[Build Log] Bouncing back from a total tank loss - Planted High Tech Discus Tank

[sudz]

Big als here has a policy of not buying fish back.

I think what I'll do is split my Val's and make a few more hiding spots for them. If I thin out the sag and make more swimmable passages it'll provide more hiding spaces right now. If it continues to be a problem I'll sell them. Would you be able to point out which one is a girl? (is it in the photos?)

 

[abw0004]

They love heavily planted aquariums and plenty of caves so don't thin it out too much. It may be a female in the 6th picture. Her size, black dot placement leads me to believe she might. The only issue is she does not have that red stomach that females have. How old are these guys? She might just be too young. The males will color up more too with females, but remember if it is a female, the other males except her mate will need to leave the tank.

 

[sudz]

Ugh! I had a big long post written but it timed out and logged me off.


Slightly condensed:

6 Rams down to 5. The sick one perished about 2 weeks after my last post. His appetitie and "spunk" was not up to keeping the other GBR's at bay.

Wife is still pregnant! 19 weeks. ANOTHER GIRL! Due date March 8th.

Tumor still gone. Checkup on halloween day! (creepy)

The rams seem happy now. They fight occasionally, but are all eating, active, social, plump (but not Bloat plump...) and come greet me. Very rewarding fish to keep! The plants have grown in (a bit too much?) But I'm not satisfied with the light. I can't grow carpeting plants.

As a result, I'm ditching my DIY lighting, and the 2, 24 inch fixtures I have. I'm replacing them with this:
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B073B7BMQD/ref=pe_3034960_233709270_TE_item?th=1

No more 3 separate light timers, jungle of cables, etc. Just a simple cord to the Fixture, with the lighting controller built in. I'm beyond excited. It'll take about 2 weeks to get here. On another planted oriented site I saw an unverified stat that it hits about 80 PAR at 26 inches, so I should be good to finally try some ground cover plants!


My Sun Sun Cheap knockoff Fluval naturally is broken. 2 days ago It started sucking in air from the inlet (Thank god it was the inlet!!!) I've done everything I can (wrapped it in tape, tried to use parts from the Outlet) but it still continues.

I found someone selling an Ehiem 2217 only a year old for $100 bucks. Picking it up tomorrow. No self prime is a PITA, but its a good quality pump thats more than enough for how this tank is stocked. The added flow might be nice for my CO2 Infuser, and My tank already uses the 16-22mm tubing, so I'll have spare.

I've started 3D printing stuff. When I was trying to make my old pump work, I bought an ehiem solid tube to go over on the outlet side (so I could use the outlet as an inlet, (didn't work))

THe straight tube was making noise, yet not enough agitation, so I made my own little bell: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2588285

Works really well. I made it asymmetrical so I can flip it around to make the drop more/less pronounced. Turning it 90 degrees also provides a nice stream of quiet water. I'm very happy with how it turned out. One of my first 100% Sudz Designed prints.

So yeah!

TLDR:
Wife Still pregnant (Girl!)
Fish Good (1 lost)
Tumor Gone
New lights on the way
Broken Filter
New Pump/filter Tomorrow
New 3D Printed Nozzle

 

[elinde]

Thanks but confused

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the extensive saga of your tank rebuild. I admire both your tenacity with the rebuild and your extensive documentation of it for us! Also, yay no cancer, yay 2nd girl!

I admit, I'm baffled by this Brave New World of aquaria. Background: I ran 50 & 30 gallon tanks in high school ('70's)--my boyfriend ran two 55 gallons, including one with discus. We pretty much planted until they were pretty, chunked in some box corner filters, and turned on the incandescent lights. Later, we used undergravel filters, hang-on-back filters, and flourescent lights. pH test strips were the height of tech.

Later, I ran a 20-gallon "balanced" tank--lots of planting, no filtration, low fish numbers, fed every couple of weeks or so.

Our fish lived pretty well. I can't remember exact lengths of time, but it was unusual for either of us to lose a fish prematurely. We kept discus, platys, corydoras, danios, angels, various tetras, glass cats, loaches, black moors (separate, cooler tank), some shrimps, some underwater frogs.

After college I couldn't keep moving the tanks, so I didn't keep any fish for many years. I looked in on the subject in the late 90's when the internet was new, and it was all about ozone and protein skimmers. What? Special lighting, etc. No more undergravel filters. Hmmm. I let that lie.

I've recently been bitten by the bug again, been reading these forums to get info. Ozone appears to have disappeared. CO2 tanks? Perling--what is it, is it good or bad? Can't tell. Crazy lighting setups. Where did the ozone go? Constant testing of things I never heard of--KH? Head spinning!

I don't know what to think. Is all this really necessary? If so, no way could I run a fish tank now. But I SWEAR we did it all much simply back in the day (appalling that I'm old enough to say that!).

 

[Delapool]

Welcome!

Yes, best planted tank I ever did was knowing nothing at all on just about anything.

Ozone I've never heard of CO2 and ph controllers are pretty common here. A little reading and help from shop to set up but rewarding once in. Pearling for me is when the plant is producing more O2 then can be dissolved into the water and gas bubbles form on leaves. But a lot of "low-tech" non-CO2 injected tanks do very well as well.

I think the big change is lighting. LED's are now replacing bulbs. Much more powerful and cheaper lighting possible (with all the pro's and con's). Crazy lighting as you say.

Constant testing isn't needed imo. I tend to take an interest in test kits and even then, only test every few weeks out to a month. Just often enough to record trends. But I find them interesting as well on results they give and possible traps with them.

CO2: Striking the balance — Practical Fishkeeping Magazine

 

[sudz]

Little update: All fish doing well. I did have a loss about 3 weeks ago - My last Molly. Probably about 4 years old and was sadly very slow. She was just well enough to escape my net, and never floated... but just gradually got less and less energy as time went on. I think the rams eventually got her. I was hoping to put her out of her misery. She wasn't being bullied until the very very end. Made me sad.

The GBR's are doing swimmingly. One is clearly a runt and spends most of his time hiding. I can't figure out if I have a female or not. There is a fair bit of agression, but it isn't constant. I THINK they are displaying for eachother. One of the males looks slightly stressed and more " opaque" than the others, but they're all eating well and growing HUGE. When I was a teenager (oh god, half my life ago) I had GBR's but in a 10 gallon. They never got even close to this big. That makes me feel horrendously guilty and ashamed of 20 year-ago-me. :-(

I am looking for a dither fish. Something decently active, that won't compete with the Rams. The rams never touch any other fish so that's nice.

I also have 3 SAE's. They're getting VERY agressive toward eachother now though. I need them to keep the BBA at bay though.

My Bubble counter CRACKED and leaked an entire bottle of CO2 in a day. That was annoying but I'm glad I have 2 bottles. Also, Thank God for the THREE one way valves I use. (may be overkill, but so glad I did!)

Since I was stupid, I closed the needle valve while I was bypassing the bubble counter. as a result, I only opened the needle valve a tiny bit as I had NO clue how much I was putting in. As a result (again) The algae has been growing a bit nuts. I FINALLY got the replacement (I thought it was prime, it wasn't, so it took a MONTH from Amazon) I didn't close the needle valve and was getting just under 1 bubble per second. Now its back up to 3bpm.

Overall, things are well! We had another blackout and of course I was terrified for my tank. Thankfully I have an oldschool gas water heater and just floated jugs of hot water for the 10 hours it was out. No Losses. The power came on twice for about 10 minutes so it was just enough to keep my Biological filter from being wiped out. I got lucky! I'm currently making a Lion Battery Backup that should be able to allow me to run the heat and filter for about 24 hours. (I'm also making one for my house to run the furnace, and I already made one for my CPAP machine... which got stolen to run my daughters nightlight and sound machine during the most recent outage. Because I wasn't sleeping anyway, tending to the tank.

Anywho, thats my current Update! No pictures, but I recently tore up about 40% of all the plants again (they're growing wild now with the new lights)

I'm still tempted to do a teardown and just go simple. A few rocks,Higher at the back, Grass at the back, short grass or cuba at the front, and one or two Bushy vibrant plants for conversation.

I'd have to figure out a way to make enough hiding spots for hte Rams though...

 

[coralbandit]

I just watched the video of your rams ..
IMO they are all male.
Many of the tells don't really work all the time ,spikes ,blue in black spot and so on..
My best tell is males anal fin extends into the tail fin while a females will end at the beginning of the tail...
Nice tank !
Love the clown loaches ,I have 11!

 

[sudz]

I just watched the video of your rams ..
IMO they are all male.

I'll take another video. Generally after water changes and sometimes around feeding time they really "fight" strangely. They swim up against eachother in opposite directions and kind of wiggle and vibrate. Not sure what the heck they're doing but I just LOVE watching them interact. I can't think of another fish that has more personality than a GBR. They're just so plucky and fierce, yet beautiful and cute at the same time. Odd mix. I'm almost glad I chose them over discus.

 

[coralbandit]

I have had 11 males in a 30b tank with no females ! Spunky and personality is an understatement..
Mine splash me if hold out on food and just stand there looking at them !