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Discus Dan's disastrous endeavours in decorative delight

discusdan

Member
Joined
7 Jan 2013
Messages
302
I say disastrous as this is my first planted tank and something is bound to go wrong in a huge way.

A little back ground, I used to keep fish around 4 years ago but had to brake the tank down, ever since I've wanted to get it up and running again and finally the time has come.

After 4 years I've forgotten a lot of the things I learnt the first time round so am slowly gathering information before jumping in and starting the tank.

So far I've got the tank into position and added a sand substrate, so commence the first disaster, rushing in and buying sand as a substrate before knowing that its not ideal for a planted aquarium.
looking into it, it seems I can use root tabs to try and get some nutrients to the plant roots and using ferts will help as well which I was going to do any way.
any other suggestions?


I found a nice bit of bog wood (not sure what type it is?) that I'm currently soaking in the tank as I have no where else to soak it.
Its been soaking for two weeks now and shows no signs of sinking so I'm going to have to find a way to hold it down.
This piece will stand upright on the left side of the tank and i'm going to get another similar bit for the right hand side then plant around them.

So that's how far I've go at the moment, I'll update this thread on my progress as and when it happens. any help is much apprecaited.
cheers.

progress so far.
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So today I've been fiddling about with the tank. I was up late last night reading about substrates and came across the use of kitty litter, I've heard it mentioned before but never really looked into it. Seems some people love it while others not so much.
I decided to give it a go as I wanted to start moving the tank along and its easily available and at only £3 a bad its a bargain.

So I got up early, went to Tesco and bought some, got it home and started the messy process of washing it out. Man is this stuff dusty. I use a fine sieve and wash a small amount at a time until the water ran clear, people recommend to was it several times But I'm going to cap it with the sand already in my tank so just did it once.

It took a long time to wash all of it but got there in the end. Next was the even messier task of getting it into the tank. I completely drained the tank and moved all of the sand onto one side then I put a layer of kitty littler down and covered it over with the sand. I repeated this for the other side. I always knew I was going to get some of the litter come through the sand but I actually don't mind it, the red of the litter looks pretty cool on top of the black sand.

Once all that was done I moved my attention to the bit of bog wood, I put it roughly in place and marked how much needed cutting off. I took it into the garage and hacked it up.
As i mentioned earlier the wood was still buoyant so I had to find a way of hold it down. I didn't want to use stones to hold it down as I Buried it into the substrate and there is nothing to tie it off to. In the end I used a bit of stick wedged at the top of the tank to hold it in place, fingers crossed it will stay there until the wood has water logged.

Next I sorted out the air stone, It's only dropped in the tank at the moment as i'm not sure of the final position.

this is how it looks.

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Filling the tank

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and with the tank full and air pump on.

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While the tank was filling I sorted out the filters, I have a fluval 205 and a fluval 405. running biomax rings in both and some clearmec in the 405 and carbon in the 205 to help with the tannins from the wood, also got a load of filter floss in both.

Now comes a problem. the 205 is working fine but the 405 is playing up. It seems to be working ok pumping water but every few seconds it makes a weird gushing noise and loads of tiny bubbles come out of the output flow tube, its very loud and i've had to turn it off. Any one know whats causing this and how to over come it?

Next I moved onto the lights.
I've got some new bulbs on order and I'm going to try and bring the reflectors back to life. There just plastic white reflectors that came with the tank, they have discoloured and gone a bit mouldy. I've got some aluminium tape its basically thick tin foil with a sticky back.

I dry the reflectors off and start at one end applying the tape from top to bottom. I did try to go length ways with the tape at first but it was greasing the tape and getting lots of air bubbles. going from top to bottom was much easier to control and I was getting a better finish.

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working downwards

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First one done.....loads to go!

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only 4 in and i'm bored.

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Finally got them both done.

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I tried them straight away and they seem to work. the tank definitely feels brighter.

So that's the progress of today, I'm really hoping I can get the 405 sorted. and i'm on the look out for another bit of wood for the right hand side of the tank.

I'll update when i do some more.
cheers.
 
Hi there,
Filter most likely has an air lock....if you leave it running it will pump it out eventually. You could also pump the auto syphon plunger a few times to help with this whils its running. failing that i used to lean them over a little and rock them slightly to rid air, but not the safest solution!! The noise is just the air going through the impeller, and the tiny bubbles the result of it being 'chopped' up.
Cheerio,
Ady.
 
hey guys, I knew i put disaster in the title for a reason, on further inspection I think there is a split in the intake hose! I could hear a faint sucking noise coming from some where, i located it to the hose and dropped a bit of water onto the suspected area and sure enough the noise went away for a second untill the water had been sucked through the split......groan :(

I've disconnected the filter and drained it all and taken the hose out, i was just about to order some fluval hoses when I remembered I had a load of green hose, I know i got it from a fish shop but not sure if its suitable to use as filter hose?

All it says on the hose is JBL 16/22.
I took some pictures of it. Do you think it would be ok to use this on the filter, it would save me a load of money if I could as the fluval hose is quite expensive.


Green hose next to the fluval


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And the view from the end, looks a slightly thicker gauge?

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let me know what you think, thanks guys really appreciate the help.


oh and yeah hoping to get some discus once its fully planted up and also some angles as well but will see how it goes. the local aquarium shops ain't great and they only get discus in every 3-6 months.
 
Hi interesting read, I'd go with the green I use the green/see through. It's nice to see what's going on ie furring air trapped. You could always use some fishing line and a few lead weights to hold the floating wood down,then snipp off the line and remove weights in a few weeks.you can just bury the leads. You probably already know about heating the pipe end in a cup of hot water from kettle to get onto fittings if the diameter is less than the fluval pipe..
 
thanks for the info i'll remember that for the future.

I've got the green hose all hooked up but i'm having a nightmare trying to get the intake and out let to stay in position as the green hose isn't flexible at all.
is there any way to soften it up a bit?
 
Warming it up with warm water is how do it, or infront of my log burner. Soon as its back in the tank it will be less maneuverable so you need to work fast. I use eheim pipe and fittings. (other makes are available)Have you got the clips and suckers inside your tank to hold the inlet/outlets where you want them?
 
Right, got up early to have another go and I think I'm going to have to knock it on the head. the green hose just isn't flexible enough to get round tight curves, it just kinks and flattens.
I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and get some fluval hose.

cheers for all the help guys I appreciate it.
 
I dont know if im allowed to say this but if your planning on getting discus theres a BIDKA forum id suggest you take a look at, many members have quality fish for sale and theres a lot of breeders on there. Lfs are not known for quality discus. I picked up mine from steve punchard in blackburn. Couldnt be happier!
 
Managed to get hold of some fluval hose from my local shop and set the filter up last night, thankfully its working like a charm now.

So today I've been messing around with a yeast reactor. I know a lot of people don't recommend them due to their inconsistency and upkeep but they sound like fun to make and are cheap to run.
I'll probably move to an FE set up or some kind in the future but In the mean time i'll see how the reactor goes.

So first I got hold of some 2l food containers. A lot of people use old drinks bottles But I didn't want the fuss of unscrewing the tops all the time and getting tangled up in the air line. The food container lids just clip on and off so hopefully it will be a lot easier and they weren't expensive.

First I drilled a hole in the lids which was a tight fit on the air line.

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Once that was done I found an old glass bottle and Drilled two holes in the cap, this will be for a bubble check.

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Next I connected up air line to the two containers and fitted a Y connector.

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I filled the bubble check and inserted the air line and check valve.

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Lastly I applied silicon around the air line connections to be 100% sure its all air tight.

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All I have to do now is wait for the silicone to dry and I can hook up the diffuser.

One of the major draw backs to this system is the inability to turn it off and on so I plan to run an air stone during the night to dissipate some of the co2.
I also need to get hold of a c02 drop checker.

I'm going to use brewers yeast as I've read you get a longer reaction time from it and its cheaper to buy in bulk online.

I'll have to experiment which changing times but I've read that a 2L container should last two weeks but I plan to alternate containers every week to keep it fresh, i'll have to see how it goes though.

I'll update again when there's more progress. Gonna need masses of help choosing plants.
 
I very much doubt those containers can keep the pressure of the CO2, you would be better off purchasing a couple of Nutrafin CO2 kits, you can try it but it might get very messy when those explode!! ;)

natural-plant-system-1.jpg
 
hmm didn't think the pressure would be that great.
You will probably find you just lose all the CO2 with the pressure and that's it, so a wasteful exercise, hence the reason people use bottle tops as they are screwed in tight ;)
 
Why did you fill up the bubble counter with red liquid? Does it make it easier to read or is it a special liquid which "slows down" bubbles so its easier to count?
 
Only reason is it makes it a little easier to read.

No real progress to note I've been busy with other things. Still trying to find another piece of wood similar to what I have already for the right hand side of the tank.
Does any one know A good place to order wood from on the net?

Did a bit of maintenance today, 35% water change, Hid the air stone line, fitted the c02 diffuser and had a general clean. Also fitted the plug timers which I'm having great fun with, their turning on and off at random times to what I've set them too, going to take a bit of trial and error I think :)

Other news I finally got the cabinet doors finished and swung them today. Just got the drawers to finish off and the cabinet will be done.

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pattern detail.

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