cullymoto

You read that right. Hard scaped, less than three years old, perfectly good, no leaks, very minor scratches ( hard to see) aquarium, stand, and three piece lid for free! Tank dimensions are 72" x 18" x 21" Stand is slightly taller. Both will fit in a pickup truck bed. There's always a catch. I'm in a pickle. I intended to move this tank to my new house with me. But I can't. Its simply to damn heavy! I can't get a moving company in time, even with a few guys to help... I estimate the tank empty weight to be just shy of 400lbs. The stand another 100 (they are separate of course) Come get the tank and stand. Pick it up, carry it out the door, and it's yours. Must be before the end of the month. I live in Spruce Grove Ab. Contact me at cullenrgrant@gmail.com See picture below. No joke. Serious inquiries only. Thanks

You would likely be okay to house another pair. Assuming that you have plenty of spawn sites for them clustered near each end and the center of the tank. Maybe be ready with dividers or thick fake plants if you need to block line of sight. I love gbr's but, I've never been able to have long term success with them. I did find that two females per one male kept spawn aggression from wearing on the females. If you've got one to one, expect the female to become stressed fairly quickly. If you do get eggs, and you want to keep them, I think the cories would have to go as they would likely eat the eggs. My two cents, take it or leave it.

Reserved

Reserved Update posted: It's been a pretty crazy few weeks, and I worked my butt off getting things to where they are. So much so that I never stopped to take photos to document the process. Once I got the background in and the tank hardscaped I got busy doing all the support stuff behind the aquarium. I will get photos up into this post eventually, for now I'll do details. I built a catwalk platform behind the tank, the top of the aquarium is 6 feet off the floor after all. I've plummed the aquarium together into the sump, made baffles in the sump (which then failed) and then redid the sump lol. I've hung shelves to hold equipment, I've wall mounted dosing pumps and Neptune apex components... Built a diy powered syphon unit, plumbed the refill system into the other components, routed drainage, tested everything... Fixed leaks... Lots has happened. Had a local sign shop make vinyl prints from photographs of the 3d background for the outside of the sides. Still have things to do, like putting trim along the front of the aquarium to hide edges and top/bottom. For now, enjoy a photo of the aquarium running (still have a canister filter running to help establish biofilter, but that intake and hose to the left will be gone soon) and a close up of my non photogenic wet children

Reserved. Thanks Time for an update! Over the holidays there were some extreme delays in getting some problems sorted out. Long story short, builder didn't do what they were hired to do and it took an extra month to get it sorted out. In the end, the builder made it right. Check out some photos! Tho photos are of fitting the 3d background, then of me installing the epoxy + sand mix. Hard to get a sense of scale until you see the pics of me in there. I'm 6' tall lol.

Never has there been an award winning, prized NADA fish come from a substrated tank. Keep researching those members claiming to succeede with discus in planted tanks. Notice how many and frequently they post in the disease/help threads. Notice in their photos the fish are stunted, have ragged finnage, always show stress bars, never see the same fish growing old with them? I'm not trying to be a jerk, I'm trying to save the op time, money, and anguish. Substrate is never the thing that makes a tank dirty, substrate is the thing that holds onto obscene amounts of poop, food, and bacterial/fungal growth that makes a tank dirty. When I first got into discus, I killed dozens of good fish thinking that I could keep a planted, substrated tank. I got pretty tired of watching beautiful fish die in my care. I gutted my tank, made a "near bare bottom" by mixing sand with a soy based two part epoxy and started over. I have a couple plants in pots, soil in a bag in a pot with a plant rooted through the bag. Some type of cobamba I can't identify and a java fern that my discus like to snack on. I also have anubius on driftwood. I understock at 8 adults in an over filtered 125gal tank. I do two 65% water changes with aged, heated, airated water every week and completely clean my filter and recharge the 4x dose of purigen every week. I barely stay on top of my fish health even with this routine. Since changing the tank I have not lost one fish. I have a seven year old discus! Barely a day goes by that one of my two mating pairs don't have eggs in my show tank. I'm trying to help the op get to the finish line of keeping these wonderful fish, without going the wrong direction at the start like I did. Jeditait, when your ready get your fish from Rick over at Canadianaquafarms.com better quality than you'll find in a store, same price after flying them to your local airport.

You are setting yourself up for heartache. Discus require exceedingly clean aquariums. You can not keep an aquarium clean enough to meet discus needs with substrate in the tank. Hit up www.Simplydiscus.com is a discus only forum. Go to the beginners section and read up. Give yourself a few hours to research the fish at that site. Many, many have tried what your planning to do and failed. Your current plan would work very well for angels, or just about any other fish that doesn't require such pristine conditions.

Here's something constructive. To keep your discus, first re home all of your other fish. They are not helping the situation. Get a water storage solution, like a large second hand tank and set it up with a heater, air supply and pump so that you can age your water in it. A minimum of 24 hours is required for tap water to de-gas. The waters ph changes, sometimes by quite a lot while it de-gasses, that's why it's important. Get rid of 100% of your substrate. The amount of garbage that gravel/ dirt etc holds onto is truly terrifying. It's disgusting really. Go bare bottom, or do some kind of epoxy and sand mix. If you go bare bottom you'll likely need to paint the underside of the tank to prevent the mirror effect. You can keep the plants but you'll want to pot them. Get some small clay pots put the needed soil in a filter bag with the plant sticking up out of it. This makes it very easy to clean the plants, around them, and underneath them. To keep discus there are things you really need to focus on: A very clean environment, if you wouldn't drink the water (I'm serious) it's too dirty for discus. Very consistent conditions. Hard / soft conditions really don't matter for domestic bred discus so long as it always stays the same. Discus are very sensitive to changes in their water conditions. Ph is another thing that can be high or low, it doesn't matter so long as it remains consistent. Quality food, adults need to be fed three times a day, baby's as many as 9 times a day, juveniles somewhere between that. They need quality food or they will develop hole in the head. I recommend freeze dried black worms, beef heart flake, mysis shrimp, bloodworms, and green seaweed. One more tip. Don't ever buy a discus from a pet store. 99% of the time they are not properly cared for and are already dying when you take them home. It's very very hard to bring a discus back from the edge. Discus can become stunted, want an 8" dinner plate sized perfectly shaped example of what a discus should be? You'll never get one from a pet store. For often less that the pet store charges you, you can get fish from a Canadian breeder or importer and a plane ticket. My fish come from wwww.canadianaquafarm.com I highly recommend him.

Also your extremely over stocked. My 120 gallon is very full with ONLY 8 discus in it, bare bottom etc. I have to do two 65% water changes each week plus a full filter cleaning every 7 days to stay on top of discus health. If your not aging your tap water, your not ready for discus. I know I'm coming down on you hard but, you might need to hear this. That tank will constantly kill discus the way it's currently setup.

That fish is dead. Put it down the most humane way you can think of. An Ice water immersion works in about 10 seconds. When they get that bad, there's no brining them back. Get ris of it before it makes the rest of your fish sick

It never hurts to water change your discus, so long as your new water perameters are the same as the old perimeters. As to what's wrong with your one fish, there's simply no where near enough information on your post to offer you any suggestions. I will say that if your I've fish is sick in the community tank, than all the others are exposed to the same conditions. No sense in moving it to a Q/t unless conditions worsen, or your trying to save money on medications in a smaller tank. For anyone to offer you help, you need to pay more information such as: How long has the tank been established? Do you age your water change water? PH? Hardness? Is your tank planted, bare bottom, graveled? Tank volume, and current stock list? Any medications used lately? Any new fish/plants added recently? Just to start

Time for an update! Progress continues. I've gotten the water change water holding tank installed and operational. Might install an overflow system on it just as a safety but, I've never had issues with the valves I use. Play that by ear.(see photos below) My electronic actuated valve has come in, I think it's dam near a piece of art lol! A significant portion of the automation equipment is here ready to go (neptune apex) just waiting on a couple back ordered pieces and their new DOS pumps that I'll be using to control liquid chemicals. I gave up on using powder. Also, just last night the 3d background came in. This thing is both monstrous and goergous! The tank builder will be done soon and then the assembly can begin!

An information spot. The idea of this all is that there's going to be a window into a river in my living room. The show tank will be approximately 300 gallons with a 90 gallon sump / refugium. There will be a large storage tank in the basement with 500 to 600 gallons capacity. This storage vessel will be heated and aerated ready to go for water change replacement water. The storage vessel will be half tap and half r/o filtered water. There will be a large external pump to move water from the storage up to the show tank system. The show tank will be drilled in the bottom in two places as the filter draw. The drilled holes will be covered by 3d plastic grates, similar to what you find on a canister filter intake tube. Those two covers will be the only hardware you will see. The water will pass through a uv filter before going into the sump. Water will pass through dish pot scrubbers for mech. Filtration, then plastic bio balls, then ehiem biological filter media, then through a chamber of purigen. After filtration water will pass through a planted area under 24 hour light that will house many many ghost and algae eating shrimp. There will be a large submersible pump in a filter bag in the refugium pushing water back to the show tank. Between the sump and show tank will be a second uv filter and three inline heaters. Both the show tank and sump system will be at identical elevations ( that's important in this design ) gravity will cause the two tanks to have an identical water level. As the pump in the sump moves water, it creates a low water level in the sump, and a high water level in the show tank. At all times the water will be moving to equalize, except when there is a power outage and flow stops. There will be a computer controlled auto water change system. I'm a discus keeper, there will be one 99% water change every week and smaller "spot" water changes as required. ...hard to explain this part without a drawing. Basically an electronic valve will drain the two tanks from the plumbing beneath the show tank ( there will be a mechanical, no moving parts system to prevent total drainage ) once drained a water level sensor will power the large pump at the storage tank that will refill both tanks simultaneously. I still need a system to accurately dose either safe or prime, as well as a dry powder kh boost. ( any help would be appreciated ) There will be three custom built led lights over the show tank and a controller. This will allow me to cover the full spectrum of a natural day / night cycle. I think the lighting might just steal the show on this whole system. There will be a large 3d background and slimline covers for the two sides of the show tank as well. The bottom will be a mixture of a light / near white sand and ecopoxy. This I have done in my current 125 and it gives the effect of a bare bottom system while looking like a normal sand bottom aquarium. Very easy to clean, but permanent. After two years with this setup I'm getting a covering of green algae across the bottom. Looks very natural. If you made it to the end of this post, your a real fish nerd! Lol thanks for looking in

Hello. Thanks for looking in. I'll do something of a journal here, don't know forums well enough to make a real one lol. Here is where it all starts. This is going to be the fish room. The opening in the wall is 32 inch by 82 inch. The tank will be two feet wide. ... I made the builder install a second engineered beam in the floor under this wall for weight considerations. Stay tuned! An explanation of the colored drawing photo; This photo is the simple version of the plumbing design. It does not show valves, uv, heaters, lighting, controllers, pumps, air supply etc. it simply serves to explain the water movement. The black rectangles are the large show tank and the smaller sump tank. The blue line is the transfer line. Water will flow from the main tank to the sump. The blue line will have an elevated section, this section will prevent water in the system from dropping below its elevation. The pink line runs to drain. The small black line is an air vent The brown line is return from sump to tank The yellow line is from storage tank The hard to see dotted green line is an elevation mark, this shows the minimum water level.

I very much like what you are doing and where you are headed. Keep up the good work!

Very right. I had a shrimp tank with Ada in it. It buffered my tap down to 5.5ph. I couldn't do a water change, not enough ph down to bring my tap down low enough to match it. Every time I tried, I ended up killing shrimp with ph shock. I'll never use it again.

Lots could be going on... More information is needed to help you. Just off the top however comes the standard "spring runoff theory" where there are abnormally high levels of nitrite, nitrate, ammonia, and chlorine/chlorimine in tap water at this time of year. Of coarse you do not say if even you run tap water so maybe I've just brought up a moot point. More information is needed to help you.

It is hydra. You are feeding too much.

I wish you the best in your new tank setup. Angels and gouramis can be a nice S.A. Tank (pretty sure gouramis aren't even s.a. But they do well in those conditions) But whatever you pick give them some love (water change) and everyone will be happy. I'm interested to know where you work, as I've wanted to find local help and couldn't before with fish emergencies and autopsy. Thanks

It's run off time of the year. If you didn't change your long standing routine, than it is the massive chlorimine they add to cope with run off. A chlorimine test on untreated tap water would rule it in / out for certain.

Thank you for the response, I appreciate your input. Particularly on the bottleneck aspect. I hadn't considered that issue. Two questions answered in one, I'm doing a sand + ecopoxy mix. I've done it before with excellent results. It looks like a regular sand bottom aquarium but is water proof and hard as concrete. The best of a bare bottom tank, with the look of sand. I'll be giving it a gentle slope toward the drain as well. Cleaning the line... Well. I would use threaded fittings after valves so the entire line can be pulled and cleaned without draining the tank. But that's always a PITA .... Can't be any worse than my canister filters currently are. ... Right? Please! Lol. I'll have to make sure the drain line is as big as I can get away with to avoid the bottleneck, I will be using some sort of grate (permanent coffee filter?) something fish safe that fits snugly, but will be removable should it ever need maintenance.

No physicists in the audience I guess?

Hello all, thanks for the look. I'm in process of building a new home with a fish room! Looking to gain some input as I'm forging new territory on a 150gal plus sump, and I could use some opinions on "the plan". So without drawing a picture basically; Show tank has a large diameter drain drilled into the bottom center of the tank. Drain goes vertical to valve - elbow - then horizontal run all the way over to another elbow going up to - valve into the bottom of the smaller sump tank. Both tanks would be at the same level on a rack. In my head, with this setup both tanks would have an equalized water level. Correct me if I'm wrong, or you don't understand my wording. There would be two pumps in the sump pushing water to fall into the show tank at each end. This would both lower the water level in the sump, and raise the water level in the tank. In turn this would cause the water in the show tank to flow into the sump, at the same rate that the pumps empty the sump correct? One of the big concerns for me is power outage, but the two tanks should just equalize I think. I'm not interested in a "regular" overflow, because fish poops etc. lay on the bottom of the tank. With the drain In the bottom center and returns falling into each end the debris should be swept to the drain. I've yet to talk to any tank builders, so I don't know if a tank with that kind of capacity can be drilled on the bottom etc. I'm just fishing for ideas, and asking others if their understanding of hydro dynamics works like mine does. Thanks for your time, and I would appreciate any input you might have.

If you do get discus, don't ever buy them from a pet store. Those are already sick and will die very soon. In alberta you can get from www.canadianaquafarm.com and www.albertadiscus.com You will get better fish, save money (even after paying to put them on a plane) and even support from the site. You won't get crap from big als.... Oops There are no such things as "rare black discus" there are "dead in 20 minutes black discus" there is no hope for them when they are that far gone. Rest assured that any other discus in the tank with a black one will soon follow it down the toilet... As far as the maintenece for them, it's simply put like this; The cleaner you keep their home, the bigger they'll grow, the brighter they'll be, the more babies they'll give you, the less illness you'll see.

Yes, but before new water goes into the tank it should first be aged to settle the ph so as to not shock your fish. This requires a 2nd vessel to hold just clean water. This way you can have it to the right temperature, air acted, and treated with anything you deem necessary BEFORE it goes into the tank with your fish. If your doing a water change for discus, and those discus are not lying on their sides, you haven't taken out enough water yet to call it a water change.