Advice on 525 gallon discus/planted tank project.

[plantbrain]

Originally Posted by Seancj

Perhaps I'll shoot for something like this one. According to the website its listed on, this is a low tech tank.

Yes, I'd focus more on that, but for a concave tank, best to have it aginst a wall vs a room divider.

Honestly, for larger tanks, room dividers are the bets use of the space and viewing, not to mention access and work on the tank.

Unlike reefs, you really need more access and frequent trimming/cleaning, gardening basically...........

Do you honestly want to hang bat style for 2 hours trimming, cleaning/gardening a week?

Not likely, so make the set up designed for easy access, easy to get to for your arm length throughout the aquarium. A sand foreground gives fish and plecos etc a nice place to grub around, it takes no trimming, you just fluff with a long grabber/algae scrub pad etc once every 2 weeks or so.
Plants, best to be able to grab them with the hands.

Plan on a hard plumbed drain and refill, I'd go 2 ports, one on the bottom and then one about 3/5th the way down, say 1.5" PVC, these will serve as the drains. Another refill, say 3/4" coming from a RO reservoir, or if the tap is suitable, a mix of cold and hot lines with a built in temp gauge. You can also add a carbon prefilter for the tap if you want, but you need the tap either way for refill to blend with the RO if you need that, if the tap is KH 5 degrees or less, you are fine though.

The hard plumbing is the only way to go here. You turn a valve to drain it, turn another to refill. I'd plan on a pair of 25 W UV's also.

You can never have enough filtration. Same for flow, much like a reef.
If you have some of those Eco tech MP40's, they would be nice, but only can be used up to 3/4" thick and then more around 5/8" IME is their max, but they would work nice on "lagoon" setting.

The plants in the large tank are attached to the wood lattice, much like a wall of live rock is used as base for a reef. Plants fill in and grow much faster though.

The bow shaped tank will not look good however with a through wall layout unless the home is also designed this way, so the wall panels should also be bowed the same if that through wall look is desired.

I'd pick that if it was up to me.

I'm not sure what high tech or low tech means in general.
Means many things to many people.

I'd suggest CO2, I'd suggest T5's up to about 2.5 w/gal and they can be reduced from there or higher light can be used later etc.

Sell the MH's.

You will get the best growth results using CO2.
Please, do not avoid CO2 because you are scared of it or do not know about it enough. Do not avoid it because some will say you do not need with low light, you actually need LESS light if you use CO2.

Plants need 3 things to growth, light, cO2 and nutrients.
If you provide non limiting CO2/nutrients, then the plant can allocate more resources gathering all the light it can use, so you have much higher light use efficiency.

You also have nice lush growth of all species of plants, get more out of the T5 lighting and at lower depths in the deeper tanks.

With lower light, you also have a much easier time providing and targeting a non limiting CO2 ppm. Less light= less CO2 demand= less nutrient demand= more wiggle room= less algae growth since they are neither nutrient nor CO2 limiting in any planted tank.

Good flexible adjustable light is key to larger tanks.
T5 also give the best coloration of the fish and the best spread of angles to highlight them.

I tried to talk the client out of using the entire bottom planted. He wanted it, so that's what they have. I would not have done it for myself or for management purposes however.

30-32"is the max depth for most planted tanks for ease of care.
If you want more, go more front to back depth, say 30-48", then you get some truly cool looking layouts.

You'll need to do large water changes, mostly to be able to access sections/prune/garden etc without scuba gear and getting your head under water. So 50-60% will be normal water changes, but since it's with tap water, you might consider using the waste water and pipe it to the yard via another valve for irrigation of the landscape.

Even if you did 50% WC's a week, the total amount is no more than the average daily irrigation/landscape usage in Sacramento per day for an average home. Still, it makes the landscape look much better, is more an organic sustainable approach.

Going with that concept, using less light and getting more from the light by using CO2 gas, you maximize the energy use from the lighting, which is about 3-4 x less than many reef folks, so you have much less of an impact on the electric bill.

Also, you will find that you will lose much less $ and do much less testing, and everything will not die if you look at the tank wrong. Reefs are good once you get them up and going. But neglect can be a much larger disaster and the initial cost and the operating cost are much more.

A well done planted tank freaks people out as much as a nice reef.
The key is "well done"

You have to live with this giant bath tub, so make it easy for yourself.
If done correctly, 1-2 hours a week is about what you are looking at.

Those discus in the tank and the Angels both breed in that tank BTW.

Regards,
Tom Barr














Regards,
Tom Barr

[Ariel301]

Wow, that's a huge tank! This is going to be an interesting one! I love seeing big tanks.

Hahaha and people who come to my house always think my 55 is a big tank...

[VadimShevchuk]

Wow! thats a huge tank. I think tom pratically said everything.

[Phil Edwards]

I'll second some of what Tom said and add a little of my own experience. Go with T5, most definitely. Likewise, a sand substrate in the front is best not only for your easy of maintenance, but also for the discus to pick food off of. My experience with keeping discus in planted tanks showed me that they do far better when allowed to leisurely (daintily?) pick at food off the substrate than having to root around in plants.

Just like a reef tank, a planted tank this large will live and die by the thought and care put into the filtration/circulation system. You would be well served to make a closed loop system for circulation and CO2 distribution. ABSOLUTELY USE CO2. The health of your plants, and through them, the aquatic ecosystem depends on CO2. Other methods of carbon supplementation will either be too expensive or not provide enough carbon in the long run.

You mentioned not wanting to fertilize unless it was adding one or two liquids. It's very easy to mix up fertilizer solutions to dump in a tank. Someone recommended using a peristaltic dosing system. If this were my aquarium I'd use one of those.

From an aquascaping perspective, Crinum, Cryptocoryne, and Nymphaea would be good to use in the wider side portions of the tank. They grow tall and either do well in lower light or grow to the surface (Nymphaea species lilies). Tom's suggestion of a lattice along the back of the tank is good as well. You can make them out of eggcrate light diffusers and shape them to hide the in-tank plumbing.

Keep us in the loop, this looks like an awesome project, in all meanings of the word.

Cheers,
Phil

[Mustang Boy]

any updates? lol

[Seancj]

The purchase of the concave tank did not work out, so I'm back on the search for another big tank.
I have found a 640 gallon tank but it is only 8 feet long, however it is 4 feet tall, so I'm considering it.
I'll definately post when I have aquired the new tank.
Thanks again everyone for all the great advice!

[lauraleellbp]

A 4' tall tank will be challenging to light properly for plants.

[yikesjason]

An 8'x4'x2.5' would be a very interesting tank. I thing a tank with a little more depth front to back would be nicer, but even so, there is a lot you could do with the one you are looking at. I would focus more on the wood scapeing and bring the plants to the light instead of the light to the plants. You could plant on terraces and on the wood, and leave the bottom more open. Maybe have some rays or something on the bottom.

[Mustang Boy]

wow with a 4ft deep tank you would need scuba gear to do anything on the bottom of the tank lol