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Setting up my 240 gallon, step by step

30K views 212 replies 31 participants last post by  Super Turtleman 
#1 ·
Here is the story.
I got this beauty at a price I could not pass, the day I was to pick it up I hired movers, since the tank empty and by it self it's 400 pounds..... the movers came...6 hours late, it was raining cats and dogs...when they saw the tank they just said...no, we can't do it...turn around and left.
The gentleman that sold me the tank was perplexed to said the least, I was about to have a heart attack!!!!
Next day a guy at my church saved the day along with his two sons, he came with his truck and pick up the tank for me, delivered it to my house....
here is a picture of the tank finally at my husband's home office.


More to come
 
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#52 ·
When I went to the rock yard he had pretty awesome ones, big ones, but I couldn't carry them or lift them up, then I thought...if I have to lift them, climb the ladder and then lean over to put the rocks on the bottom of the tank, I guess is not a smart idea to get what I can not even lift...LOL, I am going back this Saturday, my guy had them for .17c a pound, I will get medium and smaller ones, just to finish the look. You can not tell in the picture, but my rock has speckles of purple and pink, pretty nice....
 
#53 ·
Shahlvah said:
When I went to the rock yard he had pretty awesome ones, big ones, but I couldn't carry them or lift them up, then I thought...if I have to lift them, climb the ladder and then lean over to put the rocks on the bottom of the tank, I guess is not a smart idea to get what I can not even lift...LOL, I am going back this Saturday, my guy had them for .17c a pound, I will get medium and smaller ones, just to finish the look. You can not tell in the picture, but my rock has speckles of purple and pink, pretty nice....
Yeah...I had a hard time getting mine to show up well with my el cheapo camera.
 
#55 ·
Well my camara is my phone camara...nothing more. I think it even does video, I should try.
The tank has changed, I put the driftwood in, pictures to come, the water got all cloudy...is this normal?
 
#56 ·
The tank has changed, I put the driftwood in, pictures to come, the water got all cloudy...is this normal?
:popcorn: yep, it'll settlle in a day or so. sometimes W/C is necessary but nothing to lose sleep over. Amazing job so far (you spent our money well) lol lol. Can't wait for the "SHOW"!!!! "T"
 
#57 ·
I haven't finish yet....LOL here are so more pictures....




These are some of the 100 cardinals



[/img]http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj590/Shahlvah/240-1.jpg

And a baby cory cat, cute....
[img]http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj590/Shahlvah/corycat.jpg
 
#58 ·
WOWOW!!!! Luv the baby. lol
Similar project in the works but much smaller scale.









Not quite ready for discus yet but it's getting there.
 
#59 ·
I love that you have real plants, I wanted that in the beginning, but I had to get real, all those hours at work, discus and natural plants....I will need a day with 48 hours...LOL so I opted for the plastic ones, still I will have to was and scrub, but that is fine....
I like your setting and the rams....I want to add rams too, is that a German Blue ram?
 
#60 ·
:popcorn: Yep. There are some ghost shrimp in there somewhere (I just saw one scamper by) & 1 spotted , 1 striped raphael cat. I hear you on the xtra work w/ live plants. I want them to get a bit more established but I think I'll be ok. "T"
 
#61 ·
I love ghost shrimp, I have 3 that got into the bag when I bought the cardinals, they are awesome, but in this big tank and with so many hiding places, only God know where they are, I saw one yesterday he was eating fish food.

ON regards with the tank, I think I am going to stop spending money on it...my next "pennies" will go towards start stocking the tank. Right now I have the cardinals, about 14 diamond tetras and some 20 glow eye tetras, plus the Cory's. I haven't bring the L0260 since they were pricey and I want to make sure that the tank is fully established before anything else. Those will come at the same time that I will bring in the first couple of discus.
Today I am installing a UV system. This will go outside the sump, I got a 36 watt that I know is an overkill but hey, "WE" are having discus in here, right? I know that in filtration and protection for your water's "health" there is never too much. And I rather spend the money now that I am making so much over time at work that later when they decided that we can not do any....and I will be missing that $$$

You never told me....did you like the tank with the drift wood?
 
#63 ·
Thank you WoodWorm I appreciate your comment, lots of work have gone in it (and pennies..). :eek:
Today I was joking that every time I work on it I have to gear up and put on a swimming suit...I always end soaking wet....that is the problem when you are 5'5" and the tank is 2 foot tall, I need a ladder to reach the bottom...but it has been so rewarding because I have done it against all odds.
I just sent the pictures to my husband in Afghanistan. I am waiting to learn what he thinks about it.

And yes!!! I have a 100 cardinals swimming there.
:fish: :fish: :fish: :fish: :fish: :fish: :fish: :fish: :fish: :fish: :fish: :fish: :fish: :fish: :fish:
 
#65 ·
You never told me....did you like the tank with the drift wood?
:popcorn: Shame on me!! I LOVE your driftwood. I too am almost done w/ spending. This week

4/5 freshwater clams
12/15 X-Ray Pristella Tetra

Next week 03/30

2 x Blue Pigeon Blood Discus 4 Inch
2 x Santarem Discus Fish 4 Inch
1 x Marlboro Red Discus Fish 4 Inch
1 x Brillant Turquoise Discus Fish 4 inch
2 x Cobalt Discus Fish 4 Inch
Will update at that time. Continued success w/ your fantastic project. "T"
 
#66 ·
Wow, shahlvah, you're just killing it with your design - I've seldom seen fake plants look so good.

As much as I love mbuna, it's always cool to see massive schools of tetras.

kevin
 
#67 ·
Thank you Kevin, I do have4 a Mbuna tank, I love it, it is full of activity and always fun to watch.
I really appreciate your comment, thank you so much.
My husband did answer from Afghanistan and his words were that I can do aquarium design for a business if I get tired of my job...and I think that was also a complement.
The tetras look awesome, it is incredible to see them school, and all of them do, the cardinals and the diamonds and also the glow eye. The tank has come together very nice, much nicer than I expect, and the plastic plants, trust me, they didn't look so good outside of the water, but that was all I could find, but once in the water it was a different story.

This is my mbuna tank: (100g)





These are all juvies I have in there, acei, socolofi, mangainos, red top trewasi and long pelvic mdoka the are all starting to color up now so soon I will be sheeding some since I got 10 of each, I will be keeping 1 male 4 females except fot the mangianos that I will keep 1 to 7 ratio.
 
#68 ·
This is one of the babies Long pelvic Mdoka, the picture is not so good and he lives in my 100g, but you can see here how he is starting to color up, he is going to be gorgeous, he is chunky and all the females follow him like he is the king of the tank.

 
#70 ·
Well this is the update, I have been unable to lower the PH on the 240 g, I have 3 large pieces of drift wood and peat granules in the filter, on top of that I added seachem neutralizer to bring the PH to 7.0 in preparation for the discus...nothing, the PH is holding steady on 7.8. Saying this I can tell you that my cardinals are stressing, the diamonds and the glow eye are doing fine, but the cardinals are all day hiding in between the plants. I have the temperature at 81.2 steady and I am running the sump and the FX5, I have the 3 250 watt heaters running in the sump plus a 36 watt UV system....I guess my next step is to go and buy a buffer and start treating the water, I wanted to lower the PH in the most natural way possible not to stress the fish more than the necessary....any ideas?

Because I am not bringing in any discus until the PH is correct and steady....so for now my discus tank is a "tetra" tank..... :(
 
#71 ·
Ah and despise what my signature said the tank is cycled, readings are:
Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrites - 25
PH - 7.8
Temp 81.2
 
#72 ·
ok first things first bump the temp up to roughly 82-86 degrees. discus do best at 82+.

secondly DONT (DO NOT) mess with the ph your discus should be able to handle 7.8 with no problem. mines at 7.8-8 and theyre thriving.

thirdly the diamond tetras (depend on how many you have) might stress the discus out. i had 25 in my tanks and they were schooling and swimming non stop so i removed them.
 
#73 ·
Thank you jd lover, I have 14 diamonds, they swim but then they like to hang out in the far end of the tank where the output of the sump and the filter are, I think they like the current that the outputs make, the glow eye...I don't know with those dudes, I have around 22 but they like to stay pretty much in the higher part of the tank were there are plants also where the outputs are, you can just see them like in formation hanging back there. The cardinals school
So 7.8 is good, I would think specially with discus raised in this area, they should be used to the PH, make sense. (there is so much material and everybody says this and that...gets confusing...so I REALLY, appreciate you giving me all these advise because I am going to go with it, since you are housing discus and having success.)
Since my tank is a new tank and I have it running for about a month now, and even though I seed the tank with media from my 100 g and also I got the Dr. Tim's one and only to cycle quicker the tank (which happen really quickly, in about 7-10 days max) Do you think I should still wait for a little while so the water is more "seasoned" and the aquarium more established before bringing the discus? I found a breeder that has very nice fish, all ages and sizes, and his prices are not bad, since I been buying the cardinals from him he told me that he will work in the price with me because I told him I did not want very young individuals but more mature ones, like young adults (I told him between 4-6 inches) (I hope this size is right.)
I also made contact with Jack Wattley discus in Fl, and Mr. Posada sent me a ton of pictures of the discus they have available at this time, my concern is again the PH since the water in FL has completely different characteristics than here in Texas where we have hard water right from the faucet.

In the case the diamonds prove to be too much for the discus, my local dish store will take them back and give me store credit, maybe I can exchange one of them for one discus or something,,
 
#74 ·
never buy discus from pet stores.

since that is said if your breeder is a reputable one and has nice stock its a good idea to start with him. if you dont mind paying the 60-80 dollar on shipping jack wattly would diffinately be my first choice. very respectable seasonal in the discus world. (he even made a few strains =]). no matter where you get them make sure that the are healthy specimen and to buy them all at once from the same source to reduce the chance of cross contamination.

discus like all fish prefer a stable water condition appose to ideal ones. i get my discus out of state and through proper acclimination i have had no issues bringing in discus that are bread in water of 7-7.5 to adjust to my 7.8-8.

with discus it does gets confusing with the material you hear. theres not a certain way to raise them so there is no hard fast rules to follow so experience is the best way to tackle it. what i tell people who wants to dive into discus is this:

feed multiple quality high protein food in small amounts multiple times a day.
keep the water condition stable
and always do water change.

it really isnt that complicated.

as to whether to keep your tank going for a bit longer or not im not expert in the whole chemistry erea so my advice to you is when youre performing massive (75-90%) water change a day, if your bio isnt ideal yet you can still get away with it. but with it already been running for a month with a seeded filter id say youre ready. i would still do massive water change the first few days you add the discus in just so the bio can catch up.
 
#75 ·
That is great, I think that when you are investing money in the fish you really like, might as well get the best.
I am not sure I will be able to get them all at once because of the price, so what I might do is just wait a little and put a couple of checks aside so I can at least get them in two batches. Now my first intention for now is not to have a breeding program but more focus on an awesome show tank, that will blow my husband's mind when he comes back from Afghanistan, I think I have been super careful selecting everything that has gone into this tank, from the sand, the size of the sand, the quality and color, to the plants and driftwood not to talk about the equipment I have in the bottom running or this tank, I have done a lot of reading on regards not only the discus, but also the best tank mates.
On regards to the water quality I am ready for the water changes and to improve the quality of my water even though when I first filled the tank I did it with tap water, I have been replenishing it with RO water, I have a 6 step RO system that I use solely for this tank. Of course my reservoir is not such a large one that I could replenish 75% out of the 240 gallons, but I have a good 5 gallon tank, that everyday I add some to the sump, a little to compensate for the evaporation.
I am very excited about getting this tank together, because this was my first choice before I even started with my mbuna tank, and then I though that I could just settle with just the mbunas (that I absolutely love and they are so fun to watch)) but when this tank got along and I was able to get it, I could only think on setting it up for my discus...and now I am so close.
I appreciate all your words of advise, I will still probably be making a lot more questions as I go, but I've been taking notes.
Thank you so much.

Do you know what type of discus is this one?



Is this a blue diamond or a blue cobalt...or something else?
 
#76 ·
you dont need to use alot of ro water tap will work fine for them. its all i use =p.

as to the picture i believe its a blue cobalt due to the eys. in a good quality blue diamond/blue diamond deep blue gene the eye will be solid red oppose to the broken orange that one has.
 
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