Delibird

I have a wide variety of tanks and I have to make water for a few of them, I’m looking to test specific setups over time 🙂

Hey hey, I want to start looking into what’s actually in my water and I was curious if there was a general consensus on what the best way to test is. I’m specifically wanting to see things like iron, calcium, phosphate, potassium, etc. Thank you 🙂

I keep a couple of bee tanks and I really like Rio Escuro substrate from Brightwell Aquatics. I personally prefer the medium size but they do have a variety of sizes, imo it’s more of what you like the look of. ADA Amazonia is my second choice

I’ll start pushing the water change a couple days and watch the fish. I don’t mind changing water, I actually really enjoy it. I just don’t want to waste resources if I don’t have to. thank you for your input 🙂

I have 8.2 ph liquid rock water (the discus were bred and raised in local tap water so they’re healthy and happy) so I’d argue it’d be better for me to not change water so the TDS and ph lower over time. As far as nitrates go I’m having to add a few pumps of easy green daily just to keep it from hitting 0 ppm in my 120 gallon display

I’ve been keeping discus for the past year, I absolutely love them. I have a breeding pair, I’ve been growing out their fry, and I have 10 medium sized ones in my display tank. They’re one of my favorite fish. I’ve always been super diligent about water changes but that’s because the internet has told me to be. But why? I understand changing the water daily in the fry grow out tank and the breeding tank due to how heavy I feed and how small of water volume they have. But why change water in my display tank if the plants are sucking the nitrates from 20 ppm to 0 in about 4 days? Is there any reason to actually change their water if the plants are scrubbing it clean for me or is there more to it than that for discus?

The par at 12 inches is only 79 and I have to go double that. Assuming you lose half every 4 inches that’s less than 10 par at 24 inches. Mid light plants usually want 40-60 ish

Hello! TL;DR what is the best light for a 120 gallon planted tank. Mid light I am setting up a 120 gallon display tank, 48 inches long, 24 inches tall, 24 inches front to back. It will be a planted discus display tank in my living room. I’m wanting to shoot for mid light, might do co2 in the future. I’m unsure of what lighting to go for. It is my display tank so I don’t necessarily want to do LED shop lights, but if they’ll do the job well I’d compromise for the price. I’ve heard mixed things about the fluval 3.0 being able to penetrate that deep (I would plan on running 2, maybe 3 in the future if I decided I wanted more) I love the look of the kessil lighting. I believe I would need 2 of the freshwater a360we. I love the shimmer. I’ve heard great things about them but they’re pretty expensive, not sure if they’re worth that much and if 2 of them would be enough. This would be my first choice if they were around $200 not $300. AI Prime freshwater LED. Basically the Kissel but not as great from what I’ve seen. Definitely like the look of them still but not quite as clean looking as the Kissel. Significantly cheaper so that’s a plus. Again not sure if 2 is enough or if I need 3 or more. Open to current USA, but the internet doesn’t seem to like them. Nicrew and finnex stingray not really on my radar. They won’t be enough to light the tank. Any and all suggestions appreciated!

Makes sense. Thank you!

I’m not too worried about sticking to an actual rule of 4x or 10x or whatever the internet says. Most of my “filtration” is going to be water changing because they’re discus. The main reason I decided on around 5x is purely just making sure they don’t have a strong current to fight against but enough to make sure the water temp is consistent and there aren’t dead zones.

Do you know how large I can go with the pump and still tune it down to what I need? Or is that different for each manufacturer

I am moving my discus into a 4’x2’ 120 gallon from their 150 to give me more room in the living room. I want to set the tank up with a sump, mostly to add water volume. I just want to make sure my plan is solid before I start spending money. 75 gallon sump. The 120 isn’t drilled and I don’t know if it’s tempered or not so I’m planning on doing a eshopps HOB over flow. I was planning on the PF-1000 which does 1000 GPH (I’ve read it’s better to have more GPH on the overflow than the return) I will do a spray bar on the return and I want to shoot for 5x water turnover (based on what I’ve read on discus forums) I was thinking of getting the Sicce Syncra, I’m unsure if I should go with the 3.5 (660 GPH) or the 4.0 (951 GPH) It’s going to be pushing water up roughly 5-6 feet and I know the pumps don’t flow as well when they have to push the water up high. If I’m reading their chart correctly the 4.0 will have 660 GPH at 5 feet. I attached a picture of the page with the chart regarding the flow and height I mostly need help with deciding which pump to go with. And if I’m over looking anything or misinterpreting anything, please let me know. Any and all advice is appreciated!