Son of Kahuna (56K!)

[Buck]

Man have I been gone a while ! Beautiful tank Scolley... somebody has been busy, that tank has more plumbing then the Mystic Aquarium !

Love the Discus, you always did have a soft spot in your heart for them...

[RoseHawke]

Originally Posted by Buck

Man have I been gone a while ! Beautiful tank Scolley... somebody has been busy, that tank has more plumbing then the Mystic Aquarium !

Love the Discus, you always did have a soft spot in your heart for them...

<thread hi-jack> Buck! Buck! ! Where have you been!? It's like a voice from my youth . . . *** </hi-jack>





*** Not that I ever had any . . .

[scolley]

Originally Posted by Buck

Man have I been gone a while ! Beautiful tank Scolley... somebody has been busy, that tank has more plumbing then the Mystic Aquarium !

Love the Discus, you always did have a soft spot in your heart for them...

BUCK! Whoaaaaa!

It's tooo good to hear from you pal! Thanks for the post! Yes, I have been a little busy. Too interesting a hobby to hold still... gotta try new stuff! And as for the mystic aquarium... it might. Those cheaters have the easy path - run a big inflow and outflow to the sound. Simplifies stuff a bit.

So good to hear from you. Thanks for saying hi!

(Cindy - if there ever was a good excuse for a hi-jack, that was IT! )

[TheOtherGeoff]

yeah and i must say your AGA pictures look nice and the tank looks great

[bastalker]

Originally Posted by Buck

Man have I been gone a while ! Beautiful tank Scolley... somebody has been busy, that tank has more plumbing then the Mystic Aquarium !

Love the Discus, you always did have a soft spot in your heart for them...

Damn!!!! Look what the cat dragged in!!

Buck!! Glad yer back! We need ta get together an slug down a few MGD's!!

Yeah an Steve is schoolin everyone here....

[Curare]

Aww man, look what you done!

Scolley, as always you just excel at coming up with the most bodacious setups known to man.

I simply cannot beleive the amount of tekky gear you have hidden under that tank, truely awe inspiring.

But lets be honest, the tank is the size it is so you CAN fit all the gear under it right?

Hehehe.

[dave3007]

Wow. this tank and the plumbing/technology is truly amazing. The scape is beautiful, giving the Discus plenty of space to play.

Technology and nature has combined to make something really special.

Dave

[fishscale]

What kind of discus do you have in here?

[scolley]

Originally Posted by Curare

But lets be honest, the tank is the size it is so you CAN fit all the gear under it right?

Thanks pal! As you say the size helps a LOT. If this were a 20g, no way. A 75g, maybe. This is technically a 180 stand, and that stuff ONLY BARELY fits! The BIG problem was the heaters. Because my water is so cold in the winter, and because I don't use pre-warmed, pre-treated water for my w/c's, I have to have a way to heat the water FAST. And that takes 3 300w units, set in horizontally mounted Pentairs. It takes up WAY too much space - almost 1/2 the space in the stand. If I wasn't trying to do that, I could fit all tech in there easy.

Originally Posted by dave3007

Wow.

Thanks Dave.

Originally Posted by fishscale

What kind of discus do you have in here?

Five blue turqs and 4 high bodied leopards.

[Curare]

Originally Posted by scolley

Thanks pal! As you say the size helps a LOT. If this were a 20g, no way. A 75g, maybe. This is technically a 180 stand, and that stuff ONLY BARELY fits! The BIG problem was the heaters. Because my water is so cold in the winter, and because I don't use pre-warmed, pre-treated water for my w/c's, I have to have a way to heat the water FAST. And that takes 3 300w units, set in horizontally mounted Pentairs. It takes up WAY too much space - almost 1/2 the space in the stand. If I wasn't trying to do that, I could fit all tech in there easy.

Thanks Dave.


Five blue turqs and 4 high bodied leopards.

Yeah I was thinking about that, even if you went for a smaller heater bank you'd still need room for a holding tank for water, and then some means of pumping it into the tank, it's easily the simplest way to do what you're doing.


You know mate, I think it's time you turned your fine arts to the dark side and did a reef tank.

[tropicalfish]

Question: Why three huge Pentair heater modules instead of smaller Hydor heaters?
EDIT: nvm, scrolling through the pages found the reason...

[Buck]

Originally Posted by Curare

You know mate, I think it's time you turned your fine arts to the dark side and did a reef tank.

Oh my gawd...he said the "Reef" word ! I will take a beautifully scaped, planted discus tank such as Steves over a boring ole' slow growing reefer any day of the week !

I believe your shedding of your anubias is actually natural Steve...I have a variety of which I believe originally came from you that do the same for no apparent reason. They grow they shed, and all over again. Its irritating actually !

*please* dont ask me the actual variety of the plant...they were yours I am 99.9% sure though.

[styxx]

237 posts and 5 months later...this thread can now officially be called a book! lol.

[scolley]

Originally Posted by Curare

You know mate, I think it's time you turned your fine arts to the dark side and did a reef tank.

That thought has occurred to me. But frankly, I haven't mastered this yet. Plumbing I'm good with, but plants are still a problem for me...

Originally Posted by tropicalfish

Question: Why three huge Pentair heater modules instead of smaller Hydor heaters?
EDIT: nvm, scrolling through the pages found the reason...

Which, as you saw, was my having had it with barbed fittings. As much as possible this plumbing is threaded PVC. It's complicated down there, but I don't ever worry about it leaking.

Originally Posted by Buck

I believe your shedding of your anubias is actually natural Steve...I have a variety of which I believe originally came from you that do the same for no apparent reason. They grow they shed, and all over again. Its irritating actually !

Thanks Buck. And it irritates the heck out of me too! The weird thing is HOW they shed. Every once in a while I get one that has a soft bottom of the stem. But more often than not, they appear cleanly cut at the base (of the separated leaf). I'm wondering if my big a** fish aren't knocking them off. It's not as bad as it was, so I'm assuming some of it was due to my not supplying enough micros. But it IS making me crazy.

Originally Posted by styxx

237 posts and 5 months later...this thread can now officially be called a book! lol.

Understood. Too bad I don't have more nice pics for the book.



ALGAE
I don't have pics though, because I've been busy fighting brutal GDA and GSA. I had it (both) from the start of this tank. But I had it really under control, when I decided to switch micros from ADA Green Brighty Step 1 to Tropica Mastergrow. Doing the frequent water changes for discus, plus the tank being a decent size, had me going through a lot of the ADA stuff. I love it, but I can't afford it when I'm washing so much down the drain so often.

Anyway, the GSA and GDA got worse when I changed. Just when it was going away too. Bummer.

So three weeks ago I decided to change my dosing routine, moving my N & P up from the 8 and 0.8 ppm they are respectively in my tap water. I started daily dosing to bring it up to 14 and 2.0-2.5 respectively. Well, as I expected, the GDA in particular got worse. And just to say I tried, I boosted the P to 3.0 this last week, and the GDA got LOTS worse. The GSA may have improved. It's hard to say. So while this may be an effective way to reduce GSA, I can't take it's boost to my GDA. So I'm going back to my old dosing routine, with low ferts in the water column.

All my levels are great. The plants pearl like MAD. And I mean MASSIVE pearling every day. And most of my test kits are Lamotte now, so I'm pretty comfortable with my readings - I've even got a potassium kit (!), so I know the numbers are good. I just can't get rid of this darn GDA on the tank walls.

PS - before anyone says "it's a life cycle thing with the GDA", I would ask that you please not bring that up unless you can point me to some proof. I've been looking hard for that, and I can't find it. At best all I can find is anecdotal evidence.

[fresh_lynny]

Man, Steve...I have been away too. I read your whole thread, and am so glad you got your Son of Kahuna rolling. What a gorgeous tank. Your fish are obviously happy and your Lotus bloom....breathtaking.

Great job! The tank is perfect!