90gallon Planted Discus Community Tank continued!

That's the kind I've used in both of my tanks (the type with the water that comes with the floaty bags of dechlorinator in it).

 

Yes, I get it in the 90g (this setup)...but have yet to see it in the 20gL (the kiddos freshwater shrimp setup).

 

Tossed in some ?crypt lucens from the 20gL into the 90g to see if they'll "take".

Also added in some albino bristlenose jrs from the 20gL too.

Discus are doing well and aggression seems to be subsiding a bit. Maybe mating season is over? Man I hope so because I am so tired of dealing with the random aggression which leads to various scrapes and the occassional need to medicate to ensure healing.

Don't get me wrong I love the discus as they are truly pretty fish, but I'd much rather deal with the smaller (cheaper) fish. Lol!

 

As soon as feel better I'll be hopefully getting everything living within the tank sold off, then I'll be cleaning everything that remains and selling most of it off as well too. If anyones interested in anything by all means let me know....accepting offers and prefer pickup (15132)

 

Picasa Web Albums - Dawn Weatherwalk

tanks been completely cleaned, substrate has been cleaned and store, background has been changed from black to pink again (mainly because the old background ripped when I moved the tank off the stand), and most of the decor is still soaking in prime...but finally all nice and spotless once again

 

It had to be thoroughly cleaned regardless, I'd still like to sell it as it's more work than I can handle these days sadly...but I haven't had a chance to put much effort into really listing it or making a complete list of what's all available. I figure once the colder weather breaks I'll hopefully get around to it.

 

Photos from today!
Everything's pretty much out of the tank being it'll make it easier to sell things off...I'll be sad to see it go once it does but it's just too much work for me these days and unfortunately health issues don't make it any easier.

Hoping all the fish that were sold so far, and will be sold in the future goto a home that will take care of them as well as I did.

 

Tank was cleaned..got tired of looking at a barebottom setup so decided to grab 2 bags of pea gravel at wal-mart for under $4 a bag. (Cheap & looks good...just took ALOT of rinsing).

Figuring it has to be running until I get what I want for the remaining inhabitants, so it might as well look good!
Plastic plants were placed in to curb breeding aggressiveness...I'm sure I'll be seeing eggs somewhere in a few days. Lol!

 

it's not really that, it's just I'm not completely sure what I REALLY want to do. I know it's alot of work upkeeping the tank and the bba algae has drove me insane...I've tried reducing to 1 bank of lights with a 2hr burst for the 2nd to see if that helps. AND people contact me regarding them and have no idea to care for a betta...let alone DISCUS! Ugh..I surely don't want to sentence my fin children to death.

 

Added some vals that I got off aquabid that rapidly turned transparent and died.

 

Once again, BORED! So on a very late Sunday night ended up going on a Wal-Mart run.

The kiddo came up with an idea on how to replace the background rather easily so ended up giving it a whirl.
* 1 stand up project board from wal-mart $2.97
* 2 neon green plastic banquet table covers from the party aisle at wal-mart .97ea
* 2yds of this adorable blue fabric which is covered with various colored cartoon like octopus' found in sewing aisle at wal-mart 3.97 per yd.
*duct tape - had
*staplegun & staples - had

Step 1--> cut the project board with x-acto knife to the measurements of the back of the 90g
Step 2--> waterproof the board by covering it with the plastic banquet table covers and duct tape it to keep it secured to the board.
Step 3-->wrap the now water-proofed board with the fabric and staple into place (only did the 4 corners so if wanted to change)

I then simply held it in place by placing a few pieces of duct tape along the top edge which I affixed to the top back molding of the aquarium.

Looks really cute, but will update with photos once I get the bulbs in that I ordered.

 

LIGHTING UPDATE:
Current fixture is this now discontinued one seen here--> http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_viewi...campaign=mdcsegooglebase2&utm_content=CU01153

After looking at the current lamps in there i'm thinking it's about time to do some lamp replacement.
In storage all I have is 420/460 actinics that came with the fixture (I bought it as a saltwater fixture) and a single Roseatte from god knows when plus two brand new 10,000k's that I'm just not real happy with but can't return.

I'm thinking that being the only real "issue" I've seemed to battle in this tank is an on again/off again brush like algae (although the only way I can seem to get rid of it is using either a razor OR physically pulling the afflicted items out and bleach soaking them) that I should probably just reduce the lighting to utilizing 2 bulbs rather than running 4 (previously ran 2, then a couple hour daylight burst from the additional 2...then back to the original 2).

I figure I'll probably either use the extra 2 lamp spots for either a 10,000K daylight burst...or possibly just toss 2 of the actinics in there for maybe some late night viewing being I'm a serious night owl?
Any pros/cons to doing it one way over the other? (algae, harmful in any way to the inhabitants, etc) Or would I be simply better off just leaving 2 "inactive" bulbs in there?

CURRENTLY ON ORDER
(1) 12,000K
(1) Freshwater Flora Pink
This much I DO know, that I'd like the combo of these two in the "active" slots for sure and will PROBABLY set them for a 12hour light cycle...maybe. Lol!
In the past I've paired 420/460nm actinics with roseattes and they've always looked real nice together...so we shall see with this different pairing once the new bulbs come in.

 

BACK AND FORTH
I'd still like to sell off several of the Discus... I think?
and of course rehome the lone clown loach- I feel so bad for him being all alone (but definately don't want to get more)
and maybe, just maybe....sell off the big roseline sharks/denison barbs that are currently zipping around in there.
>I know I should just probably sell everything all off, but after investing so much into it I just can't seem to let it go. Like most fish keepers...love it when it's nice and clean, but am finding it to be just a bit more than I can keep up with these days. Ugh!

SMALLISH CHANGES
1)The background change mentioned in the post above
2)The Peagravel changed back to tahitian moon sand...mainly due to algae on the peagravel that we just couldn't seem to get rid of & tahitian moon sand chosen simply just because we had it on hand in storage because I didn't care for the color the fish changed with it and the old black background, but you use what you have when dealing with a budget.
*Sidenote...if I could score a really good deal I would much rather have Eco-Complete Planted- the black type.
3)Plastic plants pulled, cleaned & stored. Not really planning on reusing them in the future, but one never knows!
4)Piece of mounted driftwood added that we had stored
5)Decor added- breeding caves/logs from kens fish that we had stored.

ENVISIONING
a tank that others will help care for, lol!
But for real, probably a tank similar to one that I kept a few years back that consisted of Eco-Complete planted substrate, Live Plants, Mystery type Snails, and multiple types of Smallish typed Community Fish but just a bit modified with the addition of possibly a pair of double red apistogrammas, a few/pair of L183's, and a nice little school of rummynoses (which I didn't keep at that time). Photo below is of older done tank that I am referring to.

 

PETCO $1 Days Sale
This isn't the tank sale, but the live fish sale!
I simply couldn't resist grabbing about 15 of their neon tetras for $1ea.
Oh, and if your a livebearer fan they had LOTS of various livebearers for $1 too ,but of course your mileage may vary.

I prefer the neons over cardinals, but that's mainly due to my ability to keep neons alive forever and cardinals alive only for a few months. And they say cardinals are hardier, but not ime with them!

 

Plants

• 2 amazon swords
• 1 crypt lucens plant plug (basically a large bunch with a huge root base)
• 1 bunch of cabomba (which I'm a bit ticked about, after I unwrapped the metal holder they were bunched in I found them to be "broken" in various areas of the stems leaving me with bits and pieces rather than what appeared to be very long stems/stalks)

we're the plants I added tonight after stopping in Elmer's Aquarium (was looking for some chinchilla things and ended up with plants instead).

I also grabbed a long piece of cholla which is currently floating in there with the thoughts that once it sinks that it would be the perfect hideout for pleco babies (not that I even have any plecos as of yet, but I'm hopeful to find some neat type of bristlenose soon- hopefully maybe some red ones or the L183's that I've been wanting for quite a while).

 

New Inhabitants

After visiting the "touted" Wet Pets in McMurray only to find they are so ridicously overpriced that it isn't even funny I ended up running into my local Petco & come to find they must have received a new order of betta's because they had lots of nice females.

Needless to say I ended up coming home with quite a few (actually I lost count) of various colored female veiltails and crowntails (my son seems to like bettas, so of course that has me interested in them).

If I ever sold all my discus off I could easily be captivated by a planted betta tank for sure!