Dan's 75G Planted Discus Tank

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"___" *Waiting for a Name to strike me*
Filtration:
-Marineland C360 w/ PURA Amazon instead of Carbon
Lighting:
-Aqueon 48" Dual T5 Fixture w/ 1x 28W 6700K and 1x Colormax
-Aqueon 48" 32W 8000K
Substrate:
-Pool Filter Sand w/ Flourish Root Tabs
Fauna:
-6 Discus
-4 Clown Loach
-13 Neon Tetra
-1 BN Pleco
Flora:
Amazon Sword
Anacharis
Pennywort
Pygmy Chain Sword
Riccia Fluitans
Aponogeton
Java Fern
Wisteria
Anubias

*I rescaped the tank earlier this week and that's why it looks a little wild at the moment. The driftwood decided to be very difficult and took plants up with it when it lifted. So the scape will be finished once it sinks.*

I am thinking about going Pressurized CO2 soon, does anyone have any experience in the area?

Awesome Discus. Always thought that some Discus were as nice as some of the Saltwater Angels out there. I always wanted to do Discus but have always been really nervous, I know some of the best fish keepers alive out there and most of them say the same thing about Discus... "They'er impossible to keep. Way to finicky, require way to much attention and will quite eating at the snap of a finger and die" They're the Morish Idols of freshwater. More power to you for being able to keep them. They look really great. Keep up the good work.

Thanks! I haven't found them too terribly difficult and they have awesome personalities.

I use it in my 90 planted tank. You can see it here LINK

It is fairly easy to setup. There are a number of places here to get CO2 bottles filled. Once you have a bottle you need a two stage regulator. The normal keg regulator won't slow the flow down low enough to be consistent. You can use the standard regulator and then add a fine tune valve in order to the bubbles for minute/second you require.

The hardest part is to get the CO2 dissolved in the tank. There are countless ways to do it but what has worked wonders for me is injecting the the CO2 into the inlet pipe of my canister filter. The canister dissolves the CO2 and spits it out my spray bar that sits right under the water.

You can also use the glass pressure dissolves but the down side to them is it makes it look like a glass of sprite in the tank.

If you are able to see anything besides the smallest micro bubble coming from the outlet of your CO2 system it is not working as effectively as possible.

What I would be most worried about in a discus tank is the higher temps mean less oxygen in the tank as is. If you start injecting CO2 you will be on a fine line of depleting the oxygen level. Also any aeration systems in place (bubblers, wands, even power filters) only act to defeat the purpose of CO2 so with them off the likely hood of failure is just a little higher. In a normal planted tank I have no worries about that but in a discus tank it would always be on my mind.

I have thought about that, problem is I want to heavily plant and atm I am not providing enough. Maybe some large DIY CO2 Generators could give me the boost I need without getting levels too high...

The DIY works well but if you are trying to get higher amounts of CO2 you also want to make sure you can accurately set that amount and not have to worry about the DIY CO2 running low or producing too much. A pressurized system once setup is a set and forget type of thing. I still check mine once and awhile but never really worry about it.

Well The easiest way to safely do pressurized CO2 to do would be to use a CO2 drop checker and very slowly increase the CO2 level until it just starts to go green, keeping in mind it takes several hours for the checker to adjust and the CO2 levels to stabilize.

Once you have a good setting then monitor the tank day and night for awhile to make sure no one is acting funny.
To help with the oxygen level I would suggest turning it off at night when the plants in the tank will use oxygen instead of CO2(why be wasteful). I know some people say that it causes PH swings but I have never had any issues with it and it is not like it is a sudden drop or increase. It may vary a little but over several hours.

If you got it fine tuned it would likely be fine but as I said it is just a thinner line then a normal temp planted tank.

Yeah I was thinking about putting it on the timer with my lights and a solenoid. I don't know though pressurized CO2 is way expensive... well kind of lol. I also thought about a pH controller but I don't know. I was at least going to do a drop checker. I really don't want to do DIY CO2 because I would need a lot of 2L and I hate trying to regulate the output plus taking it out every night would be a pain.

It is not bad to be honest I picked up a 5LB tank with regulator off CL for $50 it cost 15-20 to fill it and last over 3 months in a 90 gallon tank.

The fine tune valve cost $30. If you buy a regulator with a solenoid it is a bit more expensive but you will have the added benefit of set and forget. I would also recommend having the CO2 turn on a little before the lights since it takes a few hours for CO2 concentrations to build up. Again you can use a drop checker to see how long it roughly takes for this to happen then offset and CO2 on time by roughly that amount so that when your lights turn on the plants will have a ready supply of CO2

Thanks for the help man, trying to figure all of this CO2 stuff for the first time has been a hassle.

No problem I have been through that all before. The really great part is that after it is all done you should see plant growth explode as long as you can keep up on the ferts for the plants.

I'd love to see that in my tank, but I'm trying to find a good set up for under $300 which seems almost impossible.

My whole setup if you don't include the canister filter was only roughly $115.

Tank and regulator (50)
Fabco NV 55 needle valve (30)
Filling tank (20)
Barb set to fit tubes (15)

If you wanted a solenoid add 50-75
Misc-items
Air line

http://norfolk.craigslist.org/for/2481246813.html
That is a 10# for $50. You of course would need the regulator but still it is a good start. I see people selling keg setups all the time. The bottle and regulator will work you just need to add the needle valve.

I got my new lights today and thus far they look great! The LED Moonlights have a really nice ripple effect too

Yeah those moonlights are a nice touch to almost any tank.

I hope to in the near future use some high output LEDs to make a fixture. A few friends are going to work on this project with me and try to make a pretty neat DIY LED setup. The goal is to replace T-5 lighting for less then the cost of a T-5 fixture with more light!

strikingthematch wrote:

Yeah those moonlights are a nice touch to almost any tank.

I hope to in the near future use some high output LEDs to make a fixture. A few friends are going to work on this project with me and try to make a pretty neat DIY LED setup. The goal is to replace T-5 lighting for less then the cost of a T-5 fixture with more light!

Please post your findings on this lighting escaped. I have thought about this myself. I'm more of a mechanical tech then an electronic tech but LEDs are pretty simple. I would love to set up some blue LEDs for some of the tanks.

We will have to see how it goes. We are trying to produce something that will be able to grow at the very least plants. It is more or less just to see if we can do it since we have most of the resources and more then enough ability!

Well it seems that my clown loaches may have been eaten while I have been back home in Colorado, so I don't think I am going to replace them. The neons as well. Discus for being tempermental fish seem to have the "When things get hard, we get harder" mentality. Soon it seems they may be in a species only tank. I have a feeling when I get home I will have to rescape the tank as well. So depending on how much time I have when I get back to work, I will probably be posting a lot more pictures.

Dan, you mentioned LED lights. I believe TankGirl has them on her 150 Kapampa tank. You'll get to see that on October 2nd.

I know what you mean about sensitive fish being tougher than their reputation. *lol*
Hope the re'scape goes well.

the tank looks great, keep up the great work and add more pics..

I need some of your pics for picture of the month! Very nice.


1-10 I give it a 12!

dang thats nice.

That is sweet looking tank!I've always wanted Discus and live plants in a tank like that.I just never got around to do one.Been to busy with cichlids!

Thank you all for the compliments! Hopefully rescaping goes well.
KMX- I'm not sure which picture/s you would want but if there are any you'd like let me know and I'll get them to you.
BFinley- Be careful lol plants can get addicting. Sometimes I swear I keep fish just so I can play with aquascapes.

Beautiful! great job.

I would love to have a very heavily planted tank with abunch of tetras and Discus in there!

Yeah I started with simple low light plants and have worked my way up. I hopefully will be injecting CO2 at some point.