freshwest

Here is an article with pics of his mini mega tank. This guy is something else http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forum ... hp?t=13742

He buys them when they are small and keeps them in his grow-out tank until they are big enough to survive in the mega tank. Guess how big his grow-out tank is? 56,000 liters. He also has heaps of other tanks in the 3000 Liter class. Unbelievable

I was scanning through the thread and came across this. It was about what was eating his stingrays. Quote I was surprised when it happened. I have unfortunately witnessed a Pseudoplatystoma fasciatum roll up a 10" stingray like a taco and take him whole. The 14" however had been in the tank with these other fish for 3 years, so it was a surprise. Not sure, the suspects at the time (1997) were: a 27" Pseudopimelodus fowleri a 50"+ Walego leeri any of 5 Phractocephalus hemioliopterus the largest weighed 90lbs when he was killed in 2003 by a 24"black shark Morulius chrysophekadion (The smaller shark inflicted repeated bites on his head either of 2 Sorubimichthys planiceps (48" & 54") either of 2 Pseudoplatystoma fasciatum (36"-40") How about the size of those fish some are over 4 foot long

Sorry folks seems tobe something wrong with that link. Try this http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forum ... php?t=8952

Now this is what I call a Big Tank . 189000 Litres http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/fo...ead.php?t=8952

Looking good Quack. I think that sump design should do the job. Im alittle concerned about your out flow hole you have made. Are you having an overflow before the out-let hole? From what I read you intend to have your out flow feeding directly into your sump, this could be too noisy. Check out the over flow setups they use in the reef tanks you will see they use an overflow box with the out flow via a dorso up stand pipe. I am running this system on my tank and it is silent. Keep the pics coming

Hi Quack. The R/UG filter is working well. I have not had to clean the gravel which is what I was hoping would happen. The only problem I had with the original setup was the in line pleated filter was getting blocked to quickly and needed cleaning every week. Which is not my idea of low maintenance? I have since removed the in line filter. This has increased the flow through the R/Ug, which has created better water movement in the tank. The other thing I have changed is I have put a bigger pump in the sump and a larger wet dry filter as the sump filter now does all the mechanical filtration. The total flow through the tank now is around 6000L / Hr All and all, I am happy with the set up it seems to be working well.

Some good thoughts there Glen. I had be told you can prune the leaves to keep it compact. I have gone for a natural look for this tank so Im happy with the way it has developed without to much intervention from me. If I decide to go for a new tank setup, I will be making sure the root zones of the plants are protected from the geos. It’s the Uaras Im worried about if they take a liking to a plant they can really do some damage. Got a crappy pic of the tank last night. Its really hard to get a good shot mainly because I have to take it from quite a distance from the tank to fit it in. I also have a problem with the pics being over exposed were the M/H lights shine through in places. In addition, I have crappy camera.

Saffaboy. Im not sure you should worry about lowering your pH. 7.6 is fine for growing out discus. What I found when I started playing around with my water using HCA and pH down things got complicated and unstable. Not the best for young discus.

This plant is really dominating the tank. Not sure why its gone to this form. For the first few months it grew quite compact them gradually each new leaf grow a bit taller until every leaf now grows to the surface. What Sharn said about if growing like this when they want to put out runner sounds right as it is producing quite a few new plants. I think I paid around $20 each and I planted three. Seeing the way this plant has grown has got me thinking about remodeling the tank in a few months. My idea is to add more wood and have the lotus growing up through the brunches. This will mean little of no ground cover as the lotus leaves will cut out a lot of light. The plan will be to grow some Java fern on the wood to get some green into the aquascape. Im also thinking about taking the discus out and adding some Geophagus surinamensis, Satanoperca jurupari ,Uaras, a good size school of Peruvian angles and some cardinals. The overall picture will be a quiet shady Amazonian backwater. It is a shame lotus and Java fern do not come from the amazon, as it would then be a biotope.

Time for an update on my discus dilemma. I took some pics of the young from my Blue S/S X Colbolt pair. This is the 3 spawning I have kept from this pair the young in the pics are 4 months old. It has been interesting to see the different types of colours that have resulted from this pair. Pic 1 is of a solid blue s/s type. Around 30% of the young are this type. Pic2 is of a green checkerboard type about 20 % are of this type Pic3 is more of the BSS Another interesting type which I dont have a pic of is a 5/6 bar colbolt type. These fish have amazing colour. About 20% are of this type . The rest of the batch is made up shade in between.

Took some pics of the tank last night. Unfortunately, the shot of the whole tank was crap, but I did get a pic of the lotus from the surface. As you can see, it has grown quite a bit. I will try again tonight to get some from the front.

Thanks cameron

Im after some geophagus jurupari as well . Has anyone seen any around the Auck FS?

Sorry for the slow response to your questions. Kim and Blue The fert I use is PMDD. I had the trace elements mixed for me by a hydroponics outfit to the PMDD recipe. For macros, I add kno3; k2so4, mgso4, and p. As far as the amount I dose it’s a bit of an estimate based on plant colour and algae growth. It would be too expensive to use commercial ferts like flourish. With regards to CO2 I rent a BOC bottle and have it connected to a pH controller set at 7pH. The bubble rate is to fast to count. The co2 is diffused through two reactors at each end of the tank. Evilknieval69. Im sure there is some pics of the sump and plumbing some were in the thread. I think Ian got it in the video he did as well. The sump is very basic. Consists of a 200 L drum (sump) with the overflow water passing through a 1 meter tall 150 mm pipe filled with filter wool and media which stands in the middle of the barrel. It works ok but tends to get blocked quite quickly. I plan to change to a more conventional sump soon. Im going to make it out of a couple of 3 foot tanks one to be the filter and the other to hold the return pump , heaters and co2 reactor . Should be much better .

Going well Mystic. Discus are doing really well, there are 3 pairs doing the wild thing every week. All the pairs are getting their fry up to the point were they are feeding on there sides but lose them to the rosy tetras by the next day. It’s a bit of a shame really, I feel quite sorry for the parents. I should really take some of the pairs out and let them raise some fry in a bare tank. But the thought of catching them is putting me off. Or I could get rid of the r/tetras, Im not to sure they were the best choice for this tank as they tend tobe a little over enthusiastic when im feeding (the water boils). Cardinals would have been a better choice. One thing I have enjoyed with the r/tetras is watching them breed. Hi Me love fishy. I never had much luck growing good ground cover until this tank and this being the first tank I have run M/Hs Im putting there rampant growth down to the extra light. It seams to me the m/hs have better penetration giving plenty of light at depth. You could try adding some more fluros.

Thanks for the comments fishboi Echinodurus quadricostatus var. Madalengensis. Mark I have 5 Siamese algae eaters, which take care of any thread algae, and 3 ottos, which work on the green spot algae. Im planning to get some fancy plecos to help control the green spot algae. At this stage not sure what to get from what I have read some can be hard on the plants. Any ideas

Finally got around to taking some pics of the tank tonight. As you can see there has been quite a bit of growth. As far as water parameters go Temp 28 c , pH 7 (pH maintained by pH controller), kH 2 , KNO3 5 to 10 , P 0.5, 2x400 watt M/H lights on for 10 hours, Fertiliser PMDD dosed once a week, 1/3 water change every 2 weeks.

Better news with the second batch of young from the BlueSnakeskin x Colbolt pair. I now have a batch of 50 6-week-old young. Unlike the 1st batch this batch has perfect fins. The main difference in growing this batch from the last was this time I lifted the kh of the water after hatching. Seems that a lack of minerals was the cause of the first batch having deformed fins. The batch of Blue Snakeskin x Blue Diamond young suffered the same fate as the 1st batch of ss/colbolt in having deformed fins. Not sure when I will try breeding from this pair again as they are know in the 1300-l tank. They still spawn every week or so but he chances of them raising any fry in there is next to zero.

Well they are defiantly a pair. I now have a bunch of 10-day-old fry. From there next spawning. Uaras are similar to discus when it comes to feeding there young. With Uaras though the mucus is only produced around the belly area. The next step well be to remove the young from the parents, probably next week

Wish mine wouldnt take off behind the rocks everytime I try to get a closer look at them Got me thinking though :-? One thing i have noticed is that two larger ones are darker without stripes and the other two are yellowish with stripes. Try and get some pics mooloo ?

One half of the tank got its first major prune on the weekend. The plants were getting out of control. I also rearranged some plants into new positions and removed some of the more rampant ones altogether. Should look good in a couple of weeks when things settle down. I will take some pics then. While removing plants I discovered some new inhabitants namely some young rosy tetras and my pair of blue rams with a heap of young

From what I was told when I brought them they are 2yrs old. They are in a 450-L tank with a few corys and some cardinals. Still not 100% sure they are a pair as I did not see them spawn. Fingers X as these fish are really cool, personality + Anyone else keep Uaras ?

Bit of a good news bad news post. Good news my uaras spawned a couple of nights ago :lol: Bad news the eggs only lasted 24 hrs . Seems one of them has a taste for eggs. Here are a couple of pics