popik

I have been using a couple yo-yo's and a few siamese algea eaters and no casualties as of yet...

I already had a bunch of Electric blue females (11 to be exact haha) so theres 3 in there now. I added a Red Empress and have a few Daphodil Pulchers in there.

Next weekend i will meet up with Fairdeal and add to the 6 Yellows i got from him last time we met with a couple Blues, about 4 blue dolphins and a couple eureka reds. Dont want to get too crazy with load as i would like to raise these fish to maturity and have them all grow together.

Leons show tank was definately an inspiration as it is probably one of the nicest i have seen and respect the fact that he built his own cabinet as well.

My goal was to keep the project under 500$ as that is what the pre-built stand i was looking at would cost but didnt have a canopy. Everything came in close to budget...the only overance was due to $100+ in hinges and hardware.

I preffer the FX5 over the eheims due to the volume of water they move and the ease of changing and cleaning the media baskets (ive only owned Eheim classics). The only thing i dont like about the FX5 is how heavy it is...it has to be nearly 90lbs+ full

The tank the Discus were in previous to this one they were with Africans for over 6 months and didnt see any problems...they hold their own fairly well and arent as delicate as most seem to think.

The tank is 48"W X 18"D X 30"T 110G perfecto

Did you take any pics during construction of the project? So we can see before, during and after pics? Its hard to believe that stand was once a metal BA stand.

I had every intention to take some pics but got really carried away with the project and barely left the garage...while the camera was inside. The better part of the material is shop grade 5/8" Birch plywood with solid Aspen trim...i added a few cross braces inside for stability and a few verticals near the doors to mount the drawers and doors.

So far they are kicking a** and takin names...dont know how long it will last but i have seen it before.

Ohh and a couple of the happy fish too...

I started out just wanting to shut down my two smaller tanks (48G and 65G) and just move everything into something a little larger for ease of maintenance...but then i picked up a couple Male Red Empress from Leon and saw his 150g show tank...after finding a group buy on FX5's it was decided that i would have to do up at least a 100G and make it look pretty with a cabinet and overkill filtration. So i picked up a 48 X 18 steel stand made from 1 1/2" tubing from BA's and made a few modifcations with my MIG. AFter a quick trip to Windsor plywood for some veneered plywood i started cutting and gluing and nailing for a few days then i started staining...and then with the help of Dal and a trip to BA's for the tank we moved it all inside the house. I was almost sad when i didnt have this project to work on anymore but after it was setup all i could do was stare at all the happy fish.

Oh and as far as the overkill filtration i couldnt stop with just the FX5 so i added an Eheim 2215 just for good measure...haha

Thanks again for the help Dal

I have run the cheapo's from AG and a few other lower line and finaly took the plunge and bought a Jager...it has been flawless for over 7 months and hold the temp to a tee. If they made them cheaper i would buy more.

Where did you manage to find them for the low prices Degrassi ?

I just added the target playsand to my 110G without rinsing and the water was crytal clear. Most of the cichlid in my tank have been doing the stiring for me as they rumage around looking for food.

I think it was $6.50 a bag at HD...bought two and only needed one!

Udate....after dosing and seeding over the past two days i am getting a 0 ammonia reading but still have some Nitrite. I'm a little optimistic now that the fish and the filter will pull through. Hope by tomorow to see the Nitrate rise and Nitrate fall. I was also encouraged to leave the water changes to every two days unless the readings were really toxic.

Almost picked up a new filter today but after some hopefully good advise i have regained some faith in my eheims ability to handle this tank volume!

Did you clean the filter at all recently? If so, you may have killed some of the beneficial bacteria. How old are your test kits? Is it possible that they gave a false reading?

If you want some floating plants to soak up the nutrients, I've got tonnes - if you want to pick them up, I'll give you enough to cover the whole tank!!

Thanks for the reply

I opened the filter for a few minutes the day i put the Discus in but only to put a new carbon pad in as the old one was a few weeks old...no cleaning though and never out of the water. Test strips expire late in 2009.

If things dont stabilize tonight or at least show a glimmer of hope i will possibly take you up on the plant offer thank you kindly.

Any comments on whether the 2213 is big enough for a 46G?

Not sure of the exact cause but i'll tell it how it is

So i added 5 teenage (3-1/2") Discus to my 46g tank on Sunday. Things were going great till last night when i checked my water. By all records the tank had been cycled and had a small fish population or 2 yoyo loaches, a 5" Pearl Gourami, pleco a couple 1" tetra and 4 danio's. I have been running with this load for a couple weeks wanting to hold off to get the Discus till i was sure the tank was good and ready. I pulled the danio's and tetra's out beofre adding the discus just to keep the shock to filter low (they are very happy in a semi-planted 10g.

Long story short my ammonia and nitrite spiked last night and gave me a good scare. Ammonia at 0.5-1ppm and nitrite at 3ppm. I immediately dosed with both stability and prime to try and control it. Unfortunatley by this afternoon the nitrite had risen to 5ppm and the ammonia oddly stayed the same. The fish seemed to be fine and are acting normal...fed them the tiniest bit and they went ape over it. So i thought that a 50% water change and another dosing would work so i did just that (these fish hate the water changes). I wanted to leave it for an hour or two to see if i had made any effect so in the mean time i got some used floss and a couple bio balls out of a friends established tank to help seed my filter a bit more...at this point anything would help. When i added the used floss and bio balls i had a full on bacterial bloom within 5 mins.

So my question today is(sorry for the long story) i have this tank running on an eheim 2213 classic, i added a Fluval 2+ in tank filter more as a power head than anything...is this maybe not enough filter for this tank? its rated for a 60 G tank but i have heard some say that its overated.

I'm hoping im in the clear with these guys but domt want to be that optimistic yet

Very nice...good shadows too!

I like you analogy bosshog...i have heard the same about SW but i am just starting into frshwater and it seems mostly the same for now!

Dal has had crabs from more than just big al's...haha sorry bud.

Yuo nly got them because you thought that i would think that youare cool fro having them and not needing any medication to get rid of them!

Dal i asked the guys at Big Al's what they were and he knew right away but me being an idiot cant remember. He said that they are rare (mostly the coloured variety) and they dont usually have stock on them. There are a couple in the one planted tank in the corner of the fish room and a few more in one of the display tanks

Dal ? your calling yourself a noob ? your supposed to leave that to the people on the forum.

His tank did clear after a few days so from what i can gather the floss did wonders...

i used the same sort of thing to polish my 48G as it was cycling as the bacterial blooms looked too eerie!