madmark285

OK, understood. Where is the tap on the first floor? And where can you put the water barrel (garbage can)?

Is downstair the basement or the first floor of your house? Something to think about. When or if you break down the tank, the wall behind the tank will have to be re-painted and/or repaired. So cutting a hole in the drywall (lathe&plaster would be harder) to run a hose is not a big deal, just save the piece of drywall. More info on your house would be helpful.

Totally agree. I would put the effort in finding a permanent spot for the barrel and running a hose to it. For the hose, put some type of value on it so you can turn it off at the barrel then turn off at the source. Set up right and you can do a 30% water change on a 75 gallon tank in about 10 minutes.

After your Discus have grown out, you may only have to do a water change once a week. So fill up the garbage can right after a water change and let it adjust to room temperature. Turn on the electric heater the night before (or early morning) the next water change. Easy and energy efficient.

Put some of the blue gravel in a mesh bag(s) and bury it in the new substrate. After a month or so, remove the blue gravel.

Possible mean, gas exchange occurs on the water surface. A large sponge filter floating will reduce the surface area thus reducing gas exchange. Gotta give them a D for that one, no explanation?

You don't really need a quarantine tank when setting up a new tank, just put your initial fish purchase in the new tank.I would first get the new tank with the FX6 fully cycled before adding the sponge filter. After a few weeks in a fully cycled tank, I would move the sponge filter to the 15 gallon tank then dose it with ammonia. I would also take a sponge out of the FX6 and squeeze all the crap into the 15 gallon tank. I am a big fan of ammonia in a bottle, you can test to verify the establishment of bacteria. So a question to the experts here at CARE. I now have a sponge filter with fully established bacteria colonies. When I move it back to the main tank, do I have to run an airline to it? I don't need it for filtration, my main filter is working great. My understanding, the bacteria in the non-running sponge filter may go dormant but will not die off. Once supplied with ammonia/nitrite, they will spring back to life and start multiplying. I ask this for my sump filters. When I break down my grow out/quarantine tank, I will move the sponge filter into the sump without an airline.

In the USA, Discus are not cheap (~$50/fish). You may have a significant investment buying these guys. So just adding to jwcarlson excellent post, keep the 15 gallon tank as a quarantine/hospital tank. I would not risk adding a new Discus directly into an established tank. What many do, keep a sponge filter going in your main tank and just use that when you need to setup the quarantine/hospital tank. That's what I told my wife, just one 75 gallon tank. When that tank started to leak, my solution was to buy a 40 gallon tank! And who can resist those PetCo aquarium sale, a 29 gallon tank is only $40 🙂

So if using a RO system, do you use 100% RO water and add minerals back or mix 'X' amount of RO water with 'X' amount of tap water? Just curious.

You might need 2 garbage cans 🙂 I think your Discus tank will be a success, you are doing your homework and seeking advice. What filter are you going to use? No clue if this is any good but the Penn-Plax Cascade 1200  Canister Filter is on sale for $130. You could get 2 of those for the price of a Fluval FX filter.

Behind the garbage can, I would make an opening in the wall and drill a hole thru the floor to the basement. I would buy a 50' hose for portable water and run it thru the hole and connect it to a faucet before the water softener. If i needed a RODI system, I would put it in the basement and buy a float value to shut off the water when filled. Hopefully I have enough hose left over, connect that to the pump for refilling the tanks. On aging the water if needed, just fill up the garbage can right after you emptied it. I turn the heater on the day before I make water changes.

Hard to say, that could be complicated. Instead of a bypass setup, just run another pipe/hose connected to your main water line before the water softener. So if your house has a basement and there is a faucet on the main line before the water softener, you could use a garden hose since this is not pressurized 24/7 ie: turn off the faucet after you filled the garbage can. Since you plan on using a garbage can, it might be easier to run a hose directly to it. I fill my garbage can with cold water then let a aquarium heater warm it up.

Yes, that would be correct. And my apologies, I may be confusing the issue. My suggestion was, see if you already have a value before the water softener. Below is a picture on how a plumbing may build a bypass system using individual values. So with a 90 gallon tank, a 20% water change would be 18 gallons. What many do here including myself, find a place in your house for a 32 gallon garbage can. I use a Brute brand from Home depot. This would require a cheap water pump to refill the tanks. Second question, how are you going to drain the water out of the tank? Many here use the python system which could also be used to fill the garbage can/buckets.

So look for a value. If you have outdoor faucets, most likely they are connected before the water softener. Of course the next question is, can you get the water to a convenient location? I am an old guy, the days are carrying 5 gallon buckets of water are long gone. I ran a hose to a 32 gallon trash can, use a pump to fill the tanks. How big is your aquarium(s)?

A bypass would just be a value connected on the main water line before the water softener, most likely you already have one. It is difficult to give advice as this is a home plumbing issue, I don't understand "water softener connected to my faucet"? Is this a small device connected to one faucet? Or do you have a large softener on the main water line? Another option, instead of Discus, go with African cichlids from the rift lakes (Mbuna, haps or peacocks). They love hard water. Wise advice I use for aquariums, the more difficult it is to maintain your tanks, the higher probability you will not maintain them properly. Adding a RODI just makes it more complicated.

5 stars on this material! Yep, it is cheap and I believe you can cut it using a razor blade (score and snap method). From Amazon, you can get (3) 4' x 2' x 0.32" pieces for $48. The .24" thick version cost $42. I believe you can use an acrylic glue (such as weld-on) if you want to glue them together. Thanks for that tip!

I believe you are using something like this: Silicone sealant (such as GE silicone 1 sealant) will form a very strong bond to properly cleaned glass. So put a layer silicone on the glass then put the plastic canvas on top of it. Then put another layer of silicone over the plastic canvas. So you are not glueing the plastic canvas to the glass, you embedding the plastic canvas into a layer of silicone which is bonded to the glass. I hope that makes sense. Put masking tape down to get clean lines and it should look nice.

I believe super glue does not bond well to glass and silicone may not bond well to the plastic filter. . What you can so, use the super glue/cotton ball trick to create tabs on the filter , this will create a surface for the silicone. So next apply silicone to the glass and super glue tabs.

Silicon will adhere to many different material but it may be a weak bond. For foam backgrounds, silicone will not adhere to the slick surface of cured "Great stuff" foam. But if you cut off the top layer, it will bond to it. Silicone will form a decent bond to cut edges of PVC material but not to the factory finish surfaces. For my sump filter which use PVC sheet stock, I leave a gap between the PVC and glass then fill it in with silicone. This creates a gasket around the PVC which is a strong bond.

To be fair to the PetCo's aquatics specialist, she may have to deal with so many newbies such a my 60 year old neighbor. But to be fair to you, the LFS sold my neighbor a bunch of fish for a tank that was 5 days old ie: a sterile tank. You are far more knowledgeable than my 60 year old neighbor. I will give the PetCo specialist a F on her listening skills, it should have been clear you know what you are doing. I have had good luck buying fish online from Aqua Huna, they only charge $12.99 for shipping and i don't have to pay the local 7% sales tax. For large online purchases, I prefer to use ammonia in a bottle with multiple dosing for cycling a tank.. So with testing, you can verify that bacteria colonies have been well established. With the 29 gallon I just set up, I added ammonia three times. I also added matrix from another tank and clean out a sponge filter in the tank.

And what would your upgrade path be on a heavily planted 75 gallon tank? Another sponge or HOB? Do heavily planted tanks need better mechanical filtration with all the plant debris floating around? One option you may want to consider with the with the Aquaclear, this skimmer attachment. As Pepere pointed out, HOB are not good with CO2 system so you may be limiting your upgrade options in the future. The problem with canister filters, Fluval dominates and can be expensive. The Fluval 407 is $229 which is ~$100 more than your HOB/Sponge filter plan. I am just not sure about the quality of more affordable canister filters. For myself, building my own filters (sumps) is a big part of the hobby. But money wise, the Fluval FX2 would have been a better decision for my 75 gallon tank. Side note: I connected a HOB to an undergravel filter, I love this so far. I wish there was an off the shelf product available to make this simple.. This gives me a huge bio filter and I just use the HOB as a pump and for mechanical filtration. The UGF does not have to cover the entire tank to be effective.

So my question here, would this concept work with an AquaClear filter? That filter may be a better option for this idea. On one hand, I do not yearn for the good old days of just a undergravel filter. Using powerhead just improved the flow but it was still just a gravel filter. Replacing the powerhead with a HOB filter gives you alot more flexibility for your system.

In the front section, the screen is glued to the top of the pipe which will hold the gravel up. In the back, the pipe is buried in the gravel. My logic here, my plastic plants prefer a slower flow 🙂 I really need to order some real plants.... This may be one of those projects where I should have just bought the plates, the Penn-Plax only cost $15. Having the Tidal mounted on the side did make it more complicated.

The bottom ones where the water comes in and I am not sure if that was a good idea. The silicone can be easily removed, I might open up a few slots and see what happens. I highly doubt the ug grid will get completely blocked and I plan on vacuuming the gravel, that was the point of this project ie: I always vacuum the gravel.

My fish room will have three tanks, a 29, 40 and 75 gallon tank. The 75 gallon will be Mbunas which I am still working on. The 40 gallon is a barb tank, the main occupants will be a school of Tiger and Odessa barbs (~12 fish/school). I was thinking about buying (6) Veiltail Cherry Barb for this tank. Common sense say don't do it, the Tigers will munch those long fins. . I can get regular Cherry Barbs or possible Gold barbs to be safe. Note: my Odessa barbs are more active than the Tigers I love Serpae tetras, I currently have 3 of them in the barb tank. I plan on moving these guy to the 29 gallon tank and buying 5-7 more ie: a school of 8-10. They held their own in the barb tank but were clearly dominated by the hyperactive Odessa and Tiger barbs. In the 29 gallon tank, they should be the dominate fish. This tank will have (4) Forktail Rainbows and would like to add (8) Celestial Pearl Danio and another group of tetras (?? Candy Cane) . But I am concerned about the Serpae tetras being bullies, they would be the dominant group in the 29 gallon tank. I could just get Red Phantom Tetra which are very similar to the Serpae. Opinions?