Update 150G Acrylic Freshwater Discus Tank

[lenver]

So just wanted to give a quick update with a video of my 150g tank, the thread when I started it is here.

http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/21580-new-freshwater-build/

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[BuildMyLED]

Very cool. I used to breed discus, and it was one of my all-time favorite hobbies. They have so much personality.

Nick

[+Grog]

Very clean tank.

I love the ones that are kind of electric blue with the tiger stripe patterns. Beautiful.

[lenver]

OK, so it's a 150G 48"x24"x30", it's a tall tank but I do not need to vacuum it since I have a tunze powerhead that turns on 3 times a day and creates a good flow to get the solids into the sump, the led is basic not high output and it's on from 6:30 am to 9:00 pm, from 12 am to 8 PM a dual high output t5's are one to give a nice and bright view with this schedule I do not get any algae, the sand bed is play sand from lowes used it before and it works great it keeps solids on top so the powerhead can pick them up, the discus are 6 Valentines they're about 6", also there are 5 High Body Eruption Leopards about 6" also, 3 blue diamonds about 4.5"-5" and one Red turq. Also six cories julies for cleaning up leftovers, 3 Albino bristlenose Plecos, and 2 red/blue colombian tetras had more but the died still don't know why.

For Filtration is a sump with a wet/dry, it all first goes into a Micron Sock, then to a series of Matala mats, into bioballs, then a chamber of Eheim ceramic rings and finally into the refugium that only has the heaters and a final matala mat before going into the pump

[lenver]

Those would be the High Body Eruption Leopards

Very clean tank.

I love the ones that are kind of electric blue with the tiger stripe patterns. Beautiful.

[bige]

Do you use ro water? Or how do you condition the water. Are these wild caught? Very nice and clean.

[lenver]

Straight Tap Water with Prime, you do not need RO water unless you're trying to breed.

These are all domestics from Asia.

[jestep]

Great looking tank.

What's your water change schedule? I had about that same load in a 75 and had to do 50% 2x per week to keep the NO3 down. Got really tired of that after a few years of it.

[lenver]

I change the water every two weeks 90%, Important to this is that I do not use raw beefheart mixes, if you do, it changes this considerably, and I believe the main factor to this is keeping the solid waste and uneaten food out of the water and I think the micron bags I use does a big part of doing this, I change those every 3 days.

[jestep]

I wasn't using beefheart, but had a home made food mix that I got on a simplydiscus thread. Probably added a ton of nutrients to the tank. Also was just using canisters. If I were to set one up again, I would definitely use a berlin type system like in my reef tank.

[lenver]

That's how I design mine as a reef type system, I think is the best way to go, mechanical filter socks and just bio filters along with not having any gravel or anything that could trap food or waste particles in the display tank. I think that's how a Discus tank should be setup, it's work for me.

Also this works as long as you start with bigger discus in the 4+ inch range, when you're trying to grow them out that's when you need to feed high protein food and daily water changes is better to have them grown out from a good supplier. That way you already know the shape that he's going to have and not waste your time raising cull discus.

[Niko's Reef]

Digging the setup.

[Gig 'em @ NDstructible]

That's gorgeous! Some day when I have a bigger place and more disposable income I want to make a large planted tank with discuss.