Anita's Tank

[Anita]

Well here's my tank ) Today I ordered a JBL Proflora 3 CO2 system from Aquatic's Online, so I will be pestering you guys for some help. I can cope with discus but when it comes to the technical side of the hobby I'm beat!

Anita...

 

[IovaykInD]

Those discus look really nice. And your tank will look really nice after the plants fill in..Continue your hard work

 

[rixy]

nice looking tank anita.large pieces of bogwood always look nice in a discus tank.

 

[*Lucifer*]

thats a really nice tank, keep up the hard work.

 

[mrjames]

anita your tank looks fabulous!! well done im jelous. 1 ? tho. it looks like you have a eheim external filter in the corner. i have just purchased 1 from a friend of the family for £20 and it has not come with all the pipework and to b honest i have not got a clue where to start when it comes to setting it up. i have thought about taking the sponges out of my internal fluval 4 and putting them between the sponges of the eheim for a few weeks so i dont have to have them both running.i no its cheating abit but the important bacteria in the sponges will help my new filter to catch up imediatly. am i being realistic??? lol sorry to be a pain on ur first day of joining the forum!! please can you give me a discription of how you set urs up? what u do to maintain it ect. thankyou!!

p.s once again nice tank!

james

 

[Anita]

Hi
The filter is a Filstar XP3

Heres a link to Rena it contains info on their filter media's and filters...which you may find helpful

http/www.rena.net/trans/en/products/rena_range/

By all means put your sponges etc...in from your old filter, even the really grubby ones. That is what I did when I changed tanks last August and I had no problems, even with the discus

Maintainance...As I have 2 filters in the tank they get cleaned in turn every 4 weeks, I take all the baskets out exept 1 and rinse them through under the tap, then change the white fine filter that sits on top. If you are only running 1 filter, I would advise you to just clean 1 basket at a time, in rotation.

If you need any more help please let me know.

Anita...

 

[mrjames]

anita your a star!! il try the cleaning of 1 sponge at a same time over a few weeks. did u put in the carbon bits that come with it??? which pipes go where??? which one is the in pipe and which one is the out pipe. are there any valves that i need to ajust?? really sorry to be a pain. thanks very much for your help.

james x

 

[julibob]

Your tank and fish look beautiful Well done!!

Julia

 

[kev_kb]

Maintainance...As I have 2 filters in the tank they get cleaned in turn every 4 weeks, I take all the baskets out exept 1 and rinse them through under the tap, then change the white fine filter that sits on top. If you are only running 1 filter, I would advise you to just clean 1 basket at a time, in rotation.

By running your filter media under the tap your killing the bacteria on it, so some of the time you'll be running with around half your filtration running at it's best. As you have 2 filters you've probably not noticed a difference to the tank, but you'd be better off cleaning the filter media in old tank water, this way you won't kill the bacteria.

Also, I don't want to discourage you from using CO2, but you will need to be very careful with it as it will lower the pH of your water. If your already using RO water to provide soft water for the Discus your pH may crash with a lot of CO2 injected.

Sorry if this post sounds really negative, you've got a lovely tank there.

 

[Anita]

Maintenance...As I have 2 filters in the tank they get cleaned in turn every 4 weeks, I take all the baskets out except 1 and rinse them through under the tap, then change the white fine filter that sits on top. If you are only running 1 filter, I would advise you to just clean 1 basket at a time, in rotation.

By running your filter media under the tap your killing the bacteria on it, so some of the time you'll be running with around half your filtration running at it's best. As you have 2 filters you've probably not noticed a difference to the tank, but you'd be better off cleaning the filter media in old tank water, this way you won't kill the bacteria.

Also, I don't want to discourage you from using CO2, but you will need to be very careful with it as it will lower the pH of your water. If your already using RO water to provide soft water for the Discus your pH may crash with a lot of CO2 injected.

Sorry if this post sounds really negative, you've got a lovely tank there.

Thank you for your reply, filter advice taken on board. I will review my cleaning routine, even though I've got away with it for so long, perhaps it's better to be safe than sorry.
About the CO2, I've ordered the unit now, so hopefully I'll be able to use it. I check the PH, and do a water change everyday. The water here is very soft ideal for the discus, but not much else. I thought I might be able to add the smallest amount of CO2 and monitor the tank conditions carefully for say a month, before increasing. Thank you for the nice comments, however I feel the tank has come to bit of a standstill at the moment and could look nicer.

Anita

 

[simonbrown403]

Looking good, Beautiful discus, should look fab as the plants fill out.

What size tank is it, what water changes are you doing and what ferts are you adding for plants?

 

[FishOwner]

Your tank is beautiful and your discus are gorgeous!!

Can I ask you what your background is? Kinda looks like bark on a tree....very interesting!

 

[Anita]

Thank you.

I change 3 gallon of water per day, giving the bottom a quick syphon to remove any poo and un-eaten food. That works out approx 25% per week. Seems to work OK. never had any problems.

The backround is a Juwel one (well 3 actually) any LFS, just cut to size and scilicone in place.

Ferts added to the tank are, Flourish excel twice a week and Flourish once a week.

Anita

 

[simonbrown403]

You might need some iron rich root tabs for them swords, if you don't already use them.
There hungry root feeders that need nutrients at there roots in particular iron.

 

[Anita]

Hi Simon,

Oh, I forgot. I do stick a fertilizer tab under the swords from time to time. I did buy the Seachem ones once, but thet were quite expensive. Recently though I've been using the new Tetra tabs, perhaps they aren't rich enough in iron as growth has slowed down.

Anita