5x2x2 Discus Project.

[Rear Admiral]

Hi there. Glad there is a forum for this kind of thing.

Picked up a 5x2x2 recently which to me screams discus and some plants.

My experience is mostly in breeding Africans from Lake Malawi and Tanganyika. Awesome little critters, but the tanks tend to always look a bit spartan.

I recently picked up a bunch of Peppermints and Calicos from one of the Discus Forum members, and they are doing really well in a standard 4ft setup that is run by an Eheim 2215 (with a 2217 impeller).

This wont do for the 5x2x2 owing to the fact it's about 150g/550litres I think. The glass is around 15mm on this thing too, so it might actually be around 535litres after all the screaming and shouting is over.

Lighting: I was thinking about using something like a t8 full spectrum tube, maybe one that was 3ft or 4ft long to kinda replicate trees etc blocking the sun.

Heating: is planned on being 2x 300w heaters on opposing ends.

Substrate: will most likely be pool filter sand (any other ideas?).

What else am I forgetting.. Oh right.

Filtration: Wheelbarrow. Honestly, I've been reading a fair bit, but am having trouble achieving some sort of consensus on what type of canister to go for.

I'm guessing I need to turn the water over around 3-5 times per hour? Do I need to find a happy medium between the bristlenose, of which around 7-8 will be in this display tank - the other guys will be on duty in my other tank) and then the Discus?

Which fish should I give more regard to with flow rate?

I have most of the major components of a sump on hand. I have no idea how I would build a sump / plumb the stupid tank.

I could keep talking about what I've considered, but I'd rather just hear some input and get some clarity at this stage.

Once we've nailed that point, I can then continue to bore you all -at length- with ideas about stocking, theories about my impending setup, and other long-winded narratives that fail to make any real point... so as you can all clearly see, everyone's a winner here.

Cheers.

[ILLUSN]

a single t8 wont produce enough light to get down to 2 foot deep, maybe 4x 54w t5's with decent reflectors would allow you to grow some plants.

heating and substrate look fine just put some root fertilizer at the base of any plants you want to keep.

filtration, 3x/hour is plenty with the right media on a tank that big 2-3x would be enough, you could go for 2 canisters like eheim 2217's but you will be close to their combined limit, an FX5 (hate this filter) with a smaller canister at the other end would be ok, as would 2x aquaone 2400's or an eheim 2080.

if you have the parts for a sump do that, have the tank drilled ans install a standpipe in the back corner, use a pump that gives you 1200-1500L/h at 1.5m heat height (something like an eheim 1250) and your away .

little advice if you go a sump drill the base not the back you'll get much better flow with water pressing down the drain then flowing across the drain.

[swampy1972]

I'm doing this exact setup at the moment. I'm chosing to go more planted with fish, rather than a fish tank with plants (I hope that makes sense). The details are here: http://www.aquariumlife.com.au/showthread.php/34303-5ft-Planted-Display

For lighting I'm most likely going with these. although I'll go with the 30W if I can get their performance (re: penetration) varified. http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170651893071&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

[Rear Admiral]

Thanks for the replies fellas.

I'd be interested in seeing how your tank comes along Swampy.

As for the sump. I've always wanted to do one, but my knowledge isn't much here. I didn't know what a standpipe was until I saw Swampy's tank photo.

With that said, I still don't know what one does. I'll do some researching on sumps now. I've got an old standard 4ft tank that has 10mm glass - holds about 200ltrs. Would that be a decent sump?

I need to do some more looking to find out what exactly goes inside the thing now - I know it's basically an oversized canister, but just how it's all setup is what I need to find out.

Have any good sites that "talk sump?"

[ILLUSN]

Lol if you have a spare tank a sump is the way to go. I like matrix style baffled sump that directs water over the filter media. I find them more usable then wet/dry spinning arm or drip tray style sumps as they seem to do a better job of keeping nitrate down.
Here's my lounge room sump but there's no need to go this crazy.
http://discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21875

[ILLUSN]

Swampy 50w LEDs are horribly inefficient and prone to early failure ( too much heat) you might be better off with multiple 15-27w par38 LEDs with 60 - 80 degree optics. They'll last longer amd still give a nice spotlight effect like a halide. 4 would look good over your tank have a quick read here
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=266657

[Rear Admiral]

Incoming wall of text.

I had a great chat with the man who runs OAFI today and bought some Geo Solution from him as well. He cleared up a lot of the unclear points I had. Top bloke, lots of good info and very helpful.

Ultimately, his submissions were very clear regarding keeping discus. His fish looked healthy too, he didn't have too many in his throwback tank either.

He also showed me the result of significant over-filtration and correct nutrition, which I was well impressed with.

Basically one of his customers bought a couple of Geophagus from him and kept them in a 200ltr tank which turned over around 8-10 times an hour. He returned them back to the shop a couple of months later, and the things clearly dwarfed his other Geo's which this pair came from - they all started out the same size.

Amazing if true. Otherwise he's an excellent salesman ;p

Not so helpful were the folks at Mentone Aquarium (who never really are anyway). Can't say they've ever really been overly hospitable folks even when making decent sized purchases... unless I bring my missus along, they spend more time trying to chat her up than tending to their retail duties.

Hmmm... compliment sandwich... so anyway I was giving some thought to LED lighting in place of the T5 setup.

Actually ILLUSN, the thing I ended up giving consideration to was what you recommended to Swampy.

Hey another question. What conditioners do you normally add to your water for discus?

With Africans, I used Aqua Pic's conditioning salts and GH/KH generator for same - with sexy results. Everything bred. Those products locked the pH at around 8.0 and kept the GH/KH at the right levels and provided all the trace minerals and salts.

I was thinking using Aqua Pic's again - they make Amazon conditioner, and a product called KH 7.0 which sets the gh/kh and pH for the water. The good thing I'm told about Aqua Pic's products is that they don't unbind from the water causing pH crashes etc.

I haven't looked into that too much so it could all be pseudo-science.

[SLS]

Check this out Rear Admiral:
http://discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22272

+1 with Jothy, those 50w LED chips loose par over the short term.

If your looking for LED's, have a look at:
http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22533&highlight=

Lots of things you can do with a 5x2x2, take your time think about what you want to create well before jumping into it.

An easy solution to filtration as we have done on the 6x2x2 link above is the Eheim Pro3 2180 Thermo Filter. Reliable, quite and gets the heaters out of the tank.

Kind regards,
George

[ILLUSN]

I dont add any conditioners except prime/safe/supachlor to remove chlorine/chloroamine and HCl to reduce my pH IMHO additives are uselss for fish that like soft water with super low TDS.

[swampy1972]

They look awesome George, but I don't a have spare kidney to sell :lol:

[Rear Admiral]

That makes sense Jothy regarding additives vs TDS/Soft water.

Speaking of which, I used the OAFI brand Geo Liquid, and can't speak highly enough of it. Is working a treat in my Peppermint tank as I type.

That tank you linked is a work of art George! Everything looks so orderly, yet natural at the same time.

At this point I'm still yet to build the actual cabinet or hood for it so there are no formal plans regarding aquascapes and the like ... or even stocking at this point. All I know is that my peppermints will be moving in to the 5x2x2 along with any new additions - at least until I can build my breeders rack which is 4x 2ft tanks plumbed together and using a 4ft as a sump tank.

I'm pretty certain I can get discus to breed, because I'm still yet to have a fish that wont breed for me (not withstanding the ones that just wont breed in captivity), and with that said, I want them to be the stars of the tank, not have a billion baby peppermints crawling over everything.

I checked out your SLS site too - we'll have to talk Bettas sometime as well. I've loved them since I was about 10 years old.