New Tank

[rabbut]

Hi.
As may of you will know from my other threads, I am planning a new tank. It will the same dimentions as a Jewel Rio 300, only a custom with thicker glass than the Rio comes with as standard. The tank will hold arround 300 litres or 70 gallons. I intend to set up a high-tec planted tank for Discus.
The tank will be heated with three 100 watt heaters, with a temporiture being maintained at 28 degrees centigrade or 81 farrenheight. I have already arranged the purchase of the filtration, and will post the filter details in a later post, as I cannot remeber the exact model numbers off hand. I have not yet made my mind up about lighting yet, so surgestions are welcomed. I plan to use either Power Compact luminares all over, or florescents over the back and sides with a metal hilide over the front for the carpet I have planned. Pressurised CO2 injection is planned, with a forced reactor as the methord of injection. The planned Photo periods are as follows;

If all over PC luminares, 10 hours strait
If florescent and mh, florescent 2hours, all 6hours, mh 2hours.

The stand will be a Rio 300 stand. That summs up my planned equipment.


Creating a natural aquarium, Interpet publishing, first printed 2000, pages 88 to 95 gives me the following information about the conditions from which Discus origionate.

Water Conditions

Highly acidic, as low as pH5, that is very soft carrying a large amount of tanins. These acidic pools are in direct sunlight, with minimal planting. nb. With the plans for this to be a planted tank, I will be placing more plants into this tank, than Discus would encounter in the wild.

Substrate

Sand or soil. I will sandwich a 1 cm layer of planting soil between two layers of 2 inch deep sand, with a heating cable in the middle of the bottom layer.

The hardscape

Dark rocks, such as slate, and natural style bog wood are most common.

Plants

Anubias sp.
Heteranthera Zosterifolia
Hydrophila sp.
Dwarf Amozon Sward
Pistia Stratiotes/water lettuce
Azolla sp.
Salvinia sp.
Riccia sp.

Are all found in these areas. Riccia will be my floating plant, Hydrophila on the sides, Cabomba Carolina (I know, breaking the biotope idea) and amazon sward as feature planting.

commonly found fish in the area

Discus
Angelfish
Tetras
Corydoras

My intended stocking is 6 discus, 10 cardinal tetra, 10 rummynoses tetra and possibly some corries, if anyone can surgest a species that can withstand these high temporitures. Feel free to pull appart an faults in my research, as I have not yet cross-referanced any of it. What is your favorite mail-order plant service? Which methord of lighting is best, and do the photo periods look ok? As always, surgestions are welcome. My appologies for such a long-winded opening post.
Regards
Rabbut

 

[GRJ]

Good luck Rabbut, i cant wait to see your carefully laid plans come together!!! GRJ

 

[rabbut]

OK, got my new filters this Saturday (well second hand realy) and will post pictures shortly. I now have a Rena XP2 and a Fluval 404. I plan to run the Rena only as a biological filter, with ceramic rings as the only media. The Fluval will contain mechanical media with some aditional biological filtration in the form of sponges. I will also fit it out with filter floss for removing even the smallest particle from the water. I have read about discus requiring imaculate water quality, toataly free from chemical imputities, so I origionaly planned on using carbon. Then I had a thought, won't carbon remove the EI doses? Can anyone give their opinion as to using carbon in this set-up? I have got the Rena running in my existing tank, to seed the media prior to starting my fishless cycle.
As promissed, photos are to follow soon, tomorrow hopefuly.

 

[rabbut]

Ok, photos of my filters;

First the Rena XP2, which I am currently seeding in an established tank

And the Fluval 404

Will be ordering the tank and stand on Saturday I can't wait

Rabbut

 

[rabbut]

After much waiting, the stand has finaly arrived. It is a Rio300 stand, in beach. Here it is built.

Will be going back to the shop tomorrow, as I need to re-order the tank, since their origional supplyer apparently went bust. Oh-well at least I haven't paid for it, or I'd have lost my money I also need to get plants for my other tank, and I need some polly boxes for the bace of this new tank.
Will take another 3 weeks Can't take that long to build a tank, surely I may concider building it myself Have to talk my parents into it first though.
Rabbut

 

[GRJ]

Starting to look good Rabbut! Keep the pics up! I cant wait to see the finished tank! GRJ

 

[rabbut]

After a long wait, the custom tank has finaly arrived. Well, to the shop at least..... It will either be delivered on Monday or Friday this week, pics to follow. Will be starting the fishless cycle as soon as it is in, and will be ordering the lighting within the next few days, from a seller on ebay, that a family friend has recomended.

 

[rabbut]

The new tank has arrived. It's in (took 4 of us to lift it) filled, all equipment connected and running, and ammonia added to start the fishless cycle. Heres a photo.

I am still waiting for the lighting unit, I ordered it on Sunday evening, and it will take between 5 and 14 business days from Gremany to be delivered. I have opted for a T5 luminer, with 3 52watt bulbs and reflectors fitted as standard. Here is an URL;

http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...A:IT&ih=006

I will be changing the standord tubes with 14000K output to one daylight tube at the front, and two plant grow tubes at the back.

I have finalised plans for the planting, in my head, and may post a diagram later, if not, you may have to wait untill its finished.

Rabbut

 

[Gill]

Looking Good So far.

 

[rabbut]

Starting to look good Rabbut! Keep the pics up! I cant wait to see the finished tank! GRJ

Looking Good So far.

Thanks guys!!

I was going to post stats for the cycle, but I cannot get the collums to line up properly, and the forum will not allow me to upload spreadsheet files. NM, will cheer eeryone up with another phote, as the lighting unit arrived this morning.

Rabbut

 

[rabbut]

Quick update for you all.
One week into the cycle, and the ammonia is being processed in 24 hours, nitrite os off the cahart, and nitrate is rising. Well on the way to being cycled...

Keep you posted
rabbut

 

[joecoral]

looking good mate! one thing i would say is that if you're planning to keep discus, 28C is not quite warm enough for them, somewhere closer to 30C would be a safer bet
also if you're going for a co2 injected high-tech planted tank, it would have been better to get the substrate in and get it planted before you put in the ammonia to do a fishless cycle. with a heavily planted system there is not really any need to fishless cycle, as provided the plants are established they will take care of most of the ammonia i believe

JC

 

[rabbut]

looking good mate! one thing i would say is that if you're planning to keep discus, 28C is not quite warm enough for them, somewhere closer to 30C would be a safer bet
also if you're going for a co2 injected high-tech planted tank, it would have been better to get the substrate in and get it planted before you put in the ammonia to do a fishless cycle. with a heavily planted system there is not really any need to fishless cycle, as provided the plants are established they will take care of most of the ammonia i believe

JC

Thanks for the tip on temporature The temp is currently on 32, as my cycle is well underway. I will crank the temp down to 30 at the end of the cycle. Will be ordering the plants for my scape (all 78 of them) over the weekend. I will be picking up my substrate at the same time. I agree that ammonia will be absorbed quickly once plants are established, but I have chosen to go down the fishless cycle route for safetys sake, as most of my planned stocking can be a little flimzy, when it comes to water quality.
I greatly appreciate everyones input on this thread, so thanks to all who have contributed so far

Rabbut

 

[reims]

you have a nice tank and filters! i bet you cant wait to start planting. good luck sir!

 

[rabbut]

you have a nice tank and filters! i bet you cant wait to start planting. good luck sir!

Thanks, got the substrate and 1/10th of the plants this weekend. I am using plane sand, as the plants will be stems, hense hopefuly ok with water collum fertilisation only.

Will post yet more photos once things clear. The cycle has finished, and I was hoping to move stock in yesterday, but since I still coulden't see the back of the tank, decided against it (stupidly diden't wash the sand before adding)

The rest of the plants are on order too, so hpefuly, it will all be running, excluding discus by the big Xmas family meal.

rabbut