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Bill's 90G High Tech Planted

14K views 60 replies 19 participants last post by  bbrackeen 
#1 · (Edited)
First off new to the forum, not new to aquariums. I've been in the aquarium hobby off and on for about 25 years when my dad bought me my first aquarium way back... I've been out of the hobby for about 5-6 years while I had somewhat of a life reboot, new house, kids (my oldest is 4, my youngest is 6mo, and I now have one on the way!).

My last tanks were a 55g community planted low tech with DIY CO2, and a 36G reef with anemone, corals, the works. Back when I did the 55G, I vowed that if I ever did a planted tank again, I would do it right, and not spare expense with DIY, and go all high tech (get everything I wanted in the start). I enjoyed the low tech approach, but had I had the money that I spent in trial and error, I probably could have gone high tech anyway.

As for reefs, I immensely enjoyed that as well, but that was a level of insane that I'm not sure I want to ratchet back up. lol. All my tanks were very successful, especially the reef, but this time I'm going for as much automation as I can and keeping the insanity level to a moderate crazy. ;)

After about 6 months of planning, reading, and catching up on the latest trends I have arrived at a 90G no expense spared high tech planted tank. The primary fish focus will be discus. I chose discus because one, I have never done discus, and two the coloration and variety really appeal to me and I wanted a more focal species.

Tomorrow morning I pick up the tank and begin setup (so new pics will start tomorrow), I'll try to dig up some of my previous tank pictures tonight as well. As for equipment its been raining boxes all week. :D (this has to just about be my favorite part, opening boxes with new equipment!).

Main Equipment List
* 90G Aqueon with Cherry stand
* Rena Filstar Xp4 - I fell in love with these filters long ago.
* Lily Pipe (on order)
* 300w Inline Heater, Inline UV
* Fully Automated CO2 system from AquariumPlants.com (external reactor with probe holder & 10lbs bottle)
* AquaticLife 48" T5 HO 4x54 with moonlights
* Seachem Flourite Original - Always worked well for me in the past.

Much of the focus is to minimize any in tank equipment and make as much exist underneath the tank or be hidden out of view.

Livestock
* Cardinal Tetras (Cardinal Tetras instead of Neon as recommended by Paul)
* Marble Hatchets
* Discus (not sure)
* Cleanup crew (Siamese Algae Eater, Various Shrimp, otocinclus, etc)
* Pygmy Dwarf Puffer - My son insists we must have a puffer fish! Honestly they are a very cool little fish! :D

Being personally heavily influenced by a lot of the Nature Aquarium World books by Takashi Amano, this time I wanted to plan out and keep the fish somewhat themed instead of picking up the "fish of the day" and having 50 different species. Not that their is anything wrong with that. I've done it many times, its how you learn about all varieties, but this time is a little more focused.

As for discus, I'm undecided. I've been considering Red Turquoise, leopard/snake skins, etc... To go with all the same, or all different. Advice is encuraged here especially.

The hardscape will be mostly driftwood (which won't arrive until Monday), and the overall theme will be "amazonian". While I am specifying an overall theme, I don't intend for that to dominate choices in plant variety's. This is after all a personal tank, and other than maybe .01% would even notice if an African plant was in a Amazon themed tank. :)

So far plant varieties up for consideration are;

Ground Cover
Dwarf Baby Tears (Hemianthus callitrichoides)
Micro Sword (Lilaeopsis brasiliensis)
Parva (Cryptocoryne Parva)

Attatched to Driftwood
Christmas moss (Vesicularia montagnei)
Java Fern (Microsorium pteropus)

Midground/Focal Species
Amazon Sword (Echinodorus bleheri)
Red Wendtii (Cryptocoryne wendtii)
Red Mellon Sword (Echinodorus barthii)
Red Tiger Lotus (Nymphaea zenkeri)

Background/Sides
Red Ludwigia (Ludwigia glandulosa)
Rotala Wallichii (Rotala Wallichii)
Corkscrew Vallisneria (Vallisneria americana var. biwaensis)
Ludwigia Broad Leaf (Ludwigia repens)
Rotala Magenta (Rotal Macrandra)

Local Water Chemistry
PH 8.0
GH 80 mg/L
KH 90 mg/L

I'm somewhat happy with the local water. Preferred the KH/GH be a bit lower but with CO2 I think I can get the PH down around the 7.0 mark and have my CO2 be in the 30ppm area with little or preferably no additives. From everything I read modern tank raised discus benefit more from frequent water changes than from perfect 4 KH and 6.5 PH. Given the tap water is adequate, my attempt will be to use it as is, and make it easier to do changes without having to balance additives in the water column (which can cause more damage than good).

So... Here we are.

:) The eve of it all. Months of planning, saving, dreaming. I'm like a kid before Christmas. Tomorrow morning I pick up the tank, the filter/co2/lighting should be delivered by the afternoon, and that should give me the weekend to setup, fill the tank and iron out any issues with equipment before Mondays driftwood delivery. Then I can arrange the hardscape and substrate, finalize the plant species, and get an order placed for delivery by next weekend for aquascaping!
 
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#30 · (Edited)
Its been a week or so, and in this case no new is good news. :)

Everything is going great, algae is under control, brown algae is non-existent.

Dosing is more less the same although I've moved to dry dosing plantex as the 500ml I created started molding up badly.

8ml PPS-Pro #1 (Macro/NPK)
1/8th tsp Plantex CSM+B dry
16ml Excel (8ml morning + 8ml Evening)
8ml Flourish Iron in evening

I've had small daily occurrences of BGA, but after upping my nitrates to about 10ppm+ they seemed to have lessened. Algae on glass has been minimal, and the green hair agae on the plants is all disapeared, and is minimal on the wood. Its enough to look nice and provide food for the SAE and amano shrimp.

Also lowered temp to from 80 to 76 degrees to see if that has any effect on slowing BGA growth. I think its safe to say discuss are all but out of the question, as my maintenance level is at a comfortable roar. ;)

Maybe a few angels, but I'm in no hurry at the moment. Just trucking along for a while.


20121214-DSC_1282.jpg by bbrackeen, on Flickr
 
#31 ·
You seem to be doing a lot of the right things, as your tank is looking just great !.

But I'm wondering why you're now saying that..... 'discus are all but out of the question' ?

Doesn't look like it to me - your tank appears, to me, to be just begging for 5 or 6 discus - lol ......but why is it you're seemingly backing off ? Just because of your lowering of the tank temp ?
Why did you feel the need to do that ?
Am i missing something ?
Very curious.
 
#32 ·
Haha!! Paul! :)

You know I said that and then started looking at discuss again tonight talking to the wife. :)

I sure would like to... my concerns are water changes and a little fear of the unknown.

I'm really pretty happy with my 40% weekly water changes. If a side effect of doing 40% weekly changes is that my discuss stay smaller, then it would be a benefit to me.

Lowering the temp is kind of an experiment on the BGA (cyanobacteria). I had read that it blooms under low o2 and accelerates under higher temperatures. So I figured I would see if I noticed any effect. That with higher nitrate should eradicate the issue.

Saying discuss are out of the question is untrue. I'll retract that statement. Nothings going to happen over the holidays, but the wife keeps saying she wants something bigger in the tank, and I would really like for that to be discuss.

I appreciate the vote of confidence, that really helps.
 
#33 ·
Glad to hear that.
And I can certainly appreciate your concern about wcs, and a little fear of the unknown - many of us go through that prior to taking up discus-keeping.

However, if you're comfy with 40% weekly wcs, you can get away with that without difficulties, IF you first get good-sized, more mature discus from a good quality, well-experienced & reliable source from the get-go, and are prepared to pay a little extra attention to a good tank-cleansing routine at wc time.

The rest is a piece of cake, as healthy discus stock with reasonably well-developed immune systems, are a very hardy aquarium fish.
They're just a touch more intolerant of poor water quality and conditions, that's all.

I really hope you eventually decide to give it a try - and you know I'll be there to help you every step of the way.
Regards,
Paul
 
#34 · (Edited)
January Update

Things are going well, pearling away like crazy! I'm thinking by next month I should be ready to add some discuss. :fish:

Dosing
8ml PPS-Pro #1 (Macro/NPK)
1/8th tsp Plantex CSM+B dry
8ml Excel
8ml Flourish Iron (evening)

Parameters
No3 ~5
P04 0
KH 5
GH 4
PH 6.8
TDS 186ppm (Switching to RO, was 260 before last WC)
Temp: 80

Misc Notes
No carbon in the filter (never have)
Seachem Purigen for chemical filtration

Lesson learned this month...

Never trust a single source for your PH... and I took it a little lightly over the holidays, with so much going on its hard to spend any real time working on the tank, but something didn't seem right. I'm not fully sure what the malfunction was, but I can only assume there is some issue with my calibration liquid, probe or something else. At any rate my PH has been higher than I would have liked (7.4ish) which means that for my target KH the CO2 level was much lower than I had wanted. Lost a few Otocinclus, but the other fish have been troupers. Any rate I have 4 PH sources now (2 meters & 2 test kits) and they all show the right numbers. :) Thread details here if you're more interested.

My tap water has turned for the worse, out of the tap has been fluctuating between a TDS of 200 to 250 and the KH has been over 8, which is way too high. The overall instability of the tap has lead me to what I wanted to do anyway, go RO. So I installed a RO unit, and have begun the transition with a 25G change over the weekend. I didn't buffer it since my tank water was very high as it was (KH about 8 and GH about 10), this dropped everything to my goal (KH of 4-5). I wouldn't mind seeing the TDS lower, but that will happen over time. The long term replacement water will be buffered with Seachem Equilibrium.

Algae is under control except the damn BGA (Cyanobacteria), its been a daily struggle, and I'm getting good at my cleanup techniques. :mad: I'm expecting this to remedy itself as I make the full RO switch, I can only assume something in the tap water that is making it thrive. Oddest thing, I've always done RO in the past, and never seen this stuff, so lets hope. :icon_cry:

Anyway thread is useless without pictures. :)


January by bbrackeen, on Flickr


20130106-DSC_1503.jpg by bbrackeen, on Flickr


20130106-DSC_1505.jpg by bbrackeen, on Flickr


20130106-DSC_1516.jpg by bbrackeen, on Flickr
 
#35 · (Edited)
I call all out war on the BGA (Cyanobacteria), and have resorted to a EM (erythromycin) dosing. I know EM is a last resort, and if you have any ideas on what I might be doing wrong speak up. ;) Otherwise if I spend any more time cleaning and working on this tank my wife is going to think I'm obsessed... Wait.. :biggrin:

I dosed 1600mg erythromycin (200mg per 10gallon). 24 hours later I dosed another 1600mg.

I have seen within the first 24 hours all of the BGA turn pale and translucent.


Cyanobacteria vs Erythromycin by bbrackeen, on Flickr

After 48 hours it appears that it has all disintegrated; what is left is very pale and no longer iridescent as it usually is. I can report no problems with ammonia or perceivable stress to the livestock (including amono shrimp). I know you normally should do another 2 doses of EM, but I bought all the EM at the fish store (it takes a lot to dose this size tank). I think if I can just get a foot hold on this stuff, the elevated nitrate (shooting for 15ppm+) and cleaning regiment should keep it away for good (crossing fingers).

After 2 days I did a 25% water change and have started using replacement water of the following makeup.

RO Remineralization (per 5 Gallons)

4g Seachem Equilibrium
2.5g Seachem Alkaline Buffer
.47g KNO3


This results in replacement water with the following primary parameters


3 dGH
4 dKH
200ppm TDS
.2ppm Fe
15ppm Nitrate


In my effort of finding a better way to clean the BGA, I repurposed some of my beer brewing equipment. Without further adieu, I am pleased to introduce..

The Siphonator 2000



With the smaller hose and regulated flow it makes cleaning the BGA off leaves and the dwarf tears a cinch.

Also a few shots of the "Fish Lab".


and a full under tank shot (lot going on under there) :bounce:


Finally an update on the PH situation. Seems like the PH probe is dead, which is a inconvenience but not a huge issue. I need to know how to work without it (its taking about 5 seconds per bubble to maintain about 6.6-6.8ph) . So I added a drop checker ($7 eBay special). Since my makeup water is 4 dKh its as simple as adding a few PH indicator drops.

 
#36 ·
February Update

The BGA is gone, and I've been fighting a little staghorn and hair algae, but nothing I would find threatening. I added a couple of SAE to replace the jumpers, some amano shrimp and a group of Panda Cory cats for substrate cleaning.

I've had a new algae appear, that looks like BGA, but is powdery when it is fanned off, and is mostly on the java moss, which is doing phenominal. I've added a Magnum 350 canister filter and moved the intakes around and I'm much more pleased with the amount of flow. I think a single canister is just not enough for this tank especially with the eminent threat of discus. :) Just not enough turnover. It came with a bit of activated carbon, and I've been running it a few days. Why not, and so far the results have been pleasing, as I've had less of that powdery algae on the moss. I assume its the reduction of organics the carbon is absorbing.

Temp has been steadily increasing, and I'm around 81 now, and my goal is to hinge on 82. All other parameters are the same as before, TDS is slowly falling and is around 250ppm now. I expect it to stay around this range as my makeup water is at 200ppm using Seachem Equilibrium and Alkaline Buffer.

Did a lot of trimming, everything was getting way to bushy and I put the canopy back on. Next post hopefully will be with new fish from Kenny. :D


February.jpg by bbrackeen, on Flickr
 
#39 ·
Thanks for the kind comments! It’s been a labor of love for sure. :)

So I've been thinking....



That tank was one of the inspirations for doing discus, and obviously played into some of my decisions on this tank.



I'm thinking of removing the center log, the stems (which is kind of growing tired and shedding a lot), and thinning out the hygro. Letting the tears and spread out to the rest of the tank... Much like the Amono tank, but with my current hardscape on the left and right.

Its feeling a bit too busy right now, and I think a little simplification would help in maintenance overall.

Which by the way...:wink: I received 4 discus from Kenny's Discus Wednesday. They have been settling in and doing well. I had to settle with a little smaller fish to get the strains I wanted, but I think things will work out fine.

Anyone have thoughts on the re-scape?
 
#41 · (Edited)
Ok, so here is the re-scaping. I'm really liking it. For the first time the tank is really staring to show some design. I still need the carpet to grow out, which shouldn't take more than a few weeks.


20130210-DSC_1622.jpg by bbrackeen, on Flickr

The discus really like hanging out by the tree, which was the plan. They can still run into the left side and hide out if they want, but the majority of the time they are staying out.


20130210-DSC_1629.jpg by bbrackeen, on Flickr

The dark one is normally a little lighter purple, but I guess I caught him on an off moment. They are eating well, mostly frozen blood worms, but I'm going to start weaning them off FBW, and onto tetra color bits this week. I installed a eheim dual automatic feeder into the canopy; half flakes, and the other half color bits. They nibbled on them, but spit them out after. I give them a couple of days and they'll have this down to a science. :)

All is well!
 
#43 ·
Amazing! You really integrated the swords well!!!

The only thing that is bugging me is the big driftwood on the right.....I just think it stops the wonderful flow of the aquascape that is coming from the left side of the tank. I understand that your idea of a "tree", but the "uprightness" of the driftwood is halting that flow made by the slope coming in from the left.

As you can see in Amano's tank that you pictured earlier, there is little or no vertical lines at all because it stops the flow of the aquascape.


Sorry if what I said was a little too harsh, that was the critic in me talking :iamwithst.
But I seriously think that you should do something about that driftwood.

Good luck!!!
 
#45 ·
No worries at all... :) I love to talk about designs.

When I did the layout I did so with the "Golden Selection" in mind. If you were to draw intersecting triangles from the top left to the bottom right (following the hardscape slope), and then the same from the right treetop to the left; the layout follows the 3/5ths rule (well at least was my intention). The layout style I chose was based off Amano's U-Composition. (See Nature World Aquarium book 1, page 156-159). My success, as with most things artistic, is subjective to the viewer.

Not much I can do about it now though since its attached to 18" of slate under 3-4 inches of substrate. lol... (makes it easy to come up with excuses to keep it doesn't it) :biggrin:

The discus seem to really like it since they all hang out around it most of the time. When I added it my thoughts were of the lakes around where I grew up (east Texas), most of the fish seemed to congregate around tree tops sticking out of the water; as most of the lakes are flooded valleys.

The idea was the discus would do the same, without some type of structure on that side of the tank I worried they wouldn't spend time over there.
 
#47 ·
Well, I think a way to incorporate that driftwood back into the scape a bit more is to have plants behind it.

One idea from the top of my head is medium-sized swords in the back in a way brings movement from the left side with larger cryptocorynes surrounding the driftwood tree. I also understand it will look better when the carpet fills in :biggrin:.

Keep it up! BTW your Discus looks great!
 
#48 ·
the tank is lovely, but I tend to agree with Kevin about the tree. I was thinking that instead of moving it turn the tree so the curve of the branch brings your eye back into the tank, as it is the lines of the tree visually send you out of the tank.
a small thing in a over all beautiful tank. nice job
 
#49 ·
Thank you very much Meganne.

While we as humans define things as we see them; this is pretty and that is wrong... and the other such and so... It appears the real truth is through the looking glass. From the eyes of the fish, are they happier? It seems so.

Although it might not appear astatically pleasing, the tree seems to have value for these fish. It seems to be the congregation point for all feeling comfortable.

What that really means at times for me seems to blur; but for them it seems to be where they are at a comfortable state in their consciences because they keep going there because they cannot leave this glass cube that I have defined for their lives. (to which I do my best)

So I'm ok with the tree, lets move onward. :)
 
#50 · (Edited)
March Update

Everything is going fine, the discus have adjusted well and seem to be more comfortable every day. I've not been as heavy on the dosing, and it shows in the HC (Dwarf Baby Tears). The carpet is showing some signs and the cory cats are doing a good job of tearing them up as well. I'll up my dosing for the next month and that should help. Algae is pretty much non-existent (well within reason and non-nuisance), so that's a great. :thumbsup:

Parameters;

PH 6.8
Temp 83
NO3 5-10
dKH 7
dGH 3
TDS 214 (IMO, perfect given my makeup is about 200ppm TDS)

Water change 25% every 2 weeks with the following;

RO Remineralization (per 5 Gallons)

4g Seachem Equilibrium
2.5g Seachem Alkaline Buffer
[STRIKE].47g KNO3[/STRIKE] removed; seems to be a nice balance of NO3 naturally.

On to the pics. First of the discus, whose coloration has really improved.

Maxie, the Marlboro Red, started showing some peppering after the first week (inherent to pidgin bloods) but other than that seems healthy. Maxie is the most aggressive and first to eat and out and about of the group and seems to do the most pecking (although it doesn't seem to be the leader).

Maxie by bbrackeen, on Flickr

This is Penny, a Penang Eruption, and the shy one out of the group. My personal favorite. Its color has really started to pop in the last week or so with very iridescent blues.

Penny by bbrackeen, on Flickr

This is Elvira, a Ruby Sapphire. It has the best shape of the group and is really a fish that is growing on me. Not shy, but not aggressive ether. Seems to have the best well rounded attitude.

Elvira by bbrackeen, on Flickr

and finally "Brain", a Carnation Turquois. This one seems to be the oldest, largest, and the most humble of the group. Brain is the leader of the pack, and is really interesting in how it watches after everyone always waiting until everyone else has been fed before eating.

Brain by bbrackeen, on Flickr

Right now they are all still being hand fed frozen blood worms, which seems to be all they are interested in. I've not really starved them yet, I wanted their first month to be about getting adjusted and minimizing stress. I've attempted other foods (freeze dried black worms, tetra color bits, freeze dried blood worms, freeze dried brine shrimp, frozen brine shrimp, and flakes).

I need to get them on freeze dried foods, and bits, but just have not had the heart to starve them until I feel like there is a level of comfort and trust for me is there (which is growing every day).

On to the monthly pic;


March by bbrackeen, on Flickr

I'm really loving the new layout, and its simplicity of maintenance. The tree, a source for love or hate for some :), looks fantastic in real life, and the moss is doing exceptionally well and remains the main discus meeting point.
 
#53 ·
The tank is looking great! Discus are just amazing. With 90 gallon tank you should maybe think about adding a couple more friends to their population. I have 6 in my 72 gallon and that still seems on the small to average size of a group. I think I liked the picture of your tank on 3,3,13 the best but it looks like it is starting to fill in again and starting to look great once more!

I was wondering what type of lighting you use because mine seems a bit out dated and dull and I wanted to make a change. Also, what kind of substrate are you using? The dirt in mine seems to still be turning my water a tea color even after 8 months of use and I'm thinking about changing that as well.
 
#54 ·
Thanks for the kind words. I'm enjoying it tremendously, just slowly but surely simplifying my process. :)

I was wondering what type of lighting you use because mine seems a bit out dated and dull and I wanted to make a change. Also, what kind of substrate are you using?
I use a AquaticLife 48" T5 HO 4 Lamp FRESHWATER Fixture w/ Lunar Lights. I love it, the on/off timer is built into the lighting. I also use Seachem Flourite substrate. I've used it in the past with great success as well.
 
#56 · (Edited)
April

Late update, my wife just gave birth to our 3rd child (It's a girl!) and I've been very busy with that as you could imagine. In fact, its long story but I delivered the child. :eek: A first for me.

Things are going really well, very low maintenance, very little to no algae (just a weekly scraping on the front and side glass with a magnetic scraper, letting the back do whatever). The discus are trucking along, they are eating just about anything I throw at them now. Currently they are loving the freeze dried black worms. The little blocks can be smushed against the glass and they have a time pecking at them. They still get frozen blood worms and brine shrimp daily until I run out, I am no longer hand feeding them though. I just cut the filters off and drop the blocks in frozen. They figured it out.

All parameters are (pretty much) the same;

PH 6.8
Temp 83
NO3 0 (I have not dosed it in weeks)
dKH 7 (CO2 ~20ppm which means PH 6.8)
dGH 3
TDS 250 (I dosed yesterday)

I've REALLY chilled on the dosing and not really doing any method, just an occasional Seachem Flourish when the TDS gets below 220ppm, along with all the evaporation makeup water being RO (6ppm as measured). Water changes are pure RO plus Seachem Equilibrium (4g per 5G) & Alkaline Buffer (2.5G per 5G). I'll also note I am using 350ML Seachem Purigen as chemical filtration, and 1L of Seachem Matrix for biological.

Water change @20G (preferably) once every two weeks, though I changed it at 3 weeks last Sunday and the TDS was still around 220, I think I could push this even further. The tank seems to be in a really good balance and the plants seem to be keeping the water at a pristine condition. I've seen fluctuations as high as 260ppm after a few dosing's, and then watched it drop back down to 210ppm a week or two later.

I guess you could say my dosing method has been based upon watching the TDS level and adding when it drops down around 220ppm (my base level for makeup water).

The baby tears (HC) got the boot. :frown: The Cory cats pretty much tore them up, and they were becoming a daily nuisance in the surface skimmer. Sucks because the wife really loved them, but the utility of the Cory's out weighed the need to keep them. I have very little to no mulm when vacuuming, visually none, so some one (I assume the Cory's) are eating the waste, and breaking it down into a water soluble form that the plants are using for uptake.

Well enough banter, here is the pic.


April by bbrackeen, on Flickr
 
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