# 100x60x60 discus tank diary



## wfvanwielink (Feb 9, 2009)

Thought I start a diary here of my recently (saturday) started tank.

equipement:

tank: 100x60x60 cm black rear and left glass open top
stand: DIY american cherry wood (used to be carpenter)
light: aqua medic 150watt HM with giesseman tropic bulb (5600K)
pump: sera fill 400 with UV (waiting on additional Eheim 2080 from a friend)
no co2 (yet)

Dennerle deponit and sand/gravel from LFS

Plants:

several stem plants, Alternathea rosefolia, rotala
lots of echinodorus etc


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## wfvanwielink (Feb 9, 2009)

after 3 days


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## wfvanwielink (Feb 9, 2009)

better pictures are comming soon, waiting on clear water.

I introduced 30 rummynose tetra's after 3 days. 
I'm refreshing 10% water every day now and adding 35ml of sera Nitivec an Aquatan.
After this cycle of 10 day's (35ml a day) I will introduce 6 large Discusfish.


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## houseofcards (Feb 16, 2005)

Looks like a nice setup. Seems like you did some homework on the equipment. Personally I would wait to add fish, especially discus. You do realize in well planted aquaria you don't need fish to cycle the tank.


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## vtchef (Jan 27, 2009)

i like the looks of the tank


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

I'm looking forward to seeing what this will be in a month...


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## eco-mod (Oct 19, 2007)

Great looking tank! I love the stand as well!


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## wfvanwielink (Feb 9, 2009)

houseofcards said:


> Looks like a nice setup. Seems like you did some homework on the equipment. Personally I would wait to add fish, especially discus. You do realize in well planted aquaria you don't need fish to cycle the tank.


Thank you for your comment,

i am well aware of the risks of introducing fish this early but it is actually quit common here in holland.
There are pro's and con's of putting fish in this time but my opinion is that the bacterial culture can establish an settle.

greets Wouter


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## wfvanwielink (Feb 9, 2009)

Tex Gal said:


> I'm looking forward to seeing what this will be in a month...


Yes! same here, plants are all growing like crazy, already one inch growth in 3 days.

I am going easy on the fertilizers as yet

greets Wouter


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## wfvanwielink (Feb 9, 2009)

eco-mod said:


> Great looking tank! I love the stand as well!


thanx for your compliments! all my furniture is cherry so it blends in nicely


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## wfvanwielink (Feb 9, 2009)

couple of my echinodorus, not sure of species because they were grown emmerged and now slowly changing shape.....nice


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## wfvanwielink (Feb 9, 2009)

overview


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## Jessie (Apr 23, 2007)

I'm very excited to watch this tank develop


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## rwong2k (Jan 13, 2005)

Wow! that's a very nice stand! i like it a lot
please post more pictures of your tank as it progresses

thanks for sharing

Raymond


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## Kazs (Feb 16, 2009)

looking really nice already, cant wait for the discus to be added.


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## wfvanwielink (Feb 9, 2009)

my new discus fish.
3x red turquoise snakeskin
3x red turquoise leopardskin


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## eco-mod (Oct 19, 2007)

Great looking fish!!! Tank is looking good as well!


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## MagpieTear (Jan 25, 2009)

Very nice setup. I'm so glad to see someone else who doesn't stain Cherry. It's a beautiful wood and should be allowed to age naturally.


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## wfvanwielink (Feb 9, 2009)

some more pictures of my fish


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## FishandTurtleJunkie (Apr 14, 2007)

Nice set-up. With that substrate you may have issues with food particles getting trapped if you dont have enough flow down low.


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## wfvanwielink (Feb 9, 2009)

some new pics of growth, changed the layout a bit(just the bogwood)


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## wfvanwielink (Feb 9, 2009)

middle

edit: posted pic twice


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## wfvanwielink (Feb 9, 2009)

left


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## wfvanwielink (Feb 9, 2009)

right


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## wfvanwielink (Feb 9, 2009)

middle


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## eco-mod (Oct 19, 2007)

The plants and modified layout look great!

Where did the discus go?


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## wfvanwielink (Feb 9, 2009)

eco-mod said:


> The plants and modified layout look great!
> 
> Where did the discus go?


Discus Heaven. Very sad actually. Did everything according to the advice of the discus retailer, man with a lot of experience.
But there was too much nitrates in the water and the filter was'nt working properly. Also when I installed my second filter I did use too much filerstart.

I will wait for at least two moths before I wil introduce my new discus.


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## Natalia (Sep 15, 2008)

Very sad to hear about your fish. Next time you may want to pay more attention to the good advice. Someone here told you not to put fish in that soon. Your tank may look good, but it actually is too small for four adult discus espacially when plants grow out. This fish needs a lot of swimming room. Look at the Amano books, all his discus tanks are more than 1000 liters.


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## zdam20 (Mar 8, 2009)

Beautiful clean stand and tank! Sorry about your losses.


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## xpistalpetex (Mar 31, 2008)

nice and clean.


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## wfvanwielink (Feb 9, 2009)

here some growth pictures


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## Fishtory (Jan 21, 2009)

Awesome! This tank has a very clean look to it. I like the contrast in plant colors, too.


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## 1aqumfish (Jul 28, 2008)

Looks real nice, love discus.


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## jnaz (May 18, 2007)

filling in nicely! Good luck with the discus.


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## wfvanwielink (Feb 9, 2009)

well did some pruning, plants were grow'n out of the tank 
Also moved some plants and got rid of three echinodorus(grew just too big)


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

It looks much better without the sword


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## rwong2k (Jan 13, 2005)

wow looks great,
i just got a custom tank built with similar dimensions 3x2x2 =) 
and the interesting thing is the cabinet built is very similar looking to yours =)

it'll be a planted discus tank too=)


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## wfvanwielink (Feb 9, 2009)

rwong2k said:


> wow looks great,
> i just got a custom tank built with similar dimensions 3x2x2 =)
> and the interesting thing is the cabinet built is very similar looking to yours =)
> 
> it'll be a planted discus tank too=)


You've made me curious! looking forward to see you're pictures


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## Alex123 (Jul 3, 2008)

Are you sure nitrate is too high! Fish can tolerate high level of nitrate no problem. Are you sure it's not ammonium or nitrite? 
It's hard to believe with your planted tank that would be the problem. Anyhow, nice looking plant. What's the plant name that's red?


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## wfvanwielink (Feb 9, 2009)

Alex123 said:


> Are you sure nitrate is too high! Fish can tolerate high level of nitrate no problem. Are you sure it's not ammonium or nitrite?
> It's hard to believe with your planted tank that would be the problem. Anyhow, nice looking plant. What's the plant name that's red?


Yeah sorry ment nitrites of course


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## wfvanwielink (Feb 9, 2009)

went to the lfs and could'nt resist the temptation of buying some new plants.


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## peteski312 (Feb 15, 2008)

are you onto a fert schedule yet? What type of water are you using. RO or tap? I have a 90 gallon with 7 discus and i'm changing 50% full RO every 4 days. My discus are happy and my plant love the RO. Good luck with the small discus, they can be very tough to raise and grow.


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## PhotoJon01 (Aug 27, 2007)

wfvanwielink said:


> went to the lfs and could'nt resist the temptation of buying some new plants.


Looks Great!


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## bsmith (Dec 13, 2006)

Sorry to hear about your loss. The tank looks great. I am a big fan of buying baby discus anyway, cheaper and you can watch them grow. Good luck!


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## wfvanwielink (Feb 9, 2009)

peteski312 said:


> are you onto a fert schedule yet? What type of water are you using. RO or tap? I have a 90 gallon with 7 discus and i'm changing 50% full RO every 4 days. My discus are happy and my plant love the RO. Good luck with the small discus, they can be very tough to raise and grow.


I'm using sort of EI method. 3 times a week 10ml profito, 3 times a week 15ml of kno3. I used to add po3 but my fish produce enough phosphates (food). Every now and then some K.

I do not use RO yet, am planning to hook my automatic level contol up to an reverse osmosis.

I'm changing 80% of water every saturday or sunday.

Small discus, well, feed them a lot and refresh a lot will be fine.

grtz Wouter


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## wfvanwielink (Feb 9, 2009)

I wanted to share my new hood with you. made it from cherry veneer and some sheets of mdf. I wanted the pattern of the canopy to match the stand. worked out fine...


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## wfvanwielink (Feb 9, 2009)

new pics after pruning


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## xtremefour (Sep 30, 2008)

You have a really beautiful tank. I wish I could afford some discus I would love to get some one day. 

matt


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