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Hello everyone... I just had a used 670g delivered and installed yesterday. Am alternately thinking "wow, that's cool" and "holy cow, what was I thinking"! It was too good a deal to pass up, but one could certainly argue that it is ridiculously oversized. Well, it's here now, so let the fun begin.
First, my goals:
1. The focus of the tank would be 6-8 fish from 3-4 types of discus. Total discus population of about 30.
2. I will be careful in scaping, probably a 90% hard scape with perhaps a few live plants so as I can minimize maintenance as much as reasonably possible.
3. I would also like to have various rainbows, tetras, Rams, archer fish, loaches, etc.
4. I have no idea on the types of discus, but I would probably avoid wild-caught fish to accommodate my water qualities (is that reasonable?).
Equipment:
- 2 x Eheim 2262s
- 1 x wet/dry (approx 70g) in which I hope to add Miracle Mud and light to have a FW refugium section
- All filtration is through the tank bottom, so will probably end up adding one or more power heads.
- The tank came with one inline heater that I will supplement with more heater capacity in the refugium.
- LED lighting (still in the works, but I'm not going for a heavily planted tank, mostly just hard scape and plastic plants)... Perhaps some live plants on the end closest to the living room window.
Everything is plumbed and prep cleaning for scaping starts today
Questions:
I would greatly appreciate your thoughts on water chemistry, as I do NOT intend to fight ~8.0 pH, 11 dKHof my tap water here in Sugar Land. No RO, no peat, no chemicals, etc. Perhaps that approach in itself will preclude a good, healthy discus-oriented tank. What do you think? I do understand breeding discus is something else altogether and successful breeding would probably not occur in this tank.
Another area where I could use some experienced and knowledgeable input has to do with tank mates. I really like Rams and rainbows -- have seen a number of videos of people keeping smallish cichlids, electric blue Jack Dempseys (??), etc. I would like to have something more than discus and tetras! The forum has a number of threads on this topic, but I'm wondering if tank size could influence fish selections a bit.
Any and all responses would be appreciated. This is by far the largest aquarium project I have undertaken. I will document the project and if there is any interest, will share photos and insights on future posts. If discus aren't good with this setup and approach, my fallback plan is a large community tank like the main display at Fish Gallery which I think is incredible. What say you, my fellow fish lovers?
First, my goals:
1. The focus of the tank would be 6-8 fish from 3-4 types of discus. Total discus population of about 30.
2. I will be careful in scaping, probably a 90% hard scape with perhaps a few live plants so as I can minimize maintenance as much as reasonably possible.
3. I would also like to have various rainbows, tetras, Rams, archer fish, loaches, etc.
4. I have no idea on the types of discus, but I would probably avoid wild-caught fish to accommodate my water qualities (is that reasonable?).
Equipment:
- 2 x Eheim 2262s
- 1 x wet/dry (approx 70g) in which I hope to add Miracle Mud and light to have a FW refugium section
- All filtration is through the tank bottom, so will probably end up adding one or more power heads.
- The tank came with one inline heater that I will supplement with more heater capacity in the refugium.
- LED lighting (still in the works, but I'm not going for a heavily planted tank, mostly just hard scape and plastic plants)... Perhaps some live plants on the end closest to the living room window.
Everything is plumbed and prep cleaning for scaping starts today
Questions:
I would greatly appreciate your thoughts on water chemistry, as I do NOT intend to fight ~8.0 pH, 11 dKHof my tap water here in Sugar Land. No RO, no peat, no chemicals, etc. Perhaps that approach in itself will preclude a good, healthy discus-oriented tank. What do you think? I do understand breeding discus is something else altogether and successful breeding would probably not occur in this tank.
Another area where I could use some experienced and knowledgeable input has to do with tank mates. I really like Rams and rainbows -- have seen a number of videos of people keeping smallish cichlids, electric blue Jack Dempseys (??), etc. I would like to have something more than discus and tetras! The forum has a number of threads on this topic, but I'm wondering if tank size could influence fish selections a bit.
Any and all responses would be appreciated. This is by far the largest aquarium project I have undertaken. I will document the project and if there is any interest, will share photos and insights on future posts. If discus aren't good with this setup and approach, my fallback plan is a large community tank like the main display at Fish Gallery which I think is incredible. What say you, my fellow fish lovers?
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