[flukekiller]

Thanks to burr740 for the java fern.. for now, just a small piece of
DW with java fern until i man up and get a good sized piece of wood.

10 discus and 2 marble motor rays.built the tank myself. specs:
5'L x 4'W x 30"H...

feel free to ask any questions.

 

[theatermusic87]

that is an awesomely big tank, it'll look great as it progresses

 

[ichy]

I thought 4' had to be a typo...then I saw the picture! WOW!

 

[flukekiller]

Thanks,, yeah i have not had a tank in a few years so i decided to
go big. I always wanted stingrays, i have owned discus in the past,
so part of the deal with my other half was that we had to do discus.
I basically researched for almost 2 years.
Now i am currently looking at ways to add some plants without
taking too much space away from the rays. wondering if i should
go for 1 large piece of DW or a bunch of smaller ones like in the
picture. maybe some jungle val to cover the egg crate since my
backround crapped out and broke.

 

[ichy]

I think an island scape in the middle would look nice.

 

[bostonreefer]

Awesome tank! At first I was like oh no rays! Looks like you did a great job looks great. Yeah I would stick with something in the middle keep plenty of swimming room for the rays.

Sent from my MotoG3 using Tapatalk

 

[flukekiller]

Thanks,,, yes an island would be awesome,, didnt even think of that.
i have to look into that and find some easy low light plants

 

[burr740]

That is awesome, man. Wow!

How many gallons does it hold? Would love to see some build details, you should do a journal.

Agree an island would look good. Instead of having it in the middle, could put it in the back corner sorta flowing out from there. Might be able to keep more open bottom for the rays. Lots of potential either way.

Those java ferns certainly went to a good home!

 

[flukekiller]

365 gallons plus 85-90 gal in the filter.


so heres the start of my build.... | MonsterFishKeepers.com

 

[ichy]

Looked at your thread on the other site. What a project! I gotta confess....I would not trust my carpentry or glass gluing skills to tackle 350 gallons!

 

[flukekiller]

Looked at your thread on the other site. What a project! I gotta confess....I would not trust my carpentry or glass gluing skills to tackle 350 gallons!

i am decently handy but, it really is not that hard at all. this is the first time for a project this big. i have done a bunch of smaller tanks but this was a fun challenge. if you ever decide to do something like this, research, time and patience and you will have no problems.

 

[FreshwaterAdvice]

That's a beautiful aquarium! Sorry I just have one question.

1) Generally most discus aquariums are bare bottom because they are much easier to clean - yours looks like it has sand in it. Do you have any issues cleaning the aquarium?

 

[flukekiller]

That's a beautiful aquarium! Sorry I just have one question.

1) Generally most discus aquariums are bare bottom because they are much easier to clean - yours looks like it has sand in it. Do you have any issues cleaning the aquarium?

Dont be sorry,, questions are good.

Most use bare bottoms with juvies to keep the water cleaner and it helps for growth, ect. There are plenty of people who keep adult discus in planted tanks.. Discus have come a long way in the last 20 years. They are NOT nearly as sensitive as they were years ago, or wild caught ones. i raise discus in hard well water and have no issues
at all.
but back to the question, no i do not have any issues with cleaning the tank.. i only do a water change every 2-3weeks BUT i drip 50-55gal of fresh water everyday so technically i do over 100% a week.
i will post a new thread with my build and all my specs explaining my set up.

 

[Olskule]

365 gallons plus 85-90 gal in the filter.


so heres the start of my build.... | MonsterFishKeepers.com

Not to be argumentative, but I am curious as to how you derived 365 gallons as your volume. I've always used the "cubic inches ÷ 231" formula for figuring gallons, and this gives me 374.025 gallons, and with allowing -1" for space at the top of the tank (29" height), I get 361.558 gallons. Should there be numbers after the decimal point that I'm not aware of, to make the formula more accurate? I got this formula years ago from one of the early editions of Herbert Axelrod's original volume on fish/aquariums, so it may be more approximate than the formula you use.

And, by the way, supercool aquarium, and great job! Incidentally, you may want to consider a variation of the "island" scape, with a "mini-oxbow", where the island extends to the back of the aquarium, then to each side. That way, there wouldn't be a sandy bottom area hidden from view, so the stingrays would always be visible, and you could plant larger plants along the back to create a more natural looking environment. Also, I think you should take advantage of the large size of your aquarium, and use one very large, exceptionally striking piece of driftwood as a focal point on/in the center "island ". Of course, if you don't have a local source where you can collect one from the wild, buying a specific piece off the internet might cost a pretty penny, but I think it would be well worth it if the piece had enough character.

 

[astex]

Nice tank....I've seen tanks where people with eels and the like have built of a platform that they put the driftwood/plants on, leaving the bottom of the tanks between supports clear for the fish.

 

[FreshwaterAdvice]

Dont be sorry,, questions are good.

Most use bare bottoms with juvies to keep the water cleaner and it helps for growth, ect. There are plenty of people who keep adult discus in planted tanks.. Discus have come a long way in the last 20 years. They are NOT nearly as sensitive as they were years ago, or wild caught ones. i raise discus in hard well water and have no issues
at all.
but back to the question, no i do not have any issues with cleaning the tank.. i only do a water change every 2-3weeks BUT i drip 50-55gal of fresh water everyday so technically i do over 100% a week.
i will post a new thread with my build and all my specs explaining my set up.

Okay, wow, its nice to know discus have come so far. I grew out some juvies to adults some time ago but I was doing 25-50% daily water changes with a barebottom aquarium. I stopped it eventually because it was just too time consuming for me.

That's an impressive water change system, I always told myself if I was going to get back into discus care I would have to setup an automatic water change system. It seems like you have a very effective system going.

I look forward to reading your build thread!

 

[flukekiller]

olskule,,
im sorry i didnt know i needed to be technical to the decimal..
yes technically the tank is 374 gallons, but i do keep it an inch or 2 from the top so i knew it would be less. so a guestimate was 365 gallons.. i really didnt think that +/- 10 gallons would make a difference on a tank this size. thats like when you EI dose with a syringe and you put it at 5ml..technically you are probably getting 4.xxx ml or 5.xxx ml but not exactly 5 ml as we do not use the high tech tools to make it exact. but none the less technically you are correct.

as far as the dw goes,, i am really looking for a nice stump type piece, not too much local but i am still looking unfortunatly time is the factor in this for me as with the family, work and other life things i really cant spend the time searching for a piece. and buying online is just rediculous for the type of piece i want, i found a few pieces but the shipping alone was over $100 and that to me is pointless. lol. i am trying to see if my sister will keep an eye out for me since she is in texas.i go on vacation in a few weeks so i might devote a day or two to dw hunting.

 

[Olskule]

Sorry, I didn't mean to knit-pick, I just thought maybe you had some more accurate information than I had, and I wanted to know what it was! LOL! (I always wondered how it could just happen to be an exact number, "231", without anything beyond the decimal. I seriously doubt that someone, way back when, actually sat down and decided a gallon was exactly this many cubic inches.)

But good luck in finding that perfect piece of driftwood, I know it is sometimes tough to find that one piece that just "speaks to you", but it really can make the tank look "perfect".

 

[second]

any new pics?

 

[BettaBettas]

dude that tank is HUGE