My 135 Gallon Discus Tank

For any of you who have seen the old 125 Gallon I had set up, I think you'll see some pretty big changes here with the NEW tank that I set up to replace it!

The idea here was to take what I have learned with all the other tanks (and from the amazing people on the Aquatic Plants Digest!) and make a high tech tank that had all the right elements in it. Lots of research (and probably too much money! lol) went into it!

All I can say is that after standing in front of this new setup, I almost wanted to cry it was so beautiful. I never expected it to come out so nice! (after all, I'm a computer geek, not an artist).

Below is the list of pictures (start at the bottom and work UP if you wanna follow the "set up progress" on it). This tank as of 02/08/02 is just 3 days old. I can't wait to see how the plants fill in!

Special thanks to Mark's Tropical Fish for being so helpful with the equipment side of this endeavor!

  02/08/02

Well all the plants have been planted, and darn this thing looks so much better than I thought it would! I can't wait to see the "growout" and how it all turns out!

What a great "cave" for my rams to hide in!

I used fishing line to attach my Riccia (used to just float, but that won't work with a wet/dry!) to my driftwood. I hope I can pull this off!
My babies!
Pearl Pearl Pearl!
Zen, but next FLASH next time!
Got my CO2 set up in the SUMP, the Dupla's working great. So far so good!
Under the tank. The thermofilter, the UV, the CO2 and Dupla controller. The wiring is a MESS!
Under the tank.
Wow.. Just WOW!
Next day.. Settling out really nice!
  02/07/02
Beauty...
Beauty...
Beauty...
Beauty...
I must have thrown out a bazillion plants to keep it "simple" and artistic.
Took all the old plants out, put them on a big table and carefully planned how I wanted to re-plant.
Alright, I missed the camera action between the lighting and the PLANTS.
Hookin up the power cords. Always be SURE to include the GROUND WIRE (I learned this by experience! lol).
Testing the "lighting" after each fixture.
These ballasts are great!
I INSIST on clean and neat connections!
Workin on the lights.
Next day, it's "get the lights up" time!
  02/06/02
Night Night!
Almost bed-time, checking on the fish. Been a long day!
More new canopy.
That night, I had already put the two NEW 96watt reflectors into the new canopy.
Ordinarily, this should have been an easy process, but I was an idiot and decided to do this on TOP of the old tank. UGH, I broke with of my 96watt bulbs!
Removing old fixtures. Gawsh I sure looked like hell!
Removing old fixtures.
Time to remove my AH Supply lighting from the old tank.
The "dust" from the Flourite settled quickly.
Cleaning the stand after the chaos!
More shots of the setup.
More shots of the setup.
Well, they don't look TOO pissed! :)
Lookin good! Finding the sweet spot for the wet/dry.
We fill the tank to TOP and start the wet/dry.
The OLD 125 gallon! Gotta grab some of that gravel to put in the SUMP to help avoid CYCLE.
I am SURE my Discus are not happy about being in a garbage can <grin>.
Dumped some of the fish in there! We did NOT put back the Otto's. They had been totally picking on the Discus!
Water's almost all there!
Almost there!
Chung (my buddy) starts to add water. We pumped in water from the OLD TANK (we saved it ALL) so that we can try to avoid a CYCLE (Discus don't cycle well. ;> ).
Yum! The gravel is in. I under-ordered on it, so I had to order another 6 bags from Big Al's. It's going to be a challenge to put in MORE gravel AFTER this is all done!
Note the return spraybar (from the wet/dry) that will deliver return from the BOTTOM of the tank to drive the CO2 from bottom->up.
More of the same.
Here's me putting gravel!
Gravel! This tank is ALL Seachem Flourite. And BOY is it a b**** to wash, but well worth it!
Now I've added just a bit of Eheim EHFITORF before putting the substrate in. It's sort of a "habit" of mine for planted tanks. .
Okay, I couldn't resist another picture of this step. Way I figure it, the darned Dupla was so expensive it deserves some pictures since we'll never see it again (it'll be under gravel!).
Closeup of the Dupla/Laterite step of the fun.
Here I've set up the Dupla Heating Cables in the bottom and put a quick sprinkling of pure laterite (sorta like that chef who pumps it up a notch!).
This new tank has a great Wet/Dry setup with a very silent pump. Prolly still not enough room underneath for the other goodies.

The new tank gets delivered.

The guys at Mark's were GREAT in assisting me to remove the fish from the old tank (I had packed the plants in an ice cooler the previous night).

MORE PICS TO COME!