anewbie

I'd really like if aquarium-coop carried the chihiros wrgb 2 light. I picked one up for my 120 to use with the fluval 3.0 and it really seems quite superior. The only downside is short warranty which is worrisome and the app requires location service/registration which is inappropriate.

I'd go with lemon or super red bn - for some reason they lean to the smaller size - the plain bn can get quite large. kuhli are great but it is a random shot if you will see them - i have them in 3 tanks - and in one they never hide but in the other two ..... do i really have kuhli in them ? -- Here is a picture of my largest male lemon - the females are about 1/2 to 2/3 the size:

40B is too small for discus - not enough vertical space when they become adults.... imho. As for actual stocking - this is what i have in my 40B 3 cockatoo 3 nannacara 10 orange laser cory 12 pygmy cory laser 8 forktail 12 kubotai rasbora 2 lemon bn (these are a bit on the small size for bn - esp the female) 1 clown pleco (if i didn't know he existed he doesn't) some random number of guppies (5? 7?) and recently about 20 frys (not sure if they are guppies) -- Anyway is your tank overstock - well the bigger issue is the pleco and discus you have are going to struggle in 18 months.... if you get them that far....

I'm going to mention a less common plant used for carpeting but I really like "tropica" parviflorus echinodorus. I might be mistaken but I believe there are two versions of this plant the "tropica" version is approx 2 inches high (shorter than dwarf stag); and the non 'tropica' version is approx 4 inches high. I can't take a picture right now as lights are out on the tank (night time for the fishes 😉 ) but this plant has a much large leaf than dwarf sag or pygmy sword and a darker green but it is very short. I've had my plants about 4 months and they are now just beginning to send out runners so carpeting will be very slow and take a bit of effort - my guess it will take about 2 years to get a decent carpet on my 40 - but i've been slowly pulling the dwarf sag as it spread because imho it is a much nicer plant.

I wanted to comment on the deaths. If there was any uneaten food at the bottom of the ziss basket (even if it is screening) you need to vacuum it out with a turkey blaster because the smallest amount of ammonia can kill the frys. My experience is with angels and not eba but after a while i managed to get about 90% success rate with the first 5 days of free swimming being the hardest. - I used a plastic container that sat off the side of the tank (marina box) for the first 10 days and then switched to ziss breeder box but before each feeding i would vacuum the bottom of any waste and uneaten food as well as any dead frys. - My parents are pretty good but i have them in a large community tank so i let them raise them to wrigglers + a couple of days and then snip the leaf just before they become free swimming. Well I did - i have too many angels so no more saving frys for me.

For lights I will likely hang 3 or 6 chirios wrgb2 lights - I"m not sure if one row can handle back/front for a 3 foot tank or if i need two rows - my guess is two 48 inch lights and one 36 inch light per row.

Can you show the other side ? My interest in that is my thought is that if i go this route - i could have the corner matten (as i said above) with the inlet behind it -- i could also have a hole at the top of the tank so that if the tank is over filled water will drain out of that hole (also would allow for a drip system - not sure how it would mush with the frame); the inlet being behind the matten woudln't concern me too much - the placement of the outlet is more concerning - i'd like to see what type of nozzle you are talking about - one thought is i could kill two stones with one system - i had been thinking about a wave maker at the bottom of the tank for the l204 but if i could turn the outlet flow 90 degree and have it blow across the l204 caves that might work well. The only major concern is if the kuhli jump the matten the small ones could fit between the mesh. Not sure if that is a problem if they flow through the pump and back out the outlet - depends on if the pump would grind them... - Do you have any part numbers for the mesh - or could i just use fiber screening (like you put on a door which is a bit finer but no debris should flow into it).

I have to reflect on this running without a filter - it makes me nervous but i like the idea. I think at the very least I'll do a corner filter to provide some flow but given my layout they will be invisible since the corner would be near a wall in the office. I could then run the water through the bottom like your tank with the outlet behind the filter - not sure where i would inject the water into the tank.

I've been happy with python hoses - the only negative is they are expenses per foot. I have a couple of 25 feet hoses from them. I've tried cheaper tubing and they have a tendency to both pinch and grow mold (not sure why the python does not grow mold). Garden hoses as someone mentioned are always an option - they are a lot heavier and i worry if they are safe for fishes (yea as a kid like most people i drank from them but i would prefer they were label food safe).

Which heater do you use? I presume that there are large mounts offset right and left 3 of 4 inches high for the water to flow in and out (i lived in a condo that had a tank like that); and you hide them with driftwood in the second picture. That is an interesting pump do you know the model - amazon has a MD40RLKXT. I'm mostly asking to add to my list of possible equipment as reliable items. I'll probably not do bottom drillings and rely more on air driven but undecided - i have a bit of time to think things over and play with different designs. Being able to not have a sump has a lot of advantages (as well as saving a bit of cost). One concern i have with any drilling is the grid has to be fine enough that kuhli loaches don't sneak through but not so fine as to block water flow from debris. With the bottom mount the raised drains have some advantages though large leaves would still block them - on my 120 i have to clean the canister filter pre-filter at least once a week sometimes twice.

The full name is hamburg matten filter - basically a large sponge that blocks off a section. You squirt water out from behind the sponge and new water flows through the sponge - here is my 40 - you can see the edge of it in the back right; this one is air driven. Daniel - one other question i have is how soft is your water. If i remember correctly very soft water has a different property with regards to organic waste than harder water. My water is not horrible but definitely not soft (tds 120, kh 3 gh 7); I would probably soften it a bit for this tank but it is definitely not ultra soft.

But this tank has no plants. How thick is the substrate? Thick enough to form nitrate eating bacteria? Also do you have any sort of circulation (sponge filter, power head, ...?) I see none in both tanks.

Sorry for the double post I should list my current stocking in the current 120: 5 clown loaches, 5 zebra loaches, 6 yoyo loaches, 10 kuhli loaches (mostly merysi), 10 sterbai, 8 otto, 1 sae, 3 bn, 3 l204, 27 cardinals, 11 angel fishes, a few others... In the large tank mentioned i would add a few more loaches to increase the school sizes another school of tetra and some more plecos. Probably change around the angel school a bit as i'd like more platinums (i had 3 angels - the other 8 are actually off springs from parents which resulted in the golds and blacks).

Every paper i have read suggest that the bulk of the filtration is in the filter and not substrate so my question is how frequently did you do water changes? Also is your total stocking visible (5 discus?). My 120 has about 5x the stocking (loaches, pleco, corys, ... all hidden in the picture) but a good chunk of it is hidden. Not saying that no filtration would work just kind of worried at some point it would fail catastrophically.

I will be setting up a very large aquarium - approx 500 gallons - dimensions 132 long 36 wide 24 high (inches) that is a densely planted freshwater tank. I'm trying to think of appropriate filtration - three options i've come up with are corner matten filters (worried this might not provide adequate filtration); sump (maybe overkill and a bit noisy); large canister filters (I hate cleaning my current canister filters and these will be larger and more painful - i currently have an fx6 and 2117 on my 120 - I think a sump will be easier but will explain below. - The problem i have with the canister filters is disconnecting them and dragging them to the bathroom to be clean - the fx6 is easier than the eheim since i can just pull out the media basket - the eheim has nice quick valves but still .... - If I went with a sump my thought would be the primary filtration will be a series of slide in sponges ranging from 40ppi to 10ppi. My thought is next to k1 mbr sponges provide the best biological filtration as well as good mechanical filtration with the cavet they have to be cleaned now and then - so i can slide out the sponge take it to the bathroom and rinse/squeeze it as needed (the tank will be in an office). - The above reflect my thoughts but this being my first large tank and I do not have first hand experience there might be 'error' in my logic hence this question. - The attached picture is my 120 to provide some insight of what type of tank this will be as it will mostly be more of the same: