Son of Kahuna (56K!)

[scolley]

Originally Posted by Chrisinator

Awesome Discus! What do you call a "proper aquascape"?

Thanks. But a proper 'scape? I dunno... something that looks less like a big clump of plants I suppose.

I'm happy with how the Cobalt discus are turning out. They were much smaller when I got them a year and a half ago. The High-bodied Leopards came to me pretty much full grown, so I'm kind of excited that the Cobalts caught up to their size, and may pass them.

But I'm REALLY excited about the fact that I've got 5 new discus waiting in the wings. I bought them from Al Sabetta (runs Simplydiscus.com), who got them from Wayne Ng, who imported them from Tony Tan. They are some of Tony's "3R2"s, which is just one of his special lines of Red Gold Diamonds (RGDs). They are small now though, and I've got them in a bare bottomed grow-out tank. But eventually I'm looking forward to them being 5 big red discus to add to the tank.

I'm hoping that it will look awesome!

[khoile]

Steve, the tank is amazing!

[gmccreedy]

Are you removing any of the old discus or just going to add these new mystery guys right in?

Tanks looks good man, nice to see things are a bit smoother for you now.

BTW, totally digging the blog!

[nellis]

I think I can honestly say that I think this most recent scape is my favorite Scolley scape yet. The left side looks a little barren, but otherwise excellent.

[Bert H]

Hey Steve, tank's looking good. Was it the maracyn that finally beat the algae back for you? Or a combination of things?

It's amazing that the discus don't make snacks out of the cardinals you have in there.

[scolley]

Originally Posted by khoile

Steve, the tank is amazing!

Thanks Buddy! But it's not going to hold a candle to yours once you get that bad boy set up!

Originally Posted by gmccreedy

Are you removing any of the old discus or just going to add these new mystery guys right in?

Tanks looks good man, nice to see things are a bit smoother for you now.

BTW, totally digging the blog!

Thanks! No discus to be removed. I was observing some big tanks with lots of discus last weekend, and was struck by how much they LOVE a big group. So I just go more. But they'll need to grow out a bit I'm afraid. Right now... I'm just trying to convince them to eat. They are a bit skittish so far...

As for the blog - thanks! It's just my chance to kind of say things the way I really feel. I hold back here, because in a community you want to be polite and not step on toes. Well, that how my parents raised me to act anyway.

There I can just say what I like - how I really feel about issues of our mutual concern. And if someone doesn't like it, fine. They just won't come back.

And I fully intent to continue to be an active contributor to this and other forums I'm active in. This is my planted tank community. That is my blog. Two different things. So no change really, other than Steve finally has a place to let off some steam, and provide information exactly as I'd like to see it structured.

Originally Posted by nellis

I think I can honestly say that I think this most recent scape is my favorite Scolley scape yet. The left side looks a little barren, but otherwise excellent.

Thanks Nellis. But I tell you the truth when I say that I'm SHOCKED and SURPRISED to hear that. Or maybe you never saw my Big Clear Kahuna or Kahuna's Revenge tanks? There's just no way this is better than those... or maybe I'm just missing something. Thanks for the kind words though!

Originally Posted by Bert H

Hey Steve, tank's looking good. Was it the maracyn that finally beat the algae back for you? Or a combination of things?

It's amazing that the discus don't make snacks out of the cardinals you have in there.

Thanks Bert. The maracyn actually made things worse in a subsequent test. I suspect it does work on the GDA, but that it also can give your biofilter a pretty big hit too. So I've abandoned that.

No, it's not conquered yet - by far. But it's lot better, and most of the other nuisance algaes are gone too - except the sand turning green after a while and needing cleaning.

The difference was simple. I stopped dosing N and P. The discus and their food contribute a lot, and I believe (but don't know) that with all the Nitrate I was making available in my ferts, the plants were not as quick to suck up all the ammonia, and with even a little around, it was triggering algae growth.

So, with less N & P my plants are growing as fast, but the algae has gone into retreat. Thanks goodness!

And apparently domestic strains of discus rarely care about tetras. Many don't even care about little shrimp like cherries.

[Brilliant]

Lucky me...I never dosed N or P in my discus tank. Its a real shame 'El Natural' has to be so strict...it would be much more popular/better then EI if co2 or trace nutrients were not banned...the idea is still the same. Use nature for what its got.

I really wonder why you are adding baking soda. Also wondering why you add the calcium and magnesium.

[scolley]

Originally Posted by Brilliant

I really wonder why you are adding baking soda. Also wondering why you add the calcium and magnesium.

Specifically Arm & Hammer Baking Soda to raise my KH. And CaCl2 and MgSO4 to raise my GH.

While the KH being so low is not SUPPOSED to be a problem, I've had better success with my plant in the past (I think but can't prove) when I get it up beyond it's nature @1.2 degrees from my tap to the 2-3 range.

As for the CaCl2 and MgSO4, I can say with out a doubt that my plants do better when I get GH up to 3 or so. The just don't ever thrive at the 1-1.5 degree GH that comes out of my tap. As to the why, I don't know.

[gmccreedy]

You say you are struggling to get the new guys to eat, have you tried a live blood worm culture as opposed to frozen? Then a small transition to by ratio to other foods as their apetites pick up?

Could it just be the stress of a new tank?

You water parameters out of the tap are crazy. I have a kH of 7 and gH of 13. LMAO.

Keep up the outstanding work. Your tank is certainly something to aspire to.

[scolley]

Originally Posted by gmccreedy

You say you are struggling to get the new guys to eat, have you tried a live blood worm culture as opposed to frozen? Then a small transition to by ratio to other foods as their apetites pick up?

Could it just be the stress of a new tank?

You water parameters out of the tap are crazy. I have a kH of 7 and gH of 13. LMAO.

Keep up the outstanding work. Your tank is certainly something to aspire to.

Thanks Glenn. Yup. I'm super fortunate with the water.

And I may have to resort to live food soon, as their appetites are not picking up the way they should. The dealer had them eating Beefheart (home made), flake, frozen blood worms, and Ocean Nutrition small Formula One pellets. I can't get the darned fish to eat much of anything. So switching to live and later modifying ratios as you suggest may be coming soon.

Yet I hesitate to feed live due to nasty health issues that crop up with live worms periodically. These fish are fantastically healthy now, so I hate to jeopardize that with tainted worms (whether blood or California black). But I may be headed that way soon out of desperation.

Thanks.

[gmccreedy]

I hate to throwthis out, but perhaps some garlic mixed in with the fozen treats? I have had great success getting finiky fish eating with just a lil bit of garlic. I believe its quite healthy for them as well (but I can't speak 100% for Discus just yet on this matter). I would avoid some of the oils though, just small bits mixed in.

Surprised the dealer had them eating blood worms and you are having trouble.

[scolley]

Originally Posted by gmccreedy

...perhaps some garlic mixed in with the fozen treats?

Thanks Glenn. Good suggestion. I've got a thread over at simply that goes into my problem in some detail. Bottom line...

It wasn't about making food attractive. It was about dealing with the stress that caused them to lose their otherwise vigorous appetites.

I've got them eating now - FBW - but not by changing foods, but rather by changing environmental conditions. Less stress in adapting to their new home.

Soon I hope to have them eating like pigs, and ready to more into the "big house".

[gmccreedy]

I have been watching that thread Steve since you posted over there. Actually my reference to garlic was not as a simple luxury, but it has been stated (and it has worked for me), that garlic can actually increase apetite.

Can I say 100%. No, but like I said, it woked for me. Glad to see its working out either way.


So, back to your tank. Are there future modifications to the scape that you have in the works?

[scolley]

Originally Posted by gmccreedy

Are there future modifications to the scape that you have in the works?

What 'scape? That's JABOP (just a bunch of plants) to my eye. Shameful as an aquascape.

So yes, there are modifications planned. That's my goal for this next year. But right now I'm fighting a WICKED GDA problem. Yes, it's back.

I ignored the tank for weeks - just plain busy, and didn't feel like maintenance. Well, the GDA built up and I cleaned it. And then I changed the micron filter on one of my Aquaclears. It seems to me that lots of GDA cleaned off the glass and into the water gumms one of those puppies up fast. Must be just the right size.

Well, between putting WAY too much GDA back into my water, and the replacement of the filter - losing that good biofilter in it - the GDA exploded this week. And because the new little discus are in a tank right by the big one, I didn't want to mess around there too much cleaning it. So I let it go all week.

And now it's a mess. Doing a w/c (the big manual kind) as I type this. So now I created a problem for my tank, and I'm just gonna have to work thru it. But I think I know how to get it back under control now. This will be a good test.

And THEN I can think about actually aquascaping the tank!

[Orlando]

Hows the tank coming along Steve? Im a huge fan of this technical marvel.