "space", but it would be nice to have more foreground room for plants, etc.



cah925 said:


> I agree, that background with the dark gravel looks incredible.


Thanks! I'm very pleased with the contrast and it should really make the colors of the 'soon to be' Discus just pop! roud:


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## RipariumGuy

This is making me cry it is so awesome! Just so you know though, the rhizome (the thick green thing that all the leaves are attatched to) of the _Anubias_ will rot if it is buried in the substrate.


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## Herbicidal

JakeJ said:


> This is making me cry it is so awesome! Just so you know though, the rhizome (the thick green thing that all the leaves are attatched to) of the _Anubias_ will rot if it is buried in the substrate.


Thanks, but don't cry! Please don't cry! :tongue:

Duly noted about the Anubias, it has been "adjusted". :thumbsup:


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## Herbicidal

*Update.*

I bought several Discus and plants from Jojo's in Sacramento, CA over the last 10 days or so. The first Discus is mostly orange in color with some red coloration and black dots sprinkled over him, no it's not a disease!!!  He successfully joined his tank mates (5 Rams, I don't know if they are German Blues or not, a dozen Rummy Nose Tetras, 4 Clown loaches, 3 Yoyo loaches and 3 Ottos). All the other fish have been in the tank for a little while eating like pigs! I can almost hear the oinking through the glass. The Discus began eating frozen blood worms his first night and has acclimated very well to his new surroundings. Last weekend I bought another orange one, almost pure orange with no black sprinkles and a Cobalt blue. The first Discus gave his new tank mates the once over and decided to start pushing around the Cobalt. I'll call the first Discus D1 for short (my daughter wants me to name them :tongue, but did not harass the other orange one at all. Do they know what color they are?  In fact, within 15 minutes, the 2nd orange Discus began following D1 around the tank as if they've known each other for weeks! A potential pair? I have no idea.

The next morning, I noticed D1 was still trying to bully the Cobalt. With three Discus in the tank, I felt that was probably too low a number and the Cobalt needed some company to even up the odds a bit. I went back and bought two more in the "blue color" category. A leopard skin and a snake skin. This brought the total up to five and now I've seemed to have reached a harmonious level. Only once in awhile will I see D1 push the others around, but not nearly with the earlier intensity "he" was showing to the Cobalt. So that is good!

By the way, they are all eating with enthusiasm! The frozen blood worms are by far their favorite food. They are taking some flake food from the surface, the super small Hikari Discus Bio Gold pellets, and every other day or so I place 1/2 a cube of frozen beef heart in the floating perforated funnel thing and once it gets soft enough, they pull it through the holes. I occasionally do the same with frozen brine shrimp.

The water parameters are all within spec and so far I'm doing weekly water changes totalling about 65 gallons. I'm still getting some yellowing of the water due to the release of tannins from the driftwood so I added some activated carbon to one basket in the Rena XP3 canister. I'm running the lights from 9am to 9pm, so far so good.

My digital camera is not adequate enough to capture them without blurring, especially with a low light setup and I don't really want to "flash" them, even at an angle. A friend of mine is stopping by tomorrow night and I've asked him to bring his much nicer camera to see if he can get some good pictures. Hopefully I'll be able to post up some new aquarium pictures WITH the Discus and the new plants! roud:

I'd love to get a few more Discus from Kenny of Simply Discus fame in the not so distant future. We'll see!


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## problemman

Oooooooooooo I cant wait for this!


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## Herbicidal

*Some new pictures.*

Here's a couple of pictures I was able to take with my camera yesterday after work. A little blurry on all 5 Discus and of course they blur in the whole aquarium picture. We'll see what my friend can do with his camera tonight. A Cobalt Blue at the 10 o'clock position, Leopard skin at 12 o'clock, Orange at 3 o'clock (anyone know what he is?), Snake skin at 5 o'clock and the the other Orange one at 8 o'clock.

*The current five. D1 is the orange one on the far right:*









*The whole tank. Newest piece of driftwood on the far right (one piece). Still need more plants and I would like to grow some moss on the driftwood too:*


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## problemman

I'm so freaking jealous !!!!!!!!!


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## Herbicidal

I finally have some updated pictures of some of my Discus (my friend took these). Since these photo's were taken, I acquired three more Discus for a total of 8! All are doing fantastic and I could easily hand feed them as they come right to the waters surface, eagerly awaiting their food. They are eating flakes, Discus pellets, frozen (thawed) blood worms, Brine shrimp, Mysis shrimp and Beef heart. I alternate the foods and mix and match them for variety.

I don't really have any pictures specific to the plants, but they are hanging in there. I was running the lights too long (12 hours/day) and I was getting brown algae on the Anubia, now I've cut it back to 8 hours and it seems to be better. Even though I switched over to 2 sets of 36" T5HO Catalina fixtures, I believe I'm still in the super low light level category. The Catalina retrofits are mounted to the inside of the canopy and they are 29" above the substrate (projecting through glass lids). Still researching if I need to buy another fixture or two. I need to review Hoppy's lighting chart again.

Here's the pictures, enjoy!


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## rountreesj

if you have space between the tsho fixtures, you could mount some metal halide fixtures, 2x 150 would do the trick! But IF you do this I would highly recommend sourcing the 8k-ish bulbs for them. cheers


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## Da Plant Man

All this talk about discus is making me want some! But then again I don't think they would want my 8.3 pH...I saw a lecture on discus a few days ago by Dick Au, so now I know like everything about discus :hihi:...He said keep it cramped so they don't hide but with good water quality... I really am loving this tank, it is amazing. You on the forum over on simplydiscus?


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## chilled_fire

The back ground is absolutely stunning ! great job !
Was wondering weather this tank neads any plants  hardscape with drift wood would have looks just fine ... just personal thought though .


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## Herbicidal

rountreesj said:


> if you have space between the tsho fixtures, you could mount some metal halide fixtures, 2x 150 would do the trick! But IF you do this I would highly recommend sourcing the 8k-ish bulbs for them. cheers


I've got the space. The current fixtures run end-to-end and there is plenty of room in the canopy. PLUS - Catalina aquarium lighting is only 20 minutes from my office! :thumbsup:



Caton said:


> All this talk about discus is making me want some! But then again I don't think they would want my 8.3 pH...I saw a lecture on discus a few days ago by Dick Au, so now I know like everything about discus :hihi:...He said keep it cramped so they don't hide but with good water quality... I really am loving this tank, it is amazing. You on the forum over on simplydiscus?


Interesting about the "keep it cramped" comment. I'm doing weekly water changes of just about 50%. I was thinking of having @ 10 Discus, plus the other smaller dither fish in the tank. Hmmmm, I wonder if I can go a little higher than 10? I really would like to get a few from Kenny's Discus since I can drive to his location too! Only two hours away from my home. Woohoo!

Depending upon your filtration, you can add peat to it and bring down the pH. My tap water is almost identical to yours. I age my water (typically overnight - there is a picture back in here somewhere showing my setup) using a Rena XP3 with peat pellets in one of the baskets, I test it before pumping to the main tank and the pH drops to the 7.4 - 7.6 range everytime. The pH in my tank is remaining steady @ 7.4 - 7.6. The variation is me, trying to accurately compare a water sample to the pH color chart. :icon_roll

Thanks again for the compliment! I joined SimplyDiscus, but I haven't posted too much yet. I plan on posting my aquarium build there, just haven't made the time yet.


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## Herbicidal

chilled_fire said:


> The back ground is absolutely stunning ! great job !
> Was wondering weather this tank neads any plants  hardscape with drift wood would have looks just fine ... just personal thought though .


Thank you!! The Discus appear to enjoy the plants too, after mealtime, I see them going through the plants looking for leftover bits of food. I want the plants to grow TALLER already! :biggrin:


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## antbug

Wow, I can't believe I miss this journal. AMAZING Job! My Discus would be mad at me if they saw your tank :hihi:


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## Herbicidal

antbug said:


> Wow, I can't believe I miss this journal. AMAZING Job! My Discus would be mad at me if they saw your tank :hihi:


Thank you! Still a work in progress, but I guess all of our aquariums are. :tongue: I look forward to meeting you at the Sac Aquatic Plant get together on Tuesday.


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## AquaNorth

Very Very Nice


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## VadimShevchuk

Discus look really nice in you aquarium. Are you gonna get a total of 12 discus in there? That would look really nice. Great journal!


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## Herbicidal

AquaNorth said:


> Very Very Nice


Thank you very, very much! :wink:



VadimShevchuk said:


> Discus look really nice in you aquarium. Are you gonna get a total of 12 discus in there? That would look really nice. Great journal!


Thanks to you too! I'm at 8 now, I was considering a couple of more... I think I mentioned here before, I'm only two hours away from Kenny Cheung and his Discus headquarters in Daly City, CA. I would LOVE to drive over and hand pick a couple of beauties from him to complete my flock.


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## Hoppy

Wow, that is a beautiful tank! And, I enjoyed talking with you at tonights meeting too. I looked at my lighting charts and I agree with Anthony that you have medium light, possibly low medium. If you add pressurized CO2 the plants will grow much faster, making it harder for algae to even think about starting up. Then you will also need to start dosing some fertilizers to feed the faster growth. But, for now the low plant density is probably supported well enough from the fish waste.

I wish Tom Barr had been there tonight to talk to you about the water change method you are using. Maybe he will find this journal and comment.


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## Nephentes

WOW! Thats a Hot tank. Nice work! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:


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## mayanjungledog

Beautiful tank with GORGEOUS Discus! It was great chatting with you tonight!


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## Herbicidal

Hoppy said:


> Wow, that is a beautiful tank! And, I enjoyed talking with you at tonights meeting too. I looked at my lighting charts and I agree with Anthony that you have medium light, possibly low medium. If you add pressurized CO2 the plants will grow much faster, making it harder for algae to even think about starting up. Then you will also need to start dosing some fertilizers to feed the faster growth. But, for now the low plant density is probably supported well enough from the fish waste.
> 
> I wish Tom Barr had been there tonight to talk to you about the water change method you are using. Maybe he will find this journal and comment.


Thank you Hoppy! I enjoyed talking with you too! I learned quite a bit from you and the other folks at last nights meeting. Great group of people. :smile: I'm still on the edge of whether to go with CO2/ferts and all that. Seems like it would take the "work effort" to a new level and I'm not sure I'm ready to go there yet. :icon_wink Soooo much to learn! It would be great if I can borrow the PAR meter to get an accurate read on my lighting. I'll try to work that out with Anthony after he uses it.

Yeah, I wish Tom had been there as well. I would very much like to meet him and hear his thoughts on my water change method. The folks over on SimplyDiscus might freak out by simply slapping a hose in there and filling the tank back up with water right from the tap! :biggrin: For now, I'm staying with my current method as I haven't killed anything. roud:



Nephentes said:


> WOW! Thats a Hot tank. Nice work! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:


Thanks so much Nephentes!



mayanjungledog said:


> Beautiful tank with GORGEOUS Discus! It was great chatting with you tonight!


Thank you very much! Likewise! I enjoyed meeting and talking with everyone else too! Looking forward to the next meeting.


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## ylot77

Awesome tank! It looks great now, and I'm sure it'll look even better when the plants get really big! I showed my wife the pictures, and she just rolled her eyes. But she did smile 
You have a lot invested in this tank. You might try something a bit smaller and with cheaper fish if you wanted to get your feet wet concerning CO2 and fertilizers. It would be really sad if fluctuating CO2 levels and fertilizers that got out of whack killed fish and caused out-of-control algae. It took me a while before I got my first planted tank looking good, and a few neon tetras died in the process. Just an idea.


----------



## jcardona1

Ah now I see the dual trash cans! Pics were buried in the middle of the thread. That's pretty intense! Remember I sent you a link a while back about that vendor selling discus? Well a guy I know bought several, and he keeps them in water straight from the tap. Has them in a 180g and they're doing great! I think this day and age captive-bred discus are not as sensitive as people think they are. Here's a pic the discus he picked up:


----------



## Herbicidal

ylot77 said:


> Awesome tank! It looks great now, and I'm sure it'll look even better when the plants get really big! I showed my wife the pictures, and she just rolled her eyes. But she did smile
> You have a lot invested in this tank. You might try something a bit smaller and with cheaper fish if you wanted to get your feet wet concerning CO2 and fertilizers. It would be really sad if fluctuating CO2 levels and fertilizers that got out of whack killed fish and caused out-of-control algae. It took me a while before I got my first planted tank looking good, and a few neon tetras died in the process. Just an idea.


Thanks ylot77! Too funny about your wife's reaction. :biggrin: I appreciate your suggestion. I'm thinking that you are right. It would be horrible to have something go wrong. I've only been back into the hobby for several months now and I think I haven't fully comprehended what I've gotten myself into. If I can go a year without a major problem, I'll feel like I've really accomplished something! roud:



jcardona1 said:


> Ah now I see the dual trash cans! Pics were buried in the middle of the thread. That's pretty intense! Remember I sent you a link a while back about that vendor selling discus? Well a guy I know bought several, and he keeps them in water straight from the tap. Has them in a 180g and they're doing great! I think this day and age captive-bred discus are not as sensitive as people think they are.


Thanks Jose! It may be overkill, but I've a lot invested in that aquarium and I'd rather take the extra time to match the water conditions before doing a big water change.

Those Discus look great! I think you are right about the sensitivity of the domestically bred Discus. I've got the routine down, so for now, I'll stick with what works for me. :smile:


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## jcardona1

^ Definitely! Like the saying goes, 'if ain't broke, don't fix it'


----------



## kuni

Nice meeting you on Tuesday, Herb!

The tank is gorgeous. 

Personally, I'd stay away from the siren song of CO2 considering the number of expensive discus in there. Too much CO2 and the fish can asphyxiate, which I understand is a pretty common "newbie" situation. CO2 also drops the pH of the water, which means you have to pay more attention to that.

I'd focus on getting some more low-light plants, keep the discus happy, and start a fert routine. Then, if you want to try CO2, get a setup and learn the ins and outs on a tank that doesn't contain so many beautiful, beautiful Discus! 

Next meeting, I'll make sure to bring some sprigs of stuff that grows well in medium light with no CO2. Some watersprite would look great, and it sucks up fish waste from the Discus, which means happier fish and fewer water changes!


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## Herbicidal

kuni said:


> Nice meeting you on Tuesday, Herb!
> 
> The tank is gorgeous.
> 
> Personally, I'd stay away from the siren song of CO2 considering the number of expensive discus in there. Too much CO2 and the fish can asphyxiate, which I understand it's a pretty common "newbie" situation. CO2 also drops the pH of the water, which means you have to pay more attention to that.
> 
> I'd focus on getting some more low-light plants, keep the discus happy, and start a fert routine. Then, if you want to try CO2, get a setup and learn the ins and outs on a tank that doesn't contain so many beautiful, beautiful Discus!
> 
> Next meeting, I'll make sure to bring some sprigs of stuff that grows well in medium light with no CO2. Some watersprite would look great, and it sucks up fish waste from the Discus, which means happier fish and fewer water changes!


It was nice meeting you too! Thanks for all the info as well. I'm sure we could have talked for hours.

So far, I've resisted that CO2 temptress! :icon_wink I think I will stay with the low-light plants since what I've done so far, is working more often than not. I need to spend more time reviewing the 'how to's' of fertilizing and come up with a plan that is not too time consuming and maintainable over the long haul. I'll look up watersprite and check it out. Thanks for that suggestion as well as offering to bring some 'sprigs' to the next meeting. roud:

Thanks too for the compliment about the Discus. I hope to be able to provide them with all they need for a long and happy life. :smile: C'mon plants *GROW*!!!! :biggrin:


----------



## Aquamom

Absolutely AWESOME tank! I'm sure some fertilizing will help those plants grow faster and taller. I like the green contrast to all the brown and black. And the fish are gorgeous! You, my friend, are an artist.

-- Aquamom


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## Herbicidal

Aquamom said:


> Absolutely AWESOME tank! I'm sure some fertilizing will help those plants grow faster and taller. I like the green contrast to all the brown and black. And the fish are gorgeous! You, my friend, are an artist.
> 
> -- Aquamom


Wow! Thank you for your compliments! I'm blushing here! :biggrin: My whole family enjoys the tank too! I have an oversized recliner across from the tank and I try to take some time each day to just sit back, relax and enjoy the tank and it's inhabitants. After awhile, if I hold still, they forget I'm there and go about their business. It's soothing to watch them swim in and around the plants and driftwood.


----------



## LICfish

Your tank is amazing!!!


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## Herbicidal

LICfish said:


> Your tank is amazing!!!


Thanks for the kind words LICfish! :smile:


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## Herbicidal

Things have just been cruising along, nothing much to report. I'm considering a minor rescape and have already pulled out a large piece of rather thick driftwood from the far left hand side. Wow! Sure opened things up! More room for plants and possibly a manzanita piece (nothing sharp, of course)! :hihi: About two weeks ago I picked up two Clown pleco's since they stay small and I was looking for algae control. They are now in the aquarium and they are already earning their keep! This Anubias (older leaves) was heavily covered in algae and these guys started cleaning it up! You can even see 'mouth tracks' on that center leaf. Yaay! They're not done yet, but...go guys go!!! :biggrin:









When I came home from work tonight, I was checking out my wife's 90 gallon planted tank that she is working on and I noticed that her recently acquired (last weekend) Rams were acting rather strangely down in the front left corner. I took a closer look and lo' and behold...eggs!!! I don't believe anything will come from them, since these fish are so small and young. They both seemed to know _something_ happened, but that was about it.  Here's a few pictures of them from her tank.

See the eggs? Between the fish and the plant, then down slightly. Not quite clear in color. Crazy!!!









I called my daughter over and we actually saw the female lay a few more eggs right before our eyes! That was a first for both of us!









She was swimming around with her ovipositor partially extended. If you use your imagination, you can just see it in this profile shot. It was very nice of her to pose for me. :tongue:


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## problemman

You do know the plant in the ram picture is not aquatic right? Its a house plant


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## gregpxc

I have made the mistake with that plant. I got mine from the "aquatic plant" tubes at petsmart... now I don't buy anything from there (or try not to)


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## Herbicidal

gregpxc said:


> I have made the mistake with that plant. I got mine from the "aquatic plant" tubes at petsmart... now I don't buy anything from there (or try not to)


That's exactly where we bought that one from! I thought they said it was an aquarium plant? What the heck? I don't recall the company that packaged them. I guess I need to take another look and contact them. Sheesh!



problemman said:


> You do know the plant in the ram picture is not aquatic right? Its a house plant


I do now! :icon_wink


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## jcardona1

Looking good Herb! Congrats on the ram spawn, hopefully they'll hatch. How are the plants coming along that you got from the last meeting? I see one of them in your pics, looks like it's growing


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## Herbicidal

Hello Jose! Thanks! The eggs were gone by that evening, as in eaten. I figured that would happen as those Rams are very young and really didn't know what was going on. We'll see what happens as they mature. Those Rams are in my wifes 90g.

The plants are actually growing!!!  I picked up two Clown pleco's and a dozen or so Nerite snails and combined, they have made a HUGE dent in the algae! The leaves of the Anubias are now almost spot free! I picked up a few more plants and they all seem to be doing pretty well. I'm getting some dry ferts from Green Leaf Aquarium along with two dosing bottles, so pretty soon I'll start a fert routine on my tank and my wifes.

I finally may have found the "sweet" spot. In fact, I may increase the photo period from 8 to 10 hours to give the clean up crew a little more food as most of the algae is pretty much gone. I don't want those guys to go hungry.


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## Herbicidal

I picked up some LED blue moonlight bars awhile back and finally made the time to mount them inside the canopy.

In this picture, they are mounted on the right side of the Catalina retro-fits. There are three units:









Light test:









After the main lights have turned off for the night, this is the entire aquarium. You can just make out some Discus in the center and to the left of center:









Medium close-up of the left hand side:









Medium close-up of the right hand side. There is a Checkerboard Discus just below dead center in this picture:









I'm happy with how they turned out. I have them turn on via a timer a few minutes before the first bank of main lights turn off. Then the second bank of main lights turn off about 10 minutes later. The moonlights stay on for 45 minutes, then go off. With the rest of the house dark and once my eyes have accustomed to moonlights, you can see quite well except in the shadows. Even the Clown pleco's venture out and I'll drop in an food tablet or two for them. It's just a different viewing experience. :smile:


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## Herbicidal

I think I have turned some kind of corner with my tank and the plants. Or at least finding a balance.

Here is a picture of an Anubias I took about a month ago. Since then I introduced a dozen or so nerite snails and three Clown pleco's. Combined, they have done an AMAZING job on cleaning up the algae! I'm loving my clean up crew!!! roud:









Here's a picture taken last week of the same plant. What a *HUGE* difference!


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## Herbicidal

*Digital pH tester.*

Since I'm doing weekly water changes on my 155g and my wife's 90g, and every couple of weeks on my kids tanks (10g, 29g and 32g) I decided to buy a digital pH/temp meter. My tap water is a pH of 8.3 and the aquariums have stablized @ a pH of 6.8. I don't want to 'shock' the inhabitants with the tap water, so I "age" it first. I found that the liquid pH test bottles and the colors in the glass vials is rather a pain and I can never quite match up the colors to get what I consider to be an accurate reading. With the meter I can check all the water quickly and easily. It's also nice to have the temp display at the same time as the pH. I 'clean' the sensor with distilled water after every use and keep the tip moist while in storage using the supplied foam in the cap. Here's the unit I purchased from Amazon: *HM Digital Meters Waterproof pH/Temperature Meter*.


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## Tamelesstgr

Amazing tank, nice job!


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## Betta Maniac

Caton said:


> All this talk about discus is making me want some! But then again I don't think they would want my 8.3 pH.


My tap is about that, but it ages out overnight to 7 and the ADA brings it down to about 6.


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## VadimShevchuk

Glad to hear that you are winning the war against algae. How much did you pay for the meter (if it's not a secret)?


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## RipariumGuy

VadimShevchuk said:


> Glad to hear that you are winning the war against algae. How much did you pay for the meter (if it's not a secret)?


I was wondering the same thing. I could really use something like that.... Tank looks epic by the way! roud:


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## Herbicidal

JakeJ said:


> I was wondering the same thing. I could really use something like that.... Tank looks epic by the way! roud:


Thank you! Everyone is doing quite well. I will hopefully pick up a few more Discus early in the new year.



VadimShevchuk said:


> Glad to hear that you are winning the war against algae. How much did you pay for the meter (if it's not a secret)?


I'm happy to have reached some kind of balance without a major outbreak. :icon_bigg No secret...it was $79.95 plus shipping.



Betta Maniac said:


> My tap is about that, but it ages out overnight to 7 and the ADA brings it down to about 6.


Yeah, I was surprised what a little time and aeration does to the pH.



Tamelesstgr said:


> Amazing tank, nice job!


Thanks! That was quite a few pages you waded through!


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## SleepyOwl

Beautiful tank! You haven't actually posted any full tank pictures (with lights on) in months though...


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## Herbicidal

SleepyOwl said:


> Beautiful tank! You haven't actually posted any full tank pictures (with lights on) in months though...


Thank you for the compliment and the poke for some new ones! I'm actually almost out of space here on Planted Tank to store pictures. I can only upload 4 more. :icon_frow Journal keeping requires a lot of photos! I'd prefer to keep them all here, but I may have to go to an 'outside' photo storage site and link back. We'll see...


----------



## jcardona1

Herbicidal said:


> Thank you for the compliment and the poke for some new ones! I'm actually almost out of space here on Planted Tank to store pictures. I can only upload 4 more. :icon_frow Journal keeping requires a lot of photos! I'd prefer to keep them all here, but I may have to go to an 'outside' photo storage site and link back. We'll see...


Yeah I ran into that problem real quick! I use Flickr, and have a premium account which I pay for. But since I have a lot of my photography work up there, I went ahead and paid for it. Flickr is by far the best image-hosting site. It retains the highest image quality out of all other sites. 

I also have a Photobucket account, but it's painfully slow to use, and is littered with ads and popups.


----------



## Herbicidal

I was going back through some pictures and found this one I took last month of an electric blue (just kidding!) Singapore shrimp. He's sitting on top of the driftwood with his 'fans' extending (to the right) toward the flow out of the Rena XP4 spray bar. He was fun was to watch! The little random lines are air bubbles blowing past, not scratches.

Oh yeah, I need to take a few more full length tank shots with the lights on. :icon_wink Also, since I paid for a Silver subscription when I joined up, I get more space to upload photos! Thanks *KyleT* for making that 'adjustment' on my account! roud:


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## landolakes

Incredible, I was a saltwater nut but you guys on TPT have changed me,lol. After seeing this system and others I hardly miss my saltwater days.


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## Herbicidal

landolakes said:


> Incredible, I was a saltwater nut but you guys on TPT have changed me,lol. After seeing this system and others I hardly miss my saltwater days.


Thanks! Nice to have you here. :smile:


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## bnbfishin

As others have said already, awesome tank you have there! I have a 55 that I'm starting up. I'm going to do one of these journals as well. Won't be nearly as cool as the 155 you did but it'll be good to keep the info flowing so I have less to store in my noggin!


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## Herbicidal

bnbfishin said:


> As others have said already, awesome tank you have there! I have a 55 that I'm starting up. I'm going to do one of these journals as well. Won't be nearly as cool as the 155 you did but it'll be good to keep the info flowing so I have less to store in my noggin!


Thanks for the compliment! Yeah, the journals are a nice way to have on-line documentation of your project that is fun to look back on over time. It does take a bit more work, but I think it is well worth it! I wish I had the time to look at *EVERYONE* else's journals too!


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## Herbicidal

Hi everyone,

thought I would post an update since this is a journal after all. :tongue: Over the last couple of weeks I've noticed the pH dropping from where it had been in the 7's to a low of 5.4! Even with large and frequent water changes using 'aged' water that was showing a stable pH of 7.2, the level would drop back into the 5's, literally overnight! Everyone in the tank seemed fine, but it was quite worrisome to me to have the water becoming so acidic. All the water parameters I can test were fine, with the exception of phosphates which were around 10ppm. I dose with liquid ferts twice a week and one of the ingredients contains some phosphate so that probably explains the elevated levels.

Long story short, I pulled the activated charcoal out of the XP4 and replaced it with approximately 2 lbs of medium size crushed coral. This appears to have done the trick! After my last two water changes (120 gallons total) the pH was at 5.6. That same day, I added the crushed coral and by the next morning the pH was up to 6.7. That same evening: 6.8. Yesterday morning: 7.0 Last night: 7.1. This morning: 7.2. I'm thinking of pulling out about a pound of the crushed coral and see if I can land the pH back in the mid to upper 6's. Anyway, I feel much better that the water is no longer so acidic.

Sorry, no new pictures. Too much time spent on trying to resolve the pH issue. However, I now have two plants that have just about reached the surface! Nice to finally have some tall plants in the tank. Oh, I also picked up some Frogbit about two weekends ago and already it is starting to spread! First there was a small clump with several leaves spread out on the surface and all the roots floating below, then one day I noticed a 'stem' that went straight out from the side and produced some new leaves with tiny roots below it. Pretty cool! With the current generated by the spray bar, they float from one end of the tank to other and back in a slowly rotating ellipse. Kind of mesmerizing!

I will try to get some new pictures posted soon.


----------



## Herbicidal

Last night I picked up a new turquoise Ring Leopard Discus from my buddy *Jcardona1*, he's going with mostly 'wilds' for his aquarium. Thanks Jose! roud: I'm confident the new guy will fit it well with the others. Now I need to get busy and give Kenny's Discus a call to schedule a visit to his facility in Daly City, CA.


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## aaronbrown

love the tank thinking about buiding one here shortly and im wondering where did you get the background for your tank


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## Cryptocoryne

Wow! I'm impressed... I made a background the same way, and it looked nothing close to how great yours looks. Nice work!


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## Herbicidal

aaronbrown said:


> love the tank thinking about buiding one here shortly and im wondering where did you get the background for your tank


It looks like the guy I bought my from may not be in business, I can't find his web site. However, there are other dealers, here's a place to start: http://www.aquaterra-intl.com/index.html



Cryptocoryne said:


> Wow! I'm impressed... I made a background the same way, and it looked nothing close to how great yours looks. Nice work!


Thank you for the compliment!

Man, I've done it now! I picked up 4 more Discus yesterday! They are currently in QT. One is all white, with a tinge of blue along the bottom fin, another is a golden yellow and then one I think is a leopard variation but has an orangish coloration and the biggest one is orange and white, kind of scribbled? I've got to take and post some new pictures. The last two were a 'private' sale and the LFS was helping the owner. All 4 even ate some food last night after being in QT for less than an hour, so I take that as a really good sign! The largest one even came to the top of this tank this morning for some breakfast! Looks like 'he' is acclimating very well!

I can hardly wait to move them to the 155! Patience...patience! :icon_bigg


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## jgmbosnia1

Great tank! It's an inspiration! I'm doing the "I'm not worthy" bow.

Just one question.....are you worried about the heater maybe causing a problem being so close to the foam? If you are ....IMO a inline heater arangement would be put to good use.


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## Herbicidal

jgmbosnia1 said:


> Great tank! It's an inspiration! I'm doing the "I'm not worthy" bow.
> 
> Just one question.....are you worried about the heater maybe causing a problem being so close to the foam? If you are ....IMO a inline heater arangement would be put to good use.


Thank you! No need to bow, just throw money!!! Haha! :hihi: Actually I'm not worried about the heaters relative to the foam. That background is quite heavy duty, I think it would take prolonged direct contact before any damage was caused. I also have the Koralia water pumps blowing the water directly towards the heaters.


----------



## Herbicidal

*FINALLY!* A couple of pictures!

The new guys! Four of them in my 20 gal QT. They are being shy. Middle and to the right is a Golden Yellow and an all white one. To the left, I'm not sure what they are. The one next to the Golden Yellow will be the largest Discus I've had to date. Behind the large one is I think a Leopard Skin, but with an orange tinge to his colors.









3 of the 4 new guys. Hiding behind those 3 is the Golden Yellow.









Full tank shot. If you look closely, there are several Discus at the bottom center looking for Discus pellets. In the far upper left is an upside down Amazon sword, haven't planted it yet.


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## phorty

Looks great!

Are you buying these Discus as full grown adults? I've wanted Discus for a while but all I hear about is frequent disease if you don't do daily water changes, feed beef heart, and have a bare bottom tank. I don't want to do any of those 3 things so I've shyed away.


----------



## Herbicidal

phorty said:


> Looks great!
> 
> Are you buying these Discus as full grown adults? I've wanted Discus for a while but all I hear about is frequent disease if you don't do daily water changes, feed beef heart, and have a bare bottom tank. I don't want to do any of those 3 things so I've shyed away.


Thanks! No, the ones I purchase are maybe 8-10 months old? Hard to know for sure, but definitely not adults. I change about 45% of the water every week using 'aged' tap water. I run a heater and an airstone (usually overnight) and this brings the tap pH down from 8.5 or so into the low 7's. Then I won't induce any pH shock to the fish. My guys eat a wide variety of foods: frozen blood worms, frozen plankton, frozen mysis shrimp, frozen brine shrimp, frozen beef heart, Hikari Discus pellets, 3 different kinds of flake food they love it all! Heck, their diet is more varied then mine! :wink: I thaw out the frozen foods in a plastic cup and pour some into the tank a little at a time until it's gone. Obviously I don't have a bare bottom tank, I do vacuum it (carefully around the plants) about every 3rd water change. The tank is stable enough now that I only test pH, nitrates and phosphates. With my water change schedule, the parameters stay within specs.


----------



## phorty

That doesn't sound too bad. I can't stand when people like you come along and make me think I can pull it off haha! The only thing I'm not doing now is aging my water- I just pump it straight into the tank and add prime when it's filling.


----------



## Herbicidal

phorty said:


> That doesn't sound too bad. I can't stand when people like you come along and make me think I can pull it off haha! The only thing I'm not doing now is aging my water- I just pump it straight into the tank and add prime when it's filling.


Ha, made me laugh! :icon_mrgr I'm involved in a (pH) discussion over on SimplyDiscus about whether to age the water first or just fill it back up from the tap. Still gives me the shivers thinking about doing it that way!  But it would simplify my water changes for sure!


----------



## aaronbrown

ok im wondering about how much it cost for the background and ive viewed the aquaterra site but no prices and they are to short for my new tank im looking to buid a 48x36x30 about 247 gallons and im thinking 6 discus and 6-8 angelfish for the angels im thinking wild angels but i cant seem to find to many for sale


----------



## chris.rivera3

since you have a darker substrate, have you noticed any signs of peppering??? i've been told that darker substrates (as compared to lighter natural sand) usually induces peppering on the discus


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## antbug

Tank is looking great Herb!


----------



## Herbicidal

aaronbrown said:


> ok im wondering about how much it cost for the background and ive viewed the aquaterra site but no prices and they are to short for my new tank im looking to buid a 48x36x30 about 247 gallons and im thinking 6 discus and 6-8 angelfish for the angels im thinking wild angels but i cant seem to find to many for sale


I did a Google search and found the AquaTerra web page, under authorized dealers I found this place: http://www.notjustfish.com/3d-background.html. I believe I paid $325 for the 72" x 24" Tanganika rock wall. I didn't buy mine from this place, however.



chris.rivera3 said:


> since you have a darker substrate, have you noticed any signs of peppering??? i've been told that darker substrates (as compared to lighter natural sand) usually induces peppering on the discus


One of my Pigeon Blood's already had some peppering, but none of the others are showing any signs of that happening. I heard the same thing, but so far, it has not happened to my group.



antbug said:


> Tank is looking great Herb!


Thanks Anthony! I'm happy with slow and steady plant growth! roud:


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## speedie408

Love what you did with that DIY background. Great job overall.


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## aaronbrown

thx for the info i guess ill have to find some one more talented then me to build one for me


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## Herbicidal

speedie408 said:


> Love what you did with that DIY background. Great job overall.


Thank you! However, I can't take credit for the actual _creation_ of the background, but I *WILL* take credit for cutting the thing into 3rd's (that first cut was rather terrifying!) and figuring out how to reassemble it in the tank! :icon_mrgr



aaronbrown said:


> thx for the info i guess ill have to find some one more talented then me to build one for me


Yeah, not in-expensive that's for sure! I looked again and I see a 48" by 24" for $210, it's not quite the 30" tall but if you build a tank that is 36" front to back, then build up underneath the background with that closed cell pink foam I used waaay back at the start of this thread to lift it up, it could work for you. The pink foam could easily be hidden with substrate, rocks, plants, etc. Then all/most of your equipment goes behind the background, out of sight. Something to think about anyway.


----------



## Herbicidal

Well I have a bit of a rough time since I last posted in this thread. It all started a couple of weeks ago when I bought four new Discus from two different LFS's. I put all four in my 20 gallon quarantine tank and it seemed all was good. After about four days, one of them was showing signs of stress and was getting bullied by some of the others. I attributed this to four fish in a 20 gallon tank, not a lot of room. They all looked fine, nothing obviously wrong. So I decided to acclimate them to the 155. The next day they appeared OK, a couple were still hiding which I figured was normal. The next day things started to change. Several of the blue Discus started turning very dark. I thought something with the water conditions may have gone south. I checked everything I could test. The ammonia was very slightly elevated and the nitrates were a little higher than I would have like. I changed out about 50% of the water and re-checked the water, this time it looked good.

Then the next day the Discus took a turn for the worst. By the end of the day I lost several and more were looking bad. Very dark in color, fins clamped, not eating, eyes starting to cloud and so forth. Several of the Discus looked absolutely fine! I carefully observed the other fish, like the Rummy Nose Tetra's, Clown Loaches and all of these fish looked fine. Still eating and acting normal. To make a long story shorter, I ended up with all the remaining Discus back in the 20 gallon QT and picked up some medication from the LFS that I had bought most of the fish from. I do not know what the medicine is as the writing is all in Japanese (I think) and it's what he uses to treat his Discus tanks. I lost a couple of more Discus that were too far gone to save. I now have five left. From the symptoms, apparently it was a bacterial infection that spread like wildfire and ONLY affected the Discus! I did not lose any of my other fish.

Needless to say, this was a rather large setback and I feel like crap that I didn't keep those four in QT for two weeks. It would have been much better to have lost one or two in QT than have affected the rest of my population. This was a hard lesson to learn. So I'm passing on my experience in the hopes that for those of you that are not doing a quarantine before introducing new fish into your main tank that at the very least, you think long and hard before you do and is it worth the risk? I would strongly suggest picking up a used 20 gallon or larger tank for this purpose and resist the temptation to move them into your main tank until you are absolutely sure they are OK. I should have stuck to my two week rule, but I did not and the fish suffered as a result of my mistake.

So as of this post, I have five Discus in QT and everyone else in the 155. About three nights ago I noticed the temp in the 155 had climbed up to about 86 degrees, which is about 4 degrees higher than normal since the whole bacterial infection thing. We had warmer weather than usual so I thought perhaps this was why the tank was warmer as our house was warmer too. Two nights ago, the temp in the tank had dropped down to 79 degrees. In hindsight, I think one of the two heaters failed. It probably failed in the 'on' position (thus the higher tank temp), then burned itself out (thus the lower tank temp as only one heater was now running). Yesterday, I did some research and contacted a friend about titanium heaters. I ended up ordering two 500 watt units with a controller that will handle both heaters from http://jehmco.com/html/heaters.html. I come home last night after work and check the temp of the 155 and it was down to 73 degrees!!! I pulled both heaters from behind the 3D background and moved them to the front of the tank to check whether they were even working at all. The lights came on, but ZERO heat! They had both burned out. Thank goodness the remaining Discus were NOT in the main tank! Now I think when the first heater burned out, there was too much of a load on the second heater and it burned out too. I did a 70% water change using warmer water and brought the temp up to about 80 degrees over the course of 30 minutes. Then I ran out to PetSmart and bought a 300 watt heater (highest wattage they had) and put it in the tank along with a smaller spare heater. This morning the 155 was holding steady at 81 degrees. Hopefully these heaters will last until the new titanium's arrive. In the meantime, the Discus will stay in QT until I get the 155 stabilized.

Man, what a last couple of weeks it's been! Hopefully no more drama for awhile.


----------



## Herbicidal

Here's the latest update:

The five remaining Discus are back in the main tank. This past Saturday I did a major reset on the 155 before moving the Discus back. I pulled out every plant and piece of driftwood, then gently vacuumed the gravel, cleaned the glass and did about a 70% water change. Oh, and the heater (another Visi-Therm) in my wife's 90 gallon tank failed. The temp dropped to 73 degrees before she realized it. Fortunately, the titanium heaters and controller I ordered last week arrived on Friday. So I moved my 300 watt Fluval 'emergency' heater to her tank and hooked up my new heaters. They work like a charm! And her tank is now back up to 78 degrees. Whew! No fish were lost. To say I'm disappointed in the Visi-Therms is an understatement. They did not even last 9 months! I will not buy any more of those heaters, that's for sure!

Then I put back only a few select plants that were doing well and added a couple of rectangular shaped rocks to create a small 'shelf' for an elevation change. Then I attempted to slope the substrate up toward the back so that it is lower in the front. I only put back two pieces of driftwood. One was an original piece and the other one I picked up about two months ago. Overall I'm happy with the new look. The Discus seem happy to be in a larger tank now and to have some swimming room once again.

I also bought two more Discus to slowly start rebuilding my school. A young Leopard skin and a Blue Turquoise, I believe. They are currently in the 20 gallon QT. I picked up another Amazon sword and a pair of Anubias Minima. About 6 weeks ago I picked up some Frogbit (Limnobium spongia), maybe four plants worth and it has taken off like gangbusters! There is easily 80 or more plants floating around now. I pulled about 1/3 out and moved them to my wife's tank. My African Butterfly fish loves hanging out in 'stealth mode' within or between the plants, then darts out when the food hits the water.

Sorry, no new pictures yet.


----------



## TickleMyElmo

Beautiful discus, and I love the background! :icon_smil


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## antbug

Dang Herb, what a rough week for you. How many did you lose?

Can you also say where you purchased them from? I just picked up a Snow White Saturday. She is beautiful.

Sorry for you loss. Man that sucks!


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## Herbicidal

TickleMyElmo said:


> Beautiful discus, and I love the background! :icon_smil


Thank you! Unfortunately I lost a few of those in the pictures. I need to take some new pictures when I get a few more in the main tank.



antbug said:


> Dang Herb, what a rough week for you. How many did you lose?
> 
> Can you also say where you purchased them from? I just picked up a Snow White Saturday. She is beautiful.
> 
> Sorry for you loss. Man that sucks!


Hi Anthony, yeah, it was pretty bad. Nine total. :icon_frow It was a mix from Aqua Workz and Jojo's. My Snow White made it through and appears to be quite strong and healthy! The Snow White I picked up from Aqua Workz, but Jojo's has them too.

Nice! You're working on a Discus tank too, correct? How is it coming along?

Thanks for the kind words. I'm trying to move on and learn from the experience so I don't repeat it.


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## zenche

read through all 9 pages..took like an hour, lol. sorry to hear about the lost discus though. your tank is gorgeous...love that background. guess you get what you pay for with them. keep it up!


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## Herbicidal

zenche said:


> read through all 9 pages..took like an hour, lol. sorry to hear about the lost discus though. your tank is gorgeous...love that background. guess you get what you pay for with them. keep it up!


Thanks my friend for your kind words. I'm flattered you spent your free time that way.


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## Herbicidal

Hi everyone! Well it's been a little while since my last update. I've started to rebuild my flock. I picked up a Blue Turquoise and a Leopard skin first from a LFS, then a couple of weeks later, I bought four more Discus from Kenny's Discus in Daly City, CA. They are a: Blue Diamond, Virgin Red, Red Turquoise and a Super Eruption. They all went through quarantine and I added them to the main tank last week. All are doing very well! I'm happy to have a decent sized group in the tank once again!

On a different front, I have decided to replace the Eco-Complete with sand. After several weeks of research, I went to a local landscaping supply place and bought two, 100 lb bags of Monterey sand that is 16 mesh. I know it's too much, but for basically $10 per bag, what the heck. I really like the look of a sand bottom and I want to create a better home for the Cory's. The Eco-Complete is a little rough on their barbels. Also, I believe any waste will stay more on the surface of the sand and make it easier to vacuum. I'll use more root tabs for the plants and continue using liquid ferts twice a week. Hopefully, with the lighter sand, my Discus will lighten up a little too. My Golden Yellow is now showing signs of peppering. Anyway, here some of my latest pictures. The pictures are OK, a little grainy perhaps and I realized that my glass is not perfectly clean, so any spots or white lines you see are NOT on the fish. Plus some pics have a little background reflection too. Obviously I have not yet changed the substrate to sand. That's a project for another day.

Enjoy!


----------



## Herbicidal

On another note, I may have a pair forming. The big Blue Diamond (picture #4) and the Blue Turquoise (picture #2) are hanging together quite a bit. Acting all funny around each other, body nipping, chasing, fin flaring, side by side shimmying and at times, biting on the driftwood piece at the left side of the tank. I just noticed this behavior yesterday. These two are my largest/oldest Discus. The Blue Diamond came from Kenny's Discus and the Blue Turquoise came from a LFS. I really don't know how to determine their sex. Are any of the pictures clear enough for one of the resident experts to sex them? Regardless, it will be interesting to see what happens!


----------



## Herbicidal

Came home from work last night and now I know the Blue Diamond is a female. She was busy laying eggs on the driftwood! My daughter was very excited until she saw the reddish orange pigeon blood Discus was eating them just as fast! The new pair don't really have their act together yet. They occasionally pushed the intruder away, but it pushed right back and dined on caviar for darn near three hours! Ah well. I haven't decided whether to get the pair their own love nest or not. However, it was cool seeing her laying the eggs. I've never had that happen before. :icon_cool


----------



## aussie

beautiful tank! now I want discus. I like that rock background its excellent. Planting tanks is getting expensive.


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## TankZen

WOW amazing discus!!!! I can't wait to have some one day:icon_smil


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## nonconductive

awesome tank & fish. good luck with your pair.


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## Herbicidal

aussie said:


> beautiful tank! now I want discus. I like that rock background its excellent. Planting tanks is getting expensive.


Thank you! I really enjoy the Discus and the background (for me and my wife) is the icing on the cake.



TankZen said:


> WOW amazing discus!!!! I can't wait to have some one day:icon_smil


Thanks! I would suggest doing a lot of reading first (SimplyDiscus is a fantasic forum for info!), then when you're ready to take the plunge, purchase from one of the SimplyDiscus vendors. I'm partial to Kenny's Discus since he is only a two hour drive away from me and I was able to pick them up in person.



nonconductive said:


> awesome tank & fish. good luck with your pair.


Thanks so much! Hopefully in time they will get more protective of "their area" in the tank. I think the pair would produce some very cool offspring!


----------



## AngelfishKid

Amazing tank!!


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## Aquascapejackson

read the whole thing. The backround is superb. sorry about the discus, I'm glad the rest are fine though so not a total loss .


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## Herbicidal

AngelfishKid said:


> Amazing tank!!


Thank you!



Aquascapejackson said:


> read the whole thing. The backround is superb. sorry about the discus, I'm glad the rest are fine though so not a total loss .


Thanks for the compliment! I appreciate that about the Discus. Yeah, that was a pretty bad time. Still hurts. I am happy to be going the opposite direction now with the potential of a pair!


----------



## MissGreen08

Your discus are incredible! I'm so sorry to hear about your loss, I can only imagine. =( My mom had a similar sized aquarium when I was very young full of discus and when she was gone on vacation her younger sister accidentally cooked he whole tank. She was devastated. I would love to set up a >100G tank full of Discus for her again. They are SUCH a gorgeous fish.


----------



## Herbicidal

MissGreen08 said:


> Your discus are incredible! I'm so sorry to hear about your loss, I can only imagine. =( My mom had a similar sized aquarium when I was very young full of discus and when she was gone on vacation her younger sister accidentally cooked he whole tank. She was devastated. I would love to set up a >100G tank full of Discus for her again. They are SUCH a gorgeous fish.


Thank you! I appreciate that. Oh man, that is a sad story. If you were able to set up a tank for her, that would be an awesome surprise/gift! After we bought the tank from Craigslist, my daughter found a bunch of Discus pictures on the internet, printed them out and taped them to the tank when it was still empty. She was trying to help me visualize a tank full of Discus! Waaaay back at the beginning of this thread I think I have a picture of that. Could be a way to start on a tank full of Discus for her, without having the initial worry of live fish. Just a thought...:smile:


----------



## sampster5000

Very nice set up. Sorry about the losses. We learn from our mistakes! I currently have a 150 gallon planted with 2 discus. I am too afraid to add any others. I just use tap water with CO2. I am working on getting a pH controller which will help a ton. The discus have been doing fine for months but I am just waiting for something to go wrong. They seem so sensitive to other people! Great job on your tank, though! I'm for sure going to be looking back here a lot!


----------



## Herbicidal

sampster5000 said:


> Very nice set up. Sorry about the losses. We learn from our mistakes! I currently have a 150 gallon planted with 2 discus. I am too afraid to add any others. I just use tap water with CO2. I am working on getting a pH controller which will help a ton. The discus have been doing fine for months but I am just waiting for something to go wrong. They seem so sensitive to other people! Great job on your tank, though! I'm for sure going to be looking back here a lot!


Thank you for your kind words. I'd love to see pictures of your tank, do you have any on this forum? Are you a member on SimplyDiscus? Well if you do decide to get a couple more Discus, definately keep them in QT for _at least_ two weeks first. Seems like you have plenty of room for a few more (not sure what other fish you have) and they do seem to like having the company of others. :smile:


----------



## spyke

this tank is sweet....It's making me drool to see all those gorgeous discus...and i'm not much of a discus kinda guy. But I love those yellow/golden ones...that is so cool. And the bamboo shrimp is cute!


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## Herbicidal

spyke said:


> this tank is sweet....It's making me drool to see all those gorgeous discus...and i'm not much of a discus kinda guy. But I love those yellow/golden ones...that is so cool. And the bamboo shrimp is cute!


Thanks Spyke! Yeah, I kind of went for the Discus 'fruit salad' look. :icon_mrgr The bamboo shrimp are cool too! I've had them 'molt' several times now and aftwards they look as fresh as a daisy! The fish never seem to mess with them either. However, the Clown Loaches and the Yoyo Loaches will need to go. They are a little _too_ assertive at feeding time and the focus of this tank is the Discus so I want to make the best home possible for those guys.


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## sampster5000

The tank was another co workers at the LFS I work at until they found a new job. They handed over the tank to me and said to fix it. It is a big mess right now so I'll probably put up some pictures when it looks better  Its just 2 of the dark blue discus and 3 albino bristlenose plecos. Everything I use has to be from our supplier. They dont have much planted tank stuff so this is difficult >_< But I'm trying! LOL.

I havent gone on simplydiscus yet but will look it up now.


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## Herbicidal

The pair was at it again last night. This time I took a few pictures before the eggs were eaten (again) but this time by a very slippery Yoyo loach. The pair are doing a better job about defending the eggs from that Orangish-red Discus, but the loach was too sneaky. When I change out the substrate, all the loaches (Clown and Yoyo) are going back to the LFS. I want to give these guys a fighting chance.

Here's the pics:

*The male eyeballing the eggs:*









*The male attempting to fertilize the eggs, less eggs now than the first picture. I have no idea if he was successful or just going through the motions.* :icon_mrgr 









*The pair:*









*Night time under the blue moonlights:*


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## Herbicidal

*Some new pictures.*

I had my good buddy *jcardona1* come over and take some pics since he has some 'mad skills' when it comes to photography! :biggrin: It was tough choosing my favorites, but here they are and I'm _not_ going to post all of them. LOL! Thanks again Jose for the awesome pics!

The first four are my most recent acquistions from Kenny's Discus:

*A Virgin Red:*









*Red Turquoise:*









*Blue Diamond (female):*









*Super Eruption:*









*Ring Leopard I bought from Jose:*









*Pigeon based strain, I think:*









*Blue Turquoise (male):*









*Blue Turq & Blue Diamond - a pair:*









*The pair near their favorite piece of wood:*









*Neat picture with false sunbeam:*









*And finally, the whole tank:*


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## speedie408

Badass setup man!! I wish I had a house so I can have a tank this big and beautiful. Great job and props to Jose for his photography skills! 

Only one thing that I'd do different is load it with more plants... but that's just me.


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## cwinson85

+1 looks great, well done! NICE AND CLEAN!


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## Herbicidal

speedie408 said:


> Badass setup man!! I wish I had a house so I can have a tank this big and beautiful. Great job and props to Jose for his photography skills!
> 
> Only one thing that I'd do different is load it with more plants... but that's just me.


Thanks! Yeah, I'm lucky he lives near me since I don't have the equipment or the skills. And yes, I need more plants! Something I plan to work on in the near future. Just getting the Discus thing down first. :icon_wink



cwinson85 said:


> +1 looks great, well done! NICE AND CLEAN!


Thank you! Glad you like it.


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## Da Plant Man

Very nice! Makes me want to get discus!


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## xmas_one

Nice to see a proper discus tank, good job man!


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## VadimShevchuk

Sorry to hear about your troubles with the discus. Those kind of stories scare me from spending hundreds of dollars just to see them in the trash. Other then that its a great journal and looking to future pics with white sand.


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## Herbicidal

Caton said:


> Very nice! Makes me want to get discus!


Thanks Caton!



xmas_one said:


> Nice to see a proper discus tank, good job man!


Appreciate it! Thank you.



VadimShevchuk said:


> Sorry to hear about your troubles with the discus. Those kind of stories scare me from spending hundreds of dollars just to see them in the trash. Other then that its a great journal and looking to future pics with white sand.


Thanks. Yeah, that was a hard lesson. Unfortunately, there are the 'down' times too. Right now everything is going pretty well. They are all healthy, everyone is eating really well and I have a routine down for filter cleaning and water changes. I'm looking forward to making the substrate change for the visual difference, but at the same time, I'm a little worried about rocking the boat. I think I said before that when I make the substrate change, all the loaches are coming out too. I think they are the ones that are putting holes in my plants.


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## Herbicidal

Well, I'm getting ready to swap out the Eco-Complete for sand. I'm going to target Memorial Day weekend for this project since we're not going anywhere. I ordered a spare heater to place in my formally used water aging trash cans where I'll be keeping the fish and the remainder of the livestock while I do the switcheroo. I'll pre-rinse all the sand this weekend so it will be ready. This will be a good opportunity to kill all the random clumps of BBA  that have cropped up on the 3D background and some of the driftwood. I think I will use a spray bottle filled with Hydrogen Peroxide to nuke that stuff when the water is drained out.

As I've mentioned before, ultimately, I would like to replace the visually "heavy" piece of driftwood that is on the left side of the aquarium with a more root-like branch of Manzanita. I don't have that piece yet, other than in my mind. I'm seriously considering going almost plant-less. No "boo's" please. :wink: I like having a small amount of frogbit floating on the surface, but I'm getting frustrated with the BBA growing on the plant leaves. I don't have a lot of plants right now, so I may just start over with fresh ones. Or, maybe I'll just go with some frogbit on the surface and no other plants for awhile. I don't know. Part of the fun is changing things once in awhile for a new look. 

I'm also going to capture and remove all the Clown loaches (I think there is five, don't recall) and the two Yoyo loaches and take them to a LFS. They are a little too "piggish" around the Discus. So with them gone, that may gain me back two more Discus that I can put in their place.

Wish me luck!


----------



## Herbicidal

Here's the latest. Last weekend, with the help of my 10 year old son, we rinsed 200 lbs of sand and have it sitting all ready to go in two tubs. The new heater arrived as well. Initially I was planning to put the Discus and the other fish I'm keeping into one of my 32 gallon water aging trash cans for the day. The bummer with that idea is once in the can, I won't be able to see them or how they are doing. The other thing is that earlier this week one of my son's Cory's that I'm keeping for him in my Discus aquarium, became trapped between the left edge of the 3-D background and the glass as there is a gap. I did not notice this until it was too late. :icon_cry: So, with that incident, I think I need to completely drain the tank and seal both ends so this does not happen again. In hindsight, this is something I should have done way back at the beginning. I didn't think the gap would be an issue, apparently I was wrong.

So, to seal the gaps on both ends, that means a complete and total drain of the tank, PLUS dry time _before_ sealing it AND giving the sealant time to cure. This potential one day project is now looking to be a minimum of two days. Leaving the Discus plus other fish in the 32 gallon trash can, even with filtration, heat and so forth for two days or possibly longer has me concerned. I would like to think that the trash can is fully 'cured' and wouldn't leach anything into the water, but I'm not 100% certain. This concern has led me in a search to find a used 55 gallon tank to hold them instead of the plastic trash can. I've been searching Craigslist for the last two days and making phone calls. I have a lead on one that looks quite nice in the pictures, in fact, nicer then I need for this little endeavor. The seller finally replied back that the tank is still available. Perhaps I can arrange to see it after work tonight and if it looks good, pick it up tomorrow. I'm pretty certain I would not sleep very well leaving the fish in the plastic trash even for one night, let alone two. We really don't need another aquarium for the long term, so when I'm done with it I could put it back up on Craigslist. Hopefully I would break even. We shall see! I need to give the seller a call this morning and hopefully see the tank tonight.


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## Herbicidal

For the price of one Super Eruption from Kenny's Discus, I bought the 55 gallon tank last night. It's acrylic and came with a stand and canopy (oak finish). Plus two boxes of stuff I haven't even looked at. It's a little rough around the edges, but that was to be expected. I may be able to freshen it up a bit before putting it back up for sale. I feel much better about putting the Discus in here for several days vs the plastic trash can. Starting tomorrow I will clean it up (test for leaks while it's outside) and hopefully get water in it from the 155 along with the new heater and a filter going.

I'm somewhat concerned that I will experience a "cycling" with this tank even with using an established filter and water from the big tank. Any suggestions on how to minimize it? Cut back on feeding? Don't feed them the day before the move? Move over some Eco-Complete from the main tank? I want to make this as stressless as I can for my Discus buddies!

Thanks all!


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## antbug

AAHH! I wish i saw this yesterday. I have my old 55g sitting on the side of my house. It would have been perfect to hold your fish for a few days....email Herb....EMAIL!

I would just use the water and media from the tank. That's what I did and mine were fine for 5 weeks while I wanted for my AS to mature.

Good luck. You will be a busy man this weekend.


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## antbug

oh and great pictures!


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## Herbicidal

antbug said:


> oh and great pictures!


Thanks! But it was all Jose! :biggrin: With his mad photography skills, he can make a charcoal briquet look like a real beauty!



antbug said:


> AAHH! I wish i saw this yesterday. I have my old 55g sitting on the side of my house. It would have been perfect to hold your fish for a few days....email Herb....EMAIL!
> 
> I would just use the water and media from the tank. That's what I did and mine were fine for 5 weeks while I wanted for my AS to mature.
> 
> Good luck. You will be a busy man this weekend.


My bad, got hung up searching on Craigslist. :icon_frow Yes, I will be! :biggrin:


----------



## Herbicidal

Yesterday was spent getting the temporary tank cleaned and set up. Pulled over the Rena XP3 that I've been running on the Discus tank all this time and cobbled together return lines and so forth from another XP3 that I'm not currently using. Added some of the sand I'm going to use in the main tank, set up the heater, pumped over about 25 gallons of water from the 155 and filled the rest from the tap. Took off to run some errands, came back and discovered the filter on the 55 gallon tank was leaking!!!!  The water had filled up the bottom of the stand and was now on the floor! Had to drain the tank so I could move it to get the water that had gone underneath the stand. What a pain. :icon_mad: It's a hardwood floor, so thankfully no carpet involved. Ran a fan to help dry out the stand, moved everything back and started over. This time I put the filter in a styrofoam box, made a slight adjustment to the mechanism that latches to the filter and no more leaks. I think the "O" rings need some of that special white looking grease to make a better seal. Oh well. Lost about 2 hours to that little mishap. Decided I was done for the day.

Today, I moved the six fish that were in my 20 gallon QT tank to their respective new homes; my wife tank, and my kids tanks (after cleaning them too!). Then I drained the 20 completely and pumped over 20 gallons from the 155 so when I caught the clown and yoyo loaches, they would be in the same water, no need to acclimate. For good measure, I drained off about 25 gallons from the 55 and filled it back up from the 155. This helped to drain down the 155 in preparation for moving the fish. Pulled out the two driftwood pieces, some rocks and all the plants. Then caught all the Discus and moved them without any issues. In total, I spent dang near 3 hours catching everything that was in the tank! The darn clown and yoyo loaches were the worst!!! I was down to the last 1/2" of water before I was able to catch the last yoyo loach. They kept going behind the background. I removed 99% of the Eco-Complete using a net. It worked great and then I dumped it into a bucket and hauled it outside. Once all the Eco-Complete was out, I was able to move the background forward about 1/2 way toward the front of the tank. This allowed me to catch those really hard to get critters! I even found four ghost shrimp that I haven't seen in months! Finally, I had all the clown and yoyo loaches captured and in the 20 gallon QT tank. Everyone else is in the 55 gallon temporary tank. I gave them all some food and everyone was eating so apparently they are not too stressed. Whew!

Tomorrow I will clean out the 155, spray hydrogen peroxide on the BBA (although it will dry out during all this) and get ready to seal up the ends. I bought another 24" by 8' section of that pink, high density foam. I'll use thin strips to fill in the gaps, then use 100% silicone to seal it all in place. I’ll use the remaining section on the back glass as insulation to help a little bit with heat loss. No sense just throwing it away. I'll let the tank air dry all day tomorrow and if I'm lucky, get started on actually sealing the gaps. I'll let the silicon cure at least 24 hours before adding water and the new sand substrate. Due to work and other commitments, realistically the Discus won't be going back into the main tank until next weekend so I'm really glad that I bought the 55 gallon tank.

It's been a ton of work so far, but I'm sure it will be worth it when I'm done. Now I'm glad that the loaches are out so that will greatly reduce the competition for food for the rest of the fish.

I'm beat. Yaawwnnn. Time for bed.


----------



## Herbicidal

Last night I finally made some time to try and create some shims out of that pink, high density foam to fill the gaps on either end of the background. The gaps are uneven and after several tries with the foam and a box cutter I decided there has to be an easier way to do this. Suddenly I remembered expanding foam! I did a search and came across Great Stuff Pond And Stone Foam. I think this will be the perfect 'stuff' to fill the gaps. I'll call my local hardware store today and see if they carry it, if not, I'll find it somewhere else. 










At the rate I'm going, i.e, sloooowww, the Discus and the rest of their tankmates may not be back in their larger home this weekend. They seem to be just fine in their temporary home and I'd rather make sure this stuff is fully cured before adding water. Once the water and new substrate is back in the tank, I'll give it a couple of more days before returning the fish. I have also decided to cut one more passthrough in the background on the right hand side so the water can get to the filter intakes from more than one location. Apparently, I threw away the black plastic mesh that was provided with the background to prevent fish from swimming through the opening, so I need to find some more. Or, maybe I leave it un-blocked and let the smaller fish come and go as they please. The nerite snails and shrimp could get back there and do some cleaning too. Hmmmmm, I need to think about this idea.


----------



## Herbicidal

Last night I bought the Great Stuff Pond & Stone expanding foam. I have not tried it yet, but plan to do a couple of test strips before attempting in the aquarium. I did cut out another small section in the background on the right hand side. With the water circulation that I have currently (top right spray bar directs the flow across the top of the thank to the top left, then it travels down toward the bottom left and back to the bottom right), I believe this will help get the 'waste' to the filter intakes better than with just one pass through. I've decided not to screen it. It's too small for the Discus, but just about every other fish, snail or shrimp will fit and they can come and go as they please and won't get trapped behind the background. With any luck, I plan to seal the gaps on the ends of the background (let cure for 24 hours), add the new sand and fill the tank with water this weekend. Then by early next week, start to move some of the fish back over to get the bio filter going again. I'll probably add the Discus last and when they come back over, so will the canister filter from the 55 temporary tank. That's got all the good stuff living in it. :icon_wink

Here's some new pictures of where I'm at with this project.

Filling the temporary tank with water. I had already tested it's water holding ability outside:









Checking the temp at the hose end with my wife's Pampered Chef food thermometer. Works great!









Partial side by side view of the 155 and the 55. Still getting the 55 gallon tank ready:









All the fish moved over to the 55:









Draining the 155 with a pump and strainer as there are still fish in here! Blasted Clown and Yoyo loaches!









Left hand side and gap that I need to fill with the Great Stuff:









Right hand side and gap that I need to fill. Not quite as big as the left hand side, but I sure don't want any more fish to get stuck.









New pass through. Used black silicone to cover the raw edges. This opening is about 2 1/2 inches tall by 2 inches wide.


----------



## Herbicidal

The Great Stuff Pond & Stone worked, well...great! roud: There is a little bit of a learning curve with the product, but I'm pleased with the results. The can works best when in a vertical position and the foam continues to expand (albeit slowly) for almost 10 minutes after you're done! Sooooo, I ended up with more than I really wanted on the left side, but the gap is sure filled! I also siliconed the bottom of the background to the pink foam. Basically trying to eliminate sand creep to the backside of the background. These are the things I *SHOULD* have done way back at the start of this project. Oh well, live and learn, right? I let it all 'cure' almost 24 hours before adding the new sand and water. I used about 90 lbs of the 200 lbs of sand that I bought. Overestimated what I needed by just a little bit (anyone need some rinsed sand?). This gave me about a 1" depth, maybe a little more. I ditched the large, thick, piece of driftwood that was originally on the left side. I made an "adjustment" to the piece of driftwood that was on the right side. Now I have many more options on where I can place it in the tank. I also changed out two of the four 65k bulbs for two 10k bulbs that I had lying around. We'll see what difference that makes to the Discus color. All the filters are filtering and the heaters heating. I'm letting some time pass before starting to add some fish. The water is a little bit cloudy which is to be expected. Maybe on Tuesday, I'll move a few of the other fish back with the Discus last. At which time I'll also swap over the XP3 that's been running on the temp 55. Recent pictures are still on my camera. I'll upload a few in the next day or so showing the expanding foam fix.

Over in the temp 55 gallon tank, things are going swimmingly! A pair of the German Blue Rams have 'hooked up', dug out a depression in the sand and laid some eggs! Both the male and female have been fiercely defending that corner of the tank. However, I doubt the eggs will hatch. Too many other predators. Maybe when they are back in the 155 they'll have a better chance, now that all the clown and yoyo loaches are gone. I'm not ready to set up their own love nest just yet.


----------



## phorty

Sounds great, I'm eager to see how it turns out!


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## Herbicidal

Thanks phorty! Here's an update:

I'm going to be stepping away from a planted tank for a little while (guess I need to update the title of my journal) and going with something closer to a Discus biotope, albeit without plants for now. I killed the BBA that was getting onto the 3D background, the driftwood and the plants. I'm planning on getting Manzanita branches to simulate roots either coming down from the top or to look like they are coming out of the background. The Eco-Complete has been removed and replaced with sand. This certainly lightened up the tank and without the previous large piece of driftwood on the left hand side, much more open too!

At this point I have moved back to the main tank all the Rummy Nose, two upside-down catfish, five German Blue Rams, all my Cory's and a random ghost shrimp that is somehow still alive. No casualties so far and all are eating. I will start moving the Discus back, over during the next couple of days.

After getting everything set back up, I needed to cover the end of the aquarium where the 3D background ends as the view is rather ugly. I painted the pink foam board a flat black and taped it to the back of the aquarium so that when looking through the pass-throughs, it is black back there. To cover up the ends, I used wax paper as a template since I could see through it, traced the outline of the background and transferred that to some black 'fun' foam. Once that was cut out to the desired shape, I attached it to the end and repeated the process. So now the ends of the tank have a more finished look. The pictures aren't as clear as I would like. My little point-and-shoot camera just isn't quite up to the task.

Right hand side view of expanding foam between the glass and the 3D background, closer view. BTW, the wall color to the right is actually mocha. Not exactly sure why the bizarre color change. Maybe a reflection of the color from the pink foam board.









Same view, slightly further away. Water is still hazy as the tank was filled the day before this picture was taken.









Wax paper template. You can just see my tracing line.









Transferred to the 'fun' foam. It's easily removed to see behind the background.









New sand substrate, right hand side of the aquarium. You can see the expanding foam on the right hand side along with my new pass-through in the lower right.









Right hand side, a little closer. There are bubbles on the glass in the lower left and to the right as I just completed a water change. Oh yeah, the floating driftwood that refuses to sink. It sank before, but dried out while I was doing the substrate swap and now seems impervious to water.









Whole tank view (no fish yet). Left hand side is only the moonlights, right hand side still has the main tank lights on. Just showing the transition. It may seem plain to some folks, but I like the clean and simple look. I think the Discus will really stand out once they are back. Oh, that piece of driftwood may not stay either, especially if the dang thing won't sink! I'm on the hunt for that perfect piece or two of Manzanita.


----------



## Rockhoe14er

awesome. Looks great.


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## phorty

I think your set-up will look better without plants personally. You could probably remove some sand if you wanted...


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## Herbicidal

Rockhoe14er said:


> awesome. Looks great.


Thank you! It's coming along...not done yet. I'm going for that simple and clean look. I've seen it successfully done by others and it appeals to me. I'm also thinking about going to a set of DIY LEDS to get that shimmering effect.



phorty said:


> I think you're set-up will look better without plants personally. You could probably remove some sand if you wanted...


Thanks phorty! I appreciate your comments. Yeah, I could probably remove the sand down to about the level of the lower black rim. Easy enough to do. I'll let it ride for the time being and perhaps make that adjustment when I find those elusive Manzanita pieces. 

Last night I moved over 6 of the Discus and left the lights turned off and did not feed them. Just giving them time to acclimate. This morning they were all bright eyed and ready for breakfast! Their colors really pop with the sand as the substrate. I'm glad I made the switch. roud:


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## hydrophyte

Really nice work putting all of that together.


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## Herbicidal

hydrophyte said:


> Really nice work putting all of that together.


Well, thank you very much! I've thoroughly enjoyed the challenge! Quite a learning experience...


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## Herbicidal

I guess the Discus pair are happy to be back in the main tank! Less than 24 hours after moving them back, the female laid eggs! This time on the 3D background. My daughter called me a little while ago from home and said the pair are guarding them and she can see like 50 eggs. Most of my "egg eating" fish are gone now, so who knows? I'm not at a point to move the pair to their own home, so nature will just take it's course. I'm glad they're comfortable in the redecorated tank.


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## The_Finglonger

Herbicidal said:


> I guess the Discus pair are happy to be back in the main tank! Less than 24 hours after moving them back, the female laid eggs! This time on the 3D background. My daughter called me a little while ago from home and said the pair are guarding them and she can see like 50 eggs. Most of my "egg eating" fish are gone now, so who knows? I'm not at a point to move the pair to their own home, so nature will just take it's course. I'm glad they're comfortable in the redecorated tank.


congrats! roud: seeing fish eggs is always exciting!


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## Herbicidal

The_Finglonger said:


> congrats! roud: seeing fish eggs is always exciting!


Absolutely! However, they were gone today. Oh well. Not going to stress over it. :tongue:


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## Herbicidal

*Manzanita make-over.*

Here we go, my long awaited Manzanita make-over! Well, long awaited to me. Haha!

Recapping my decision from earlier this summer, I decided to make some major changes to my aquarium. I wasn't having as much luck with plants as I would have liked and wanted to refocus my efforts on caring for the Discus, first and foremost. So back in June, I bought a used 55 gallon tank and stand and moved all the fish I wanted to keep into it and took the others to a LFS. These others were fish like the Clown Loaches, Yoyo Loaches and even two Discus (that was hard!) that I had bought early on. Turns out they were stunted and this was something I didn't know about at the time. Anyway, with the fish out of the main tank I drained it, put a new pass-through in the background and filled all the gaps of the background between the glass with aquarium safe foam sealant. Put it all back together again with sand as the substrate and no plants and moved the Discus back in. It remained this way for more than two months. All the fish settled back in and I picked up a few more Discus from Kenny's Discus along the way. Also, I found some jumbo sized Black Neon's at a LFS and picked up 15. I kept them in QT (20 gal tank) for two weeks, then moved them to the temporary 55 gallon tank for another two weeks (lost one for no apparent reason) then finally moved them to the 155. They actually school quite nicely about 1/3 down from the surface. My school of 12 Rummy Nose Tetra's seem to like the bottom 1/3. Occasionally, a Black Neon thinks it's a Rummy Nose and swims with them. :tongue: I still have two, small upside down catfish, three Sterbai Cories, three German Blue Rams and one Emerald green Cory. There are also two Clown pleco's about 10 Nerite snails and several Bamboo shrimp that show up from time to time.

Now back to the wood. My plan was to either buy or find some Manzanita branches that I would use to simulate roots coming down from the top. Turns out I made a new friend in Steve (aka CaliHawker), and he invited my family up to his place to see his Discus aquarium. Gorgeous (huge!) fish by the way! The bonus was he lives on 10 acres and Manzanita is like a weed at his place! I brought along a saw and near the end of our visit headed out looking for some optimum branches. Steve found some for his own tank and we cut down some of the long dead branches. I tossed them in the back of my truck and drove home.

I managed to NOT find the time to work on them for another month. They just sat out front on the driveway cooking away in the summer heat. Finally I made working on my aquarium a priority. I went to a neighbors home and borrowed their gas powered power washer. Holy smokes! It blasted away the old dead bark, moss, etc with ease. I let them dry again, then I brought the branches inside and laid them out on the floor to help visualize what pieces I wanted and to measure how big a branch could be and still fit. Then I used some blue masking tape to mark the length so I'd know how much to cut when I took them back outside.

Initially I planned on only cutting the pieces, then sticking them in some tubs of water to soak. However, as I brought the cut pieces back inside and started placing them in the aquarium (I drained out about 50% of the water first), I was able to use the center glass brace and the thin ones on the ends of the aquarium to keep the branches underwater and pinned to the bottom. So after about an hour of arranging, rearranging, cutting and more arranging I was happy with the results. The Discus seemed pleased with their new surroundings too and after filling the aquarium back up, they started exploring around and swimming through the "roots". The shyer ones can still move to the back and feel like they are hiding behind the "roots" yet I can still see them. I'll have to get Jose back over to take some awesome pictures of the Discus. 

Enough words for now, here's some pictures, hope you enjoy the new look.

*Before and after of a little power washing:*









*Branches on the floor with the blue tape:*









*Branches after cutting to size:*









*Old chunk of Malaysian driftwood just before pulling it out and moving the Manzanita branches in:*









*Whole tank shot, blurry fish and all. My camera just isn't fast enough to "freeze" the fish in low light conditions:*









*Right hand side. The blurrs in the upper left corner are some of the Black Neons:*









*Most of the left hand side:*









*The center section. Blurrs are the Rummy Nose and Black Neons and a German Blue Ram:*









*And a few more pictures:*


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## BMueller777

Sick tank man.. awesome fish.. just read the whole thread actually and saw the date and was like, "damn.. it's probably abandoned".. I was wrong lol.. Mainly read through and though because I just so happened to buy the same kind of 3D background, although, it's for my 20H, less depth and details. 
Overall awesome job, sorry for those losses early on, musta been annoying to have happen, especially with discus. Oh and btw, my rummies and neons school together as well lol 

I also wanted to ask, what would you suggest to do about sealing the background to the tank? Maybe silicone all 3 sides to the glass? Thanks


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## Aubzilla

I just realized you are in Roseville! I live in Marysville but I work in Lincoln.

Pretty awesome scape!


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## Herbicidal

BMueller777 said:


> Sick tank man.. awesome fish.. just read the whole thread actually and saw the date and was like, "damn.. it's probably abandoned".. I was wrong lol.. Mainly read through and though because I just so happened to buy the same kind of 3D background, although, it's for my 20H, less depth and details.
> Overall awesome job, sorry for those losses early on, musta been annoying to have happen, especially with discus. Oh and btw, my rummies and neons school together as well lol
> 
> I also wanted to ask, what would you suggest to do about sealing the background to the tank? Maybe silicone all 3 sides to the glass? Thanks


Thanks BMueller777! Wow! Hope you enjoyed the thread.  Yeah, losing that many Discus was a very hard lesson and I've learned alot since then. Nice on the Rummies and neons! They seem to compliment each other quite nicely.

Regarding sealing the background to the sides (I lost a couple of fish that got stuck between the glass and background, not Discus though :frown if the gap is pretty small, then silicone would work. For me, I had some gaps that I felt were too big for silicone so I used the aquarium safe expanding foam. Of course I did all that work with the fish in the 55 and the main tank dry.



Aubzilla said:


> I just realized you are in Roseville! I live in Marysville but I work in Lincoln.
> 
> Pretty awesome scape!


Thank you Aubzilla! If you want to drop down to Roseville after work one day to see the tank in person, you're more than welcome. I'm about 1.5 miles west of hwy 65 taking the Blue Oaks Blvd. off-ramp.


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## 2in10

Beautiful change, love the 3D background.


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## Herbicidal

2in10 said:


> Beautiful change, love the 3D background.


Thank you 2in10.

BTW, I've subscribed to your journal, but can't see the pics here at work (blocked). But from everyone's ooohh's and awww's I'm sure it looks fantasic! I'll check it out over the weekend from home. I can see a hint of it in your avatar...:icon_wink


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## Aubzilla

Herbicidal said:


> Thank you Aubzilla! If you want to drop down to Roseville after work one day to see the tank in person, you're more than welcome. I'm about 1.5 miles west of hwy 65 taking the Blue Oaks Blvd. off-ramp.


Ooooh...I might just have to take you up on that offer sometime in the future! Thanks!


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## ibmikmaq

wow very beautiful! I think 9 lemon tetras would go nice with this set up! the back ground would make their yellow stand right out like the yellowish discus!


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## Herbicidal

ibmikmaq said:


> wow very beautiful! I think 9 lemon tetras would go nice with this set up! the back ground would make their yellow stand right out like the yellowish discus!


Thank you! Exactly 9? Not 8 or 10? Haha! :tongue: I think you're right. However, I don't recall seeing any in my LFS. I'll have to keep an eye out...



Aubzilla said:


> Ooooh...I might just have to take you up on that offer sometime in the future! Thanks!


Any time. :smile:


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## antbug

Nicely done, Herb!


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## Herbicidal

Thanks Anthony! Now that I have a "supplier" of Manzanita about 45 minutes away, I can rearrange it with new branches whenever the mood strikes. I just have to watch out for the poison oak that lives nearby...:icon_evil Oh, turns out my White Butterfly Discus is a female! She's trying to horn in on the action that the Blue Diamond (f) and the Blue Turquoise (m) have going on. 

Congrats on selling your Discus, but sorry they didn't work out for your long term tank vision.


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## ibmikmaq

Always put schooling fish in uneven numbers so no pairing, it keeps them in tight schools. Beside 9 is a nice number where it would keep fish happy plus not push you to over stock.


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## Herbicidal

Thanks for the tip!


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## ibmikmaq

well I really love the look of your tank, I love Discus biotype looks. Lemon Tetras live in the same waters as Discus and they along with cardinals and or rummy nose just look so naturally eye pleasing together. I am quite sure on simplydiscus they would love your tank as well!


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## Herbicidal

Thank you again! I am over on SimplyDiscus too. Pretty much the same journal/pictures. The aquarium has been up and running just over a year now, wow, time flies! I scrolled back through the thread myself and it sure has changed a lot in that one year! I have a big, comfortable recliner parked about 15' away on the opposite side of the room and I make it a point to spend at _least_ 15 minutes a day there, just watching the fish. After a few minutes they forgot I'm there. Helps me unwind.


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## Herbicidal

I now seem to have 2½ pairs of Discus. The original “pair” are the Blue Diamond (f) and the Blue Turquoise (m). No viable spawn from them yet, just eggs. Then I observed that the White Butterfly is a female and has laid eggs. However, she has not found a suitable mate. Instead, she’s been horning in on the blue pair. :hihi: Then late last week I noticed that my very first Discus (pigeon blood I believe) has paired up with the Virgin Red! At the moment, I don’t know which one is a female and vice versa. They have been very assertive about defending their piece of Manzanita wood. Last night when I was starting to do a water change, I noticed what looked like a small, swaying sprig of algae on a shaded underside section of the wood. Upon closer look, I realized these are baby Discus that are attached to the wood! I guess they are called ‘wrigglers’ at this stage? Or wigglers?

This morning they are still there. I don’t have the tank space to move the parents out at a future date and of course I’m not moving them or the babies either at this time. I’ll just let nature take it’s course.

Anyway, it’s pretty cool though to see that the Discus are happy enough within their environment to spawn. Not quite sure how it’s going to work out with 2½ pairs though! :icon_wink


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## ua hua

This tank is absolutely beautiful even without any plants. What kind of discus is the red one with several other colors on it? It looks almost rainbow colored.


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## speedie408

Love the new wood! Keep it up!


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## Herbicidal

speedie408 said:


> Love the new wood! Keep it up!


Thanks! I like the way it turned out too and apparently, so do the Discus. :tongue: I'd like to get some more branches and have them handy so I can change it up every now and then to keep it "fresh".



ua hua said:


> This tank is absolutely beautiful even without any plants. What kind of discus is the red one with several other colors on it? It looks almost rainbow colored.


Thank you! I believe you are referring to the Virgin Red (look back several pages to the pictures that Jose Cardona took and there is one when that fish was much younger and smaller). I didn't realize when I bought it that the colors would change so much. It is still going through the color changing phase as it grows older. Ultimately, I believe it will be kind a maroon body color with a blue halo around it's outer body and fins. I don't know whether it's a male or a female at this point.

Oh, as of this morning, the babies are still attached to the wood and are getting bigger! Although it appears the parents moved them up the wood about 3 inches. Interesting. Since it's a community tank, the odds are rather long that any will actually survive. But nevertheless it's cool to see.


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## Herbicidal

Well a couple of days ago, the "new" pair of Discus (Pigeon blood based (m) and the Virgin Red (f)) took over the manzanita branch in the front left corner of the tank that the original blue pair were using. Seems kind of wrong somehow. I saw them laying and fertilizing a new batch of eggs! Since this location is much closer to the front of the tank I was able to get a decent picture.

In the time since this picture was taken, the pair actually moved the eggs to a more sheltered and protected area behind the branch. My daughter called me from home yesterday afternoon saying the eggs had hatched and she could see the babies (now stuck to the 3-D background). I didn't realize that the Discus would or even could move the eggs from one location to another.  When I arrived home I could see them, but a few would come loose due to a slight current in that area and the parent nearby would scoop them up in their mouth and attempt to reattach them to the background. Fascinating to watch!


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## 2in10

Awesome congrats, good luck raising them.


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## 150EH

Too cool, I hope they get the job done, are Discus fry going to be ok with all those adults or will you need to get them into a breeding box??


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## Herbicidal

150EH said:


> Too cool, I hope they get the job done, are Discus fry going to be ok with all those adults or will you need to get them into a breeding box??


Well, there's the rub. I'm happy that my mini environment is apparently good enough for the Discus, but I had not planned on actually _raising_ Discus fry, so for now, I'll let nature take it's course.



2in10 said:


> Awesome congrats, good luck raising them.


Thanks! My family has enjoyed watching the Discus get to a point where they are laying eggs and now actually hatching! I'm torn on whether to move the pair into their own tank. I have a Craigslist 55 gallon Q/T (nothing special), but that is supposed to be temporary and not part of our living room furniture. Then there is the potential first pair that has laid eggs, but so far, no fry. I'm going to end up with a fish room before I know it! :tongue: NOT!


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## 150EH

Maybe some leaves in the water for fry to hide in on the bottom and a couple of floating plants on the surface to hide in (it works for shrimp in my tank (the floaters)), plus they look nice. Do discus like that type of softwater stuff, all I know about them is they like it hot and clean.


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## Herbicidal

Great suggestions. I've thought about putting just a select few, low light plants back in the tank and I've been quite successful with Frogbit for the surface. Dang stuff darn near took over the entire surface!!! My other concern is that the fry need ALOT of small feedings throughout the day, baby brine shrimp is apparently a favorite. That's not something I can pull off with my commute and work hours.


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## Herbicidal

Well I haven't provided an update in quite awhile. Still no plants, not even on the surface. I drove up into the mountains a couple of months ago and found some new pieces of manzanita. They sat around for a bit and I finally got around to power washing them and cutting them to fit. This past weekend I gave the tank a medium level cleaning. I pulled out all the old manzanita branches and like putting together a puzzle, put in the new pieces. In my opinion it came together pretty well.

Here's a couple teaser pics of the new branches prior to going in the tank. I will try to get actual tank shots in the next day or two.


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## Herbicidal

I found myself with a little free time last night so I set up the camera and took a bunch of pics. I whittled it down to these seven. This grouping of manzanita branches is overall not as thick as what I used previously. I think this grouping does a better job at providing the appearance of roots coming into the tank then the thicker stuff I used before.

*Full tank shot, the aquarium is 6' long:*









*Partial night time almost full tank shot:*









*Left hand side:*









*Center:*









*Right hand side:*









*Slight angle to the left:*









*Slight angle to the right:*


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## MyMonkey

I just read through the entire thread. Very impressive progression here. Love the Discus. You have inspired me to consider giving them a try! I do like plants as well though.


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## Herbicidal

MyMonkey said:


> I just read through the entire thread. Very impressive progression here. Love the Discus. You have inspired me to consider giving them a try! I do like plants as well though.


Thank you for taking the time to read through it all and for your comments. :icon_smil Discus are pretty cool fish, but I learned over time that they are the priority as far as the aquarium 'environment' and plants became secondary. Then ultimately, to make it easier on me, I dropped the plants entirely. I'm still in that "phase" with the plants. :tongue:

If you decide to give Discus a try, make sure to do the research first on what plants will work with the higher temps that Discus require. A GREAT Discus website that I'm a member of as well is: http://forum.simplydiscus.com/forum.php


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## madness

Stunning Discus.

Love the tank overall but those recent shots really show how much these Discus 'pop.'


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## Herbicidal

madness said:


> Stunning Discus.
> 
> Love the tank overall but those recent shots really show how much these Discus 'pop.'


Thank you very much! My little camera just isn't quite fast enough to "freeze" the fish with such low light levels. Shutter speed was like 1/5th of a second, so some blurs. I kept trying to time my shots for when they stopped moving for a fraction of a moment. Some cooperated, some did not. :wink:


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## Minja

Wow, I love the wood. I kinda put aside building a canopy, but now I think I will reconsider. Having a canopy really adds to the illusion. Keep them pics comming.


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## Herbicidal

Minja said:


> Wow, I love the wood. I kinda put aside building a canopy, but now I think I will reconsider. Having a canopy really adds to the illusion. Keep them pics comming.


Thanks! I'm lucky to be able to find such pieces only an hour away. With careful measuring and cutting I was able to position/wedge all the manzanita underneath the glass braces at the ends and in the middle of the tank or beneath the back half of the glass lids so I did not have to wait for them to become water logged. Nothing freaks out the fish faster than a piece of wood suddenly popping to the surface!

I agree regarding the canopy and the illusion. :thumbsup:


----------



## Herbicidal

Hello everyone! Felt it was time for an update. Lost a couple of Discus over the last several months. Nothing I can really pin down. Sometimes they just stop eating and start to waste away. As soon as I notice they are not eating I will move them to Q/T. Usually I will see some white, stringy feces which tells me it’s most likely an internal parasite. I treat them with Metro per Kenny’s (of Kenny’s Discus) recommendations, elevate the heat, provide aeration, keep up on all the required water changes and yet I still have not successfully cured a single Discus. It seems like once they have lost the will to eat, I just cannot reverse it. I use only frozen, flake or pellet type foods. Nothing ‘live’. The other Discus are just fine and eating like pigs.

Anyway, enough with the sad news. On a lighter note, my female Virgin Red has become the queen of the tank! She has paired up with what I'm calling a 'Checkerboard' male and as of this morning have produced their 5th round of eggs in like 6 weeks! The 1st – 3rd set of eggs hatched, but were pretty much consumed once they became free swimming fry by the Rummy Nose and Black Neon Tetras. Neither parent was doing a very good job with the fry after they hatched. However, the 4th batch lasted much longer. This time they actually attached to the female and occasionally the male. In the end, the parents desire to eat at feeding time overwhelmed their desire to care for the fry and the fry were picked off by the Rummies and the Neons when the parents swooshed off to get some food. Oh well. To be expected in a community tank. With how prolific these two are, I’m thinking about putting them in their own 30 gallon tank with Manzanita branches and a sponge filter. This would also reduce the stress they are creating in the main tank by chasing away the other fish from their end of the tank each time they lay a new batch of eggs.

Tonight a friend is giving me a 30 gallon tank with a bunch of stuff for it. I'll need to check it out and determine if this will be a worthwhile home for the pair. Enough for now, here's some pictures!

*Female with fry:*









*Male with fry:*









*Full tank shot:*









*Female Virgin Red 'cleaning' the wood in preparation for laying her eggs:*









*Random tank shots:*


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## habitat

I am sorry to hear about your losses. :icon_cry:
The rest of the discus look amazing and I really like your background!


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## zzrguy

That is and outstanding setup you have well thought out and executed .
Im loven those Discus


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## plantbrain

You might consider using LED lights to give the nicer color effect and sunlight like shimmer.

If you place these at a slight angle from the front towards the rear, they will reflect better off the fish and give the nicer colors.
They also come with dimmers and makes dialing in just the right light level for optimal color.


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## l8nite

Loved reading your thread. I'm getting ready to do a full-substrate change from gravel to flourite black sand in my 29G tank -- was happy to read some first-hand experience on making the change.


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## Herbicidal

habitat said:


> I am sorry to hear about your losses. :icon_cry:
> The rest of the discus look amazing and I really like your background!


Thank you. In spite of the periodic set backs I still plan to continue with Discus for the foreseeable future. Still learning! I appreciate your compliments!



zzrguy said:


> That is and outstanding setup you have well thought out and executed .
> Im loven those Discus


Thank you very much!



plantbrain said:


> You might consider using LED lights to give the nicer color effect and sunlight like shimmer.
> 
> If you place these at a slight angle from the front towards the rear, they will reflect better off the fish and give the nicer colors.
> They also come with dimmers and makes dialing in just the right light level for optimal color.


Good call Tom. I'll have to do some research. With your experience in lighting, are there any brands that you prefer? Just to point me in the right direction. :smile:



l8nite said:


> Loved reading your thread. I'm getting ready to do a full-substrate change from gravel to flourite black sand in my 29G tank -- was happy to read some first-hand experience on making the change.


Thanks! That probably took you a little while to do, the reading of my thread. :wink: Good luck with your substrate swap.


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## Herbicidal

Just a few pictures showing some of the other fish that share their home with the Discus. I recently acquired another 25 Rummy Nose Tetras so I now have about 40. Makes for a very nice school! Sometimes the Black Neons get caught up in the action and school with the Rummy's. My camera just isn't fast enough to 'catch' the Rummy's so I didn't try. I also have two Salt and Pepper Cories, but they were camera shy, so no pictures of them.

3 Sterbai Cories. They seem to almost always hang out together.









A very small Panda cory below a young female Blue Diamond Discus. I have 3 of the Panda's too.









Two Panda's and a Sterbai.









Two "night time" shots:


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