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    Thread: 8' long 300 gallon freshwater going in.

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    1. #1
      rbarn is offline Senior Member
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      8' long 300 gallon freshwater going in.

      Plan is a 300 gallon 96" long X 24" deep X 31" high tank done up with all the bells and whistles.

      I am doing lots of remodeling so I had the contractor run a cold water line to under the tank and a drain will go out an exterior wall next to the tank and drain into the back yard. Water changes will be constant and automatic. Trying to make the tank as hands off and self supporting as possible. All I should have to do is vac out the fish poop a couple of times a week, replace filter media once a month and change out Co2 tanks.

      Lighting:
      (2x) 48" Corrallife Aqualight Pro hybrid lights each with twin 150W MH lamps, twin 96W PC fluorescent lamps and 3 1watt lunar lights (492 watts each or 3.28 watts per gallon)

      Controller:
      Reef Keeper Elite NET - full PH control and Co2 injection. Heaters, Chiller, UV light - the works

      Filtration:
      Custom homemade acrylic sump with constant drip water exchange system

      Tank scape:
      Sand bottom with mineralized top soil sub base, with wood and some nice swords for plants.
      Wont quite be a biotope, but dont think it will be a crazy super planted tank either.
      Shooting for a look similar to the award winning ADG discus tank.

      Couple of months of build time. So watch for a slew of updates and build pics.

      Stand is framed - Will be finished out to look like nice built book case eventually.
      Ultra strong with 2x6 supports and a doubled up 2X10 header running over the front opening.

      Tank has been on order for a month and is scheduled for delivery next Wednesday.





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    2. #2
      Noahsnana's Avatar
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      Looks like you have been planning

      Nice schematic... looking forward to watching this progress
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    3. #3
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    4. #4
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      That's a super looking plan!!

    5. #5
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      Nice plan! The only thing that I would do different is the double 2x10 headers. I would probably use laminate header material, like they use for 18' garage doors or an angle iron lintel in addition to the double 2x10s or a center post.

    6. #6
      rbarn is offline Senior Member
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      Quote Originally Posted by Brinkley View Post
      Nice plan! The only thing that I would do different is the double 2x10 headers. I would probably use laminate header material, like they use for 18' garage doors or an angle iron lintel in addition to the double 2x10s or a center post.
      I was just looking at that today. I am going to put a doubled up 2X4 stud in the center of the span. A steel angle iron reinforcing the the 2X10's would have been best, but it should be plenty strong.

      Tank gets delivered and installed on Wednesday
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    7. #7
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      What kind of fish are you going with?
      Unless going with a heavier stock plant tank, why so much lighting..1000 watts. At over 3w/g, that's reef level lighting.
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    8. #8
      rbarn is offline Senior Member
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      Still trying to decide on what fish to go with. Leaning heavily towards Discus.
      Something like this








      Tank is a high light high tech set-up. Co2 injection and fertilizer dosing with a mineralized topsoil sub-base. Tank is also 31" tall and lights will be a good 6-8" above the water so I need good light source to get down to the bottom.

      Lots of big swords, small swords and low ground cover. It will look awesome. I have lots of experience with high light fresh water planted tanks. When the low ground cover plants start pearling off bubbles of pure O2 it's just too cool.

      60 gal I did a few years back running T5's at about 3.5 wpg.

      Last edited by rbarn; 11-03-2011 at 12:11 AM.
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    9. #9
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      I used to raise Discus for the commercial market. Here is a couple of pics, first one is pair looking over spawing site second pic Discus with fry. The pictures are scanned from orginal photos so the quality is not great.
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    10. #10
      rbarn is offline Senior Member
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      Quote Originally Posted by Brinkley View Post
      I used to raise Discus for the commercial market. Here is a couple of pics, first one is pair looking over spawing site second pic Discus with fry. The pictures are scanned from orginal photos so the quality is not great.


      Thats a really nice turquoise discus. Perfect body and fin shape and eye proportion. I dont care about breeding so I'm not going to worry about R/O water. My well water will just be heavily carbon filtered and run as is. Water is pretty hard down here, but the Discus seem to do well in it as long as it is consistent and you dont care about breeding since the eggs need soft water to develop properly.

      I have nice discus retailer here in Houston and we have had some nice long talks on whether to R/O or not.

      I was thinking about a dozen blue turquoise cruising through a nice lush green tank would really pop. A true biotope look would be nice, but I'm not hung up on being a "purist" like some people are.
      Last edited by rbarn; 11-03-2011 at 04:02 PM.
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    11. #11
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      I hear ya, straight R.O. has to be treated and is quite a bit of work. I'm looking forward to reading your progress report and seeing the pictures. BTW, I appreciate your not necessarily being a purist on this, people can really overdo or complicate things and change what should be enjoyable into an obsession. We have many on this forum that can't take a vacation without leaving 10 pages of instruction on the care of their Koi.
      Last edited by Brinkley; 11-03-2011 at 05:02 PM.

    12. #12
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      Quote Originally Posted by Brinkley View Post
      I hear ya, straight R.O. has to be treated and is quite a bit of work.
      That was my suppliers reasoning as well. His logic was I would be in a never ending back forth chase of the perfect water combo.
      So I will just run my well water with massive amounts of carbon and sediment prefilters and use Co2 injection to stabilize and control PH.
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    13. #13
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      Very glad to hear that you're going to be using a PH controller. Native Discus have weak immune systems, the very acidic black water pools and tributaries they originate from keep pathogens at bay, so years ago keeping soft water and low PH was necessary to keep the fish healthy. Nowadays the domestically bred Discus have evolved so soft water and low PH is not crucial, in any case a constant PH is going to be your trump card. What PH do you intend to maintain? I assume your tank will be heavily planted.

    14. #14
      rbarn is offline Senior Member
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      Yes tank will be heavily planted. I will have to play around with the PH to see what works best for Co2 / O2 concentrations in the tank vs. water hardness.
      Probably end up somewhere around 6.8-6.9.

      Going with the Neptune Systems Apex Controller to run the show. Very neat gizmo. Fully controllable from a PC with remote email or text warnings and online system checks. Almost infinitely expandable. Will be really nice to check on tank status on the internet while on vacation.
      http://www.neptunesys.com/index.php?...d=43&Itemid=40

      I will use a nice drop checker to insure proper Co2 concentrations to keep plants and fish all happy
      Last edited by rbarn; 11-04-2011 at 05:09 PM.
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    15. #15
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      Very Nice!

    16. #16
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      BTW, you will notice the somewhat dark side of the Discus, this is a natural thickening of the parent's slime coat which the fry feed off of. It's a beautiful maneuver to watch one parent switch the fry to the other parent.
      “Since this is an era when many people are concerned about 'fairness' and 'social justice,' what is your 'fair share' of what someone else has worked for?”

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    17. #17
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      Houston ......... We have a tank !!!! ......... finally



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    18. #18
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      “Since this is an era when many people are concerned about 'fairness' and 'social justice,' what is your 'fair share' of what someone else has worked for?”

      Thomas Sowell

    19. #19
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      This is gonna look great ! When I designed our retirement house, I tried to get my wife to agree to a similar setup inside the house, but it got vetoed. Turns out a vote of 1 is enough to keep the project from happening.
      Keep us posted with photos- I may have to start a lobbying campaign to bring the idea up again. My wife was thinking the tank would look messy and out of place; but it looks like your setup will be a showpiece for sure.
      I had also thought about raising discus; my well water is on the acid side at 6.1-6.3, so I thought that would be a help with water changes.

    20. #20
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      rbarn how are you planing on finishing your stand?
      “Since this is an era when many people are concerned about 'fairness' and 'social justice,' what is your 'fair share' of what someone else has worked for?”

      Thomas Sowell

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