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Well I finally got some water in it!
And a few plants as well...

192W CF 6700k
130W CF 6700k/10000k
Compressed CO2
Flourite/Sand substrate
2x300W Hydor inline heaters
Odyssea CFS4 Canister
Eheim 2227 Wet/Dry

Sorry this first photo is pretty poor quality...It was about 2:00am!

I would really like suggestions, comments, complaints, and anything else as far as opinions and or facts go as this log goes along. I hope I can make it at least half as long as some of these other threads!

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Looking good. How many discus you planning on gettinng?

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pnh

Day 2 now...

I added a few more plants from a LFS.
I now have Green Wendtti's on the far left.
Rotala Indica at the bottom of the wall with two Red Tiger Lotus in front of that. Just to the left of the wood is a Anubia Lanceolta, and a Petite nana in the forground. The driftwood is encrusted with Java moss and a single Anubia Barteri on the right of it. The right side of the tank is just being used to grow out some plants....but it consist of some Wisteria trimmings, Hornwort behind the rock, and some Anacharis to the right of the rock. There is also an Apon there that is about to flower.


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I'm cycling the tank with Tiger Barbs that I will relocate to a work aquarium when I get the discus.
I plan on getting 7 discus to start in the 2.5 - 3" range.
I am also going to get 25-30 Cardinal Tetras to start and 20+ Caridina japonica shrimp.

Current tank temp is 85F.
I haven't checked the PH as of yet, but I plan on keeping it between 6.6 and 6.8.

Looking good mate.

I really wish i had the space and rescources for a discus tank.


Best of luck with it I will have to keep checking in with your progress.

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pnh

Now for my 1st question. On all my previous tanks I've had a HOB filter to supplement filtration, but I'm not wanting to add a HOB to my 125g. I am getting a build up of scum on the surface because there is no surface agitation. I've been skimming it off with a siphon, but I am not going to do that every other day. Is there a good way to eliminate the build up of scum on the water surface?

You could put the spray bar from your filter near the surface to stir up the water or you could buy a power head or 2 to mount on the surface to stir things up. Only other thing I can think of is some kind of bubble wand or airstone.

I've thought about both of those ideas, but I don't like the look of the bubbles in my tank other than "pearling". I am trying to keep surface agitation down to minimize CO2 loss...

Does anyone use any type of surface skimmer? I've heard about the Protein skimmers for salt water tanks...is that the same thing? Does anyone know if that requires the tank to be drilled? (not an option in my case, but curious).

Hi,
You might try harvesting some of that moss and over time
start turning the breakwalls into moss covered walls.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Add the HOB to reduce the protein scum on your water surface. When you begin to feed the discus, the scum will only become worse if you decide to feed beefheart (a bad idea).

The fish will appreciate the back-up filtration. The bad news is that only the largest AC will fit on your 125. The good news is that the largest AC is perfect to supplement your Eheim filtration!



__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

Well I think that I have the problem solved. I just ordered an Eheim surface skimmer. It attaches to either my Eheim 2227 or I believe it will attach to my Odyssea Canister as well. I'd rather connect to my Odyssea as it has filter pads and carbon unlike the Eheim which only has the Subtrat Pro.

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Frank...I like the moss wall idea; I've seen pictures of moss walls and it looks like it could be interesting. If I can ever get my hands on some Christmas Moss I think I'll try it. It just doesn't look as good to me with the Java moss.

Bob...my hood is custom built by me and even though it has an open slot along the back there isn't room for a HOB. I got the Eheim 2227 Wet/Dry in place of an HOB and because I wanted to run two Hydor 300w inline heaters.

Thanks for the ideas about the surface scum though. If any of you are interested I'll let you know how the Eheim surface skimmer works.

I added a few new plants....

Here is a semi-close shot of the start of my glosso carpet and some newly planted micro sword.

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Center with driftwood

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Center of tank Day6

Right side of tank Day6

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Right side Day 6

Red Tiger Lotus Day 6

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Red Tiger Lotus

Newly added livestock.
I'm starting to get some brown algae (Brown Diatoms). After only 24 hours a few of these Otos have cleaned up about half of it!

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I've been using Green Tiger Barbs to assist with cycling my tank....This one looks a little faded out because the pic was taken at night so I could get some pics while the fish are being fairly still.

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And here is a picture of the cat...OH I mean the dog trying to get the fish!

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It's been 9 weeks now since I started the tank and I thought I'd post a few pics. I'd love to hear any comments or critism...don't be to mean though..LOL