Pulling it all together

The tank comes Tuesday so I've spent the last few days (especially sat and sunday) gathering the various smaller bits and pieces. These include: Soil substrate for the tank, gravel for the rear of the tank, silver sand for the front, bog wood, some slate and a substrate cable heater. Unfortunately most of this stuff takes quite a bit of preparation. The slate pieces are easy, just a wash off. The bogwood however needs several days soaking to reduce the tannin that it will release. Similarly the gravel and sand is actually very dirty and has to be extensively rinsed. I spent most of the afternoon getting the gravel clean - but haven't started on the sand yet. An amazing amount of muck is released and it takes several rinses to get the water coming through clean. The wood pieces are now soaking in a water butt outside, it'll be next weekend before they're ready. The main component I'm still missing is a wooden plinth I plan to place underneath the cabinet, this is so I can make the surface absolutely level - clearly important for a big tank. I plan to use a thick piece of chipboard - I went to pick it up from the DIY store (including getting it cut to shape) only to find they don't don't provide the board cutting on a Sunday - cheers. It'll have to be done Tuesday morning. The other thing we had to do yesterday was clear the site in the living room where it'll all go - this itself took 2 hours as up to now we've had a big bookcase in the position, so all the books had to come off etc etc. It's getting very close now....

Tank delivery

So the big news is that Dean from Classic Cabinets rang today - the tank is nearly done and will be delivered next Tuesday, 23rd Jan. This is sooner than I'd expected which is good, but also means I've a lot to do before then. First thing was to go on line and buy a few more bits I'll need (soil substrate, heater cable) so they should be here by next Tuesday. This weekend will be busy as I'll have to prepare the site, including making sure it's level and visit some local aquarium shops to pick up the bulk of the substrate, gravel, sand and a few rocks etc. I reckon I'll be adding the water in about 2 weeks!

Devotedly Discus

We visited Devotedly Discus, the shop down near Eastbourne where I'm planning to buy the fish from. Some of the fish were truly impressive, both in colour and size. I actually hadn't realised they could get quite so big! Also he had a tank of about 20 of a variety called Pigeon blood red, very impressive. It's worth taking a look at their website: http://www.devotedly-discus.co.uk/

I also picked one of the HMA filters I discussed in a previous post and in doing so found out I may need to change my plans slightly. I had thought that these filters needed both tap water (obviously) and a means to send some of the water to waste. This is the case for RO systems but isn't for HMA. Also the output from the filter doesn't need any further additions to modify the chemistry, it can be added direct to the tank. This means that I may be able to plumb the output from the filter direct into the tank and dispense with the to move any water around at all, which would be great. Need to think about it a little more.

Water transport

So this post is rather mundane but has occupied quite a bit of my thoughts as it's a significant challenge. The tank will have abut 700 l of water. To the keep the water quality high I'll need to be 10-20% water changes per week. That's 75-150 litres, which is a lot of water to have slopping around - apart from anything that much weighs 150kg. Ideally the whole system would plumbed in. But I can't really do that at the moment because the site of the HMA filter is some distance from the tank. As a consequence I'm going to have to collect the water then move the water to the tank so I can make the change. I COULD do it with multiple bucket trips but that sounds like a chore that quickly become wearing - I'm looking to minimise the amount of effort the maintenance takes, apart from anything I don't have that much spare time. So the plan is to collect the water in a big bucket - I'll probably use a plastic loft cold water tank. The tank will be on a heavy duty trolley which I can wheel through to the tank and make the change. I've found a trolley on eBay which looks good and another website to supply the tank - cool. But that's not the end of the story as what goes in must come out. I could have another bucket on another trolley etc etc, but that's starting to sound like too many buckets. As it happens I got lucky with the position of the tank. At the base of the tank, in the outside wall of the house is an air vent that leads direct to the outside world. The tank is designed with an overflow pipe at the final water level so that if extra water is added it tops up the tank and water flows out of the overflow, down the pipe, through a hole drilled through the vent and out to waste. So all I have to do is collect my 100 litres of purified water, wheel it through, slowly pump it into the tank, and when all the fresh water has been pumped in, wheel away the empty bucket and it's trolley and put it all away till next time. This SHOULD be really very easy, and ultimately I might do everything from the outside i.e. collect the water outside, wheel round the outside of the house to the vent, and set the pump going. I could collect the waste for re-use on the garden maybe. So that's how I'll make the water changes. Tomorrow is the visit to Devotedly-discus to check out the fish and get the filter - a significant step forward.

Water Quality - part 2, the mains supply

It's true to say the water that comes out of the tap is highly purified, free of micro-organisms and ideal for consumption……..by human beings. Where fish are concerned though it's a different matter. To get the water fit for humans the water companies have to deliberately add various chemicals (Chlorine and/or Chloramine) to ensure that any pathogenic micro-organisms ie stuff that would make you sick are eradicated or minimised. Nothing wrong with that, personally I'm happy not getting sick every time I brush my teeth. In addition though there's all sorts of stuff in tap water that humans don't seem to be that bothered by (Nitrates, phosphates, carbonates, low level heavy metals etc etc). All of the above (and I'm sure other factors) can be harmful to fish - especially to sensitive species like Discus. So somehow the "contaminants" in the water supply need to be dealt with before we ask our precious fish to swim around in it 24 hours a day. Some of them can be dealt with using additives which eliminate the chlorine or chloramine - there are many on the market. Alternatively we can physically remove the contaminants using Reverse Osmosis type technology which will essentially remove >99% of non-H2O molecules through ultra fine flitration, although there are approaches that are less aggressive. The approach that I need to take should be driven by the parameters of the water which I get from the tap…which are as follows: pH 7.1, GH 18, KH 14, Nitrate 20mg/ml, phosphate 1.75mg/ml. Of course there'll be lots of other stuff in the there that I don't have the ability to measure. Now actually, that isn't too bad - and talking to the shop where I'll probably source my Discus (http://www.devotedly-discus.co.uk) they advise that these overall parameters are fine for the Discus they can supply. I still need to get rid of that chlorine, sediment and heavy metals though. So my plan is to use the HMA filtration approach. I understand this to be something of a half-way house to full RO filtration. The advantages are that it's a little cheaper to run but crucially I don't think it requires further post purification supplementation with additives - this has to be done with full RO water as this is SO pure that the fish can't survive in it - apart from anything the water is highly unbuffered and will be subject to wide pH fluctuations. Bottom line is: HMA should make the water changes a little easier, which will be important as they'll need to be regular and large. So, to cut a long story short….On Saturday we’re going to go and visit Devotedly-discus, where we can have a look at the fish (!!!!) and also pick up an HMA filter set up which will be the way I purify the tap water before it goes in the tank. I'll post about this after Saturday's visit - it should be very interesting!

Water Quality - part 1

So, first an obvious confession: I haven't kept Discus before. Any ideas for the design and maintenance of the new tank have all been gleaned from reading of books, magazines and internet sources. This also goes for any comments I make about the fish themselves - what you read in these pages is what I know - that doesn't mean it's correct!! I guess I'll be making my own mistakes as I build this thing, hopefully any mistakes or holes in my knowledge won't be too critical. One thing seems to clear to me though, Discus like high quality water to swim around in. They used to be regarded as very challenging or even to be avoided. These days though they are being much more widely kept. This seems to be down to 3 main factors:

Modern equipment allows tank conditions to be more accurately tailored to their needs

Most commercially available Discus have been bred and raised for many generations in more forgiving water conditions (pH 7, GH +10)

Fishkeeping knowledge is better than it used to be - it's now known what's more important to keep the fish healthy and how to get to that point

So, for whatever reason, discus probably easier to keep than 10-20 years ago…. but whichever source you consult, water quality remains a very important consideration and they way I interpret the facts is that no harm can be done by maintaining the highest possible quality. Factors that Discus don't like are: Contaminants that come in from the tap water (Chlorine, chloramine, heavy metals etc) and their own (or other tank inhabitants) pollution and the breakdown products of their own pollution. The issue of tap water quality can be addressed by purification of the tap water after it's drawn from the mains the issue of the pollution produced by the fish themselves is either tackled through filtration and/or water changes - basically diluting the problem. Over the next few posts I'll cover how I'm planning to tackle each of these challenges..

Introduction

This is my first entry in a new blog. As the name suggests it's about my experiences setting up a new aquarium to house some Discus fish - It'll be good to keep track of the project as it goes along and maybe if problems arise any readers will be able to comment and help me out!! I've kept aquaria off and on since I was about 14, but they's always been general community tanks of various sizes, up to about 150 l or so. However, I've always wanted to keep Discus and over the past year or so I've been drawing up plans for the (well, my) ultimate Discus set up. My main considerations were that it needed to be big - Discus are reasonably demanding and to keep a sizeable shoal I think should have a fair volume of water. The max size we can accommodate in our living room is a tank about 150cm X 70cm X 77cm (L X W X H). To reduce the amount one of the corners protrudes the front of the tank will need to be 3 sided, in the shape of an angled bow. The total volume is about 750 litres, although with substrate and décor the actual volume of water will be less the that. It needs to look good so it will need to be built into a cabinet which will hide all of the equipment. You can't buy a set up like this off the shelf, it needs to be built to order, which is exactly where we are at the moment. After extensive searching of the internet I settled on a company called The Classic Cabinet Company (http://www.theclassiccabinetcompany.co.uk/) who so far have been very helpful, not only taking on the build but also providing some good advice on the finer details (of which more in later posts). They will be supplying tank, cabinet, filters and lighting, and crucially delivery. The rest I will need to source and sort of for myself. One of the advantages of being made to order is that I can specify various holes to be drilled, for filter pipes etc, which will greatly improve the way it all fits together and the ease of maintenance (again more of that later). The delivery should be around the end of Jan '07, but there's a fair few details to be sorted out before then... As the project progresses I plan to post some pictures and further details and plans and of course, as we add the fish details of those too.