# 205 Gallon Semi-cube Discus Tank



## deepRED (May 22, 2010)

I already started a build thread a couple weeks ago but it ended up getting lost when the site was having issues. Oh well.

Anyways, this tank is my newest setup, and basically is replacing one of my 300 gallon tanks. 
I ended finding this tank for a steal, it's a custom setup made with full star fire glass. Moving this thing was a real pain. I had to remove my fence door just to get it in, and it was super heavy. 4 guys, and it was a good lift to get it on the stand. 
For the filter, I ended up capping the overflow holes and built a filter chamber right inside the overflow. It works basically the same as a bio-cube, only on a much larger scale. This allows me to keep the tank free of any filters, heaters, cables etc... just pure aquascape.

Tank: 46"x38"x27" Star fire glass, euro bracing and drilled for corner overflow. 
Stand: 2" tubular steel, powder-coated black. 
Filtration: Homemade chamber filter powered by a eheim compact 5000 pump ( 12 liters of seachem matrix, 4 liters of eheim substratpro, bio chem stars, matala mat, filter floss for polishing) 
Lighting: Currently a dual strip 54W HO t5 fixture, although I've mounted a 250W metal halide which I'll be using once I get this baby planted. 
Heater: 2x 300 watt ebo jager and titanium
Substrate: Beige silica sand, two grades of black river rock

Fish:

32 domestic discus ranging from 3" to 5".
20 harlequin rasboras
15 rummynose tetras
12 loxoznus cories
9 albino bristlenose plecos
1 watermelon pleco
1 titanic pleco
1 blue phantom pleco

I did the hard scape of the tank before I went on vacation, and so it was running for 10 days before I put all the fish in. I used a bunch of bio-media from a running tank, plopped the fish in, and voila.
I'll be adding some plants in the next couple weeks, but the basic framework is done. If I ever find a large enough stump I'll end up replacing the manzanita that I have in there, but it works for now.

Anyways, here are a few pictures: (ignore the yellowness of the water, the bulbs on my light fixture are getting long in the tooth and need replacing)


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## Luke78 (Apr 24, 2010)

Beautiful layout,simple and a natural feel to it, love the rockwork and stones themselves.Nice stock as well,and the open area you created will be loved by your discus.Thanks for sharing,and keep posting updates.


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## gklaw (May 31, 2010)

Luke78 said:


> the open area you created will be loved by your discus.Thanks for sharing,and keep posting updates.


The open area created by getting rid of his 300gallon tank on the floor will be love by his wife :lol:

Looking good Jeremy. Pretty sure your family room looks pretty good now as well


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## snow (Apr 21, 2010)

omg I'm not into discus but the way you did that tank is very nice. It makes me want to have discus.


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## jay_leask (Apr 22, 2010)

sweet set up, the scape is amazing. and i really like the shape of the tank.


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## discuspaul (Jul 2, 2010)

You've done a super job on that tank, Jeremy - looks great !
And yes, I'm sure a change of lighting would make it look that much better.


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## er201 (Apr 21, 2010)

WoW that is amazing O_O


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## RoadTestRuss (Jun 25, 2011)

That is one sweet looking tank!


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## The Guy (Nov 26, 2010)

Wow !! what a great looking tank, it's very open looking and great for the stock you put in. Very nice!


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

Spectacular job on this tank. I love the openness and aquascaping.


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## SGmenace (Apr 25, 2010)

I love the simplicity of this! Makes me wish I didn't do such a heavily planted discus tank.


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## tony1928 (Apr 22, 2010)

Great dimensions on that tank. I love being able to go both wide and deep. Just allows so much more openness and still lets you do some decent aquascaping. Love it. More inspiration for me when I convert my 400 to discus.


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

That's a very nice discus tank and lots of schooling fish. 
So that's where all the loxoznus cories went. They certainly found a great home.
Look forward to seeing more pics and videos.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Great looking tank, and great footprint. I'd love to do something like that in the future. I also think you should use the MH, but you may have to worry about algae problems....


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## rickwaines (Jan 2, 2011)

georgeous. Can't wait to build mine. I have been thinking of a similar concept. So nice to see it so well realized.


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## deepRED (May 22, 2010)

Thanks for all the comments everyone. This tank was really a good find. The footprint allows for a ton of options in terms of aquascaping, and gives the discus a lot of room to shoal in the open areas. I was about to get a custom tank build and just happened to find this from a local seller. 

It was actually much harder to scape than I expected, due to the size. With almost a 4 foot cube, it was difficult to get the proper flow of the layout I wanted because of the scale; it took quite a bit of tinkering even though it's a really simple design. 

Once I get the spot light effect and get a few simple plants in there it should improve the look a lot. The important thing right now is that the fish love it. I haven't seen the discus so aggressive to feed before, and the colors have lightened up on a few that were a bit dark in my other tank, both of which tells me they are comfortable in their environment. 

I agree that the halide can cause algae problems; I ran this exact same light on a 3x3 cube, and it worked very well. The difference with my old tank was it was heavily planted with co2 injection and automated dosing. This tank isn't going to be filled with plants, so that's why I haven't fully decided on the lighting yet. I might bite the bullet and just get an led light tile which would be ideal, they're just so bloody expensive right now. I guess I'll worry about it once I have the plants in place. Just trying to make use of the equipment I have laying around. 
I'll try to keep some weekly updates going with this, I have a feeling it will evolve quite a bit over time. I was super close to actually making this a reef tank, but the cost of stocking it scared me away for now.


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## rickwaines (Jan 2, 2011)

do you have any pictures of the filter chamber you might be able to share?


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## deepRED (May 22, 2010)

rickwaines said:


> do you have any pictures of the filter chamber you might be able to share?


I'll take some pictures of it when get I a chance. There's really not much to it at all. Basically the pump sits in the bottom of the overflow, and is split to feed both output nozzles. I have a union connecting the output plumbing and the pump so I can remove the pump easily for servicing/cleaning. 
The media is placed nylon bags so I can pull them out to clean when needed. It's as simple as can be. 
I was considering a drip plate for it, but I decided to go fully submersed media in order to cut down on noise from the overflow. The very top of the filter does have a piece of matala mat and filter floss for polishing though.


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## m_class2g (Apr 21, 2010)

awesome tank!!! how many do you have at home!? you must spend a lot of time doing maintenance per week!


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## deepRED (May 22, 2010)

m_class2g said:


> awesome tank!!! how many do you have at home!? you must spend a lot of time doing maintenance per week!


Thanks Mike. Found this thing on canreef. Can't believe that no one picked it up, it was posted for almost 2 months I think. Had a bunch of east coasters drooling, but luckily for me no one here on the west coast was in the market for a tank of this dimension. I hadn't checked the classifieds over there in a few months, so it really was just timing and good luck.

Believe it or not, I'm down to 3 tanks now. All freshwater. At the height of things I was running 14 tanks, over 2000 gallons, both fresh and salt.

I'm looking to set up a small salt seagrass bed in the next little while, but I've shut down all my reef tanks. It's not like it was a TON more work, but with mixing salt for water changes, and the salt creep of a big tank, I just decided to go simple and just have a few large freshwater tanks.
Who knows, the in wall tank would actually make a really sweet saltwater fowler tank. You know me, I like to change things up when I get bored.


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## deepRED (May 22, 2010)

Well, it's been about 6 months since I've updated my thread. The tank has settled in very nicely. 
I've changed the lighting to a single aquaray LED light panel. Creates an awesome shimmer effect and leaves some good shaded areas in the corners if the discus need some respite.

Speaking of fish, I sold a bunch of my discus and got a bunch more. Basically a mixed bag right now, because I can't decide what I like more. 
I want to pick a color and go with it, but for those who know me, my tanks are never idle and I like to change things up and keep it interesting.

The discus have really felt at home with this footprint, being tall and deep. They mostly will hover in the open area up front, always begging for food. I'm feeding a rotation of tetra bits, spirulina flake, hikari gold sinking, frozen mysis and fbw as a treat.

Anyways, here are some updated pics: (excuse the potted plants, haven't had time to unravel and tie them down yet. )


































Here's a picture of the filtration for this tank. It's packed with bio media, I've been growing some pothos out the back and it's really helped with nutrient uptake. 
I'm doing water changes every 5 days on this tank, 50% each time. With the water volume at over 200 gallons, it gives me a little more leeway if I miss it by a day or two. 
The media is in bags, so every couple of weeks I'll pull everything out and give the chamber a good vacuum.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

I really like the look of the Aquaray tile in this setup. Gives me a lot of ideas for how it'll work in mine, which is significantly smaller. Are you using a power controller to dim and brighten the lights?


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## m_class2g (Apr 21, 2010)

Awesome tank, stock and scape!!!


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## tony1928 (Apr 22, 2010)

Spectacular dude! I'm just like you as I can't decide which discus I want. I only have 24 in my tank right now. Always on the lookout for more! I love the shaft of light that the aquaray tile casts in the centre of the tank.


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## jay_leask (Apr 22, 2010)

im really liking the looks of all these cube tanks. Hmmmmm


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## discuspaul (Jul 2, 2010)

Suberb-looking discus set-up with the new lighting, Jeremy ! You've done a fantastic job.
If you were to post your pics on simplydiscus forum, you'd have a lot of people drooling & envious. It's a hell of a lot better-looking discus tank than I've seen on there for a long while.


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## ACC (Mar 18, 2012)

Is that arbutus you have in there? It looks great.


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## Flygirl (Jul 23, 2011)

Great looking tank. Really like the feel of it with the dark balancing out the lighted areas, adds an air of mystique to it. The colours of the discus also complement the simplicity of the scape. Nice job!!!


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## JohnnyAppleSnail (May 30, 2010)

Very nice setup and Fish.


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## beN (Apr 21, 2010)

lookn good bro! sometimes discus temp me, in this case it did. but I still cant go that way lol..


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## vicdiscus (Mar 19, 2012)

Your Cube tank is looking very nice !!!

Thank you for sharing.


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## deepRED (May 22, 2010)

Thanks for all the kind comments. The tank has been a work in progress, and it's been one of my favourites in recent memory.



2wheelsx2 said:


> I really like the look of the Aquaray tile in this setup. Gives me a lot of ideas for how it'll work in mine, which is significantly smaller. Are you using a power controller to dim and brighten the lights?


I'm not currently using a controller, though I do have one. Just a matter of setting it up, but I've been too busy to just get it up and going. I'll be adding some moonlights to this tank soon as well. Will definitely help me actually see my plecos, as they basically hide in the rocks all day. ( I have a watermelon, green phantom, titanic, three beacon, blue panaque all hidden away in here.)



discuspaul said:


> Suberb-looking discus set-up with the new lighting, Jeremy ! You've done a fantastic job.
> If you were to post your pics on simplydiscus forum, you'd have a lot of people drooling & envious. It's a hell of a lot better-looking discus tank than I've seen on there for a long while.


Thanks for the kind words. I don't really go on the simple forum that often as I already waste enough time here as it is. There are definitely some nice tanks on there, but I feel there are too many self proclaimed "experts" that will rip my setup as not being ideal enough. Don't have the time for that sort of thing, just want to enjoy my hobby. 



ACC said:


> Is that arbutus you have in there? It looks great.


Yes, it's manzanita wood.


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## IceBlue (Mar 17, 2011)

Beautiful set up. I think the simple flat river rock is way under appreciated except when it's put together by someone like yourself who shows it's simple beauty. (is that repetative?) I have one question though, are your fish skittish when you come into the room in the dark, just concerned they may scratch an eye on one of the sharp parts of the wood. I have an Albino Tiawan Reef that may lose his eye from just that type of accident.


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## deepRED (May 22, 2010)

IceBlue said:


> Beautiful set up. I think the simple flat river rock is way under appreciated except when it's put together by someone like yourself who shows it's simple beauty. (is that repetative?) I have one question though, are your fish skittish when you come into the room in the dark, just concerned they may scratch an eye on one of the sharp parts of the wood. I have an Albino Tiawan Reef that may lose his eye from just that type of accident.


The fish are quite comfortable so they're not really jumpy at all. When I come home from work as soon as they see me from across the room they rush to the front of the tank waiting to be fed.
Even in the morning, when the light is still off they will swim to the front as soon as they sense someone there.

I guess it is always a possibility if they are startled, but it hasn't been an issue to this point.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

My fish sometimes get startled, but in a wider tank, it's actually more a danger of them hitting themselves silly on the glass, since they can build up more momentum. I've only had very minor scratches on the manzy branches in my tank, but I almost lost a Heckel due to it knocking itself silly against the glass during a big water change.


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## deepRED (May 22, 2010)

2wheelsx2 said:


> My fish sometimes get startled, but in a wider tank, it's actually more a danger of them hitting themselves silly on the glass, since they can build up more momentum. I've only had very minor scratches on the manzy branches in my tank, but I almost lost a Heckel due to it knocking itself silly against the glass during a big water change.


Yeah, I'm generally pretty careful around the tank, it's more of when I have people over and they decide that it's somehow fun to try to scare the fish.
My geos get startled really easily, and the worst were my peacock bass. They would get so much speed ( in an 8 foot tank) and just smash themselves into the glass if they got spooked. Pretty scary actually. And then of course my large aros trying to knock the lid off the tank when spooked. I had to weight the acrylic tops down with weights for my 20+" fish. It's amazing how powerful they are and how much momentum they can build in such a relatively short distance/space.


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## shaobo (Apr 21, 2010)

Hey J, this tank and your other tanks all looks amazing to look at in person~~  Thanks for sharing those nice Gold Rams and letting us visit last night!


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## deepRED (May 22, 2010)

No worries, come on by anytime!


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## PlantedAquariums (Mar 24, 2012)

Great Job.


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## deepRED (May 22, 2010)

It's been just over a year since my last update on this tank. The stock has changed somewhat and so has the 'scaping. I pulled out most of the river rock as I was finding it hard to get adequate flow in order to keep the detritus from building up and collecting underneath. As all you discus people know, they really don't like the excess "munge" sitting around in the tank. Even though the tank looked spotless, it was amazing how much crap collected under the rocks when I pulled them out.

I've replaced the wood with some of the roots from IPU, it's a different, busier look, but still fairly simple. Knowing me, I'll get bored of it and change it around again in a few months anyways. 

This batch of fish are growing out fast and are being fed 5 times a day. Water changes are still once every 5 days, 50%. Keep in mind this is a 200+ gallon tank, so a lot of water.

Eventually, I will probably reduce the stock down to about 8 XL discus and call it a day. Honestly, I'm a bit tired of the constant work and feeding growing little guys out. Once the right group comes along I'll probably make the switch. Would like to be able to drop the temp a bit and then put in a few hundred cardinals as well.

Here are some updated pics:


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## monkE (Aug 4, 2010)

this is such a beautiful tank! great job man, those discus look very happy in there!


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## Pleco-Nation2013 (Apr 19, 2013)

Great looking tank....  
I also bought the big peace of root from IPU, I have been soaking it for over a week and still floats.. My question is how long did u soak yours or did u weight it down??
Thanks Terrance..


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## deepRED (May 22, 2010)

Took about two weeks to sink. It's still leaching a bit of tannins though and I think will continue to for a little while. 
The last time I got this wood I soaked it in a separate bucket for the two weeks. 
This time I just plopped it in the tank and let it float till it sank.



Pleco-Nation2013 said:


> Great looking tank....
> I also bought the big peace of root from IPU, I have been soaking it for over a week and still floats.. My question is how long did u soak yours or did u weight it down??
> Thanks Terrance..


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## shift (Dec 21, 2012)

Beautiful tank, deepRED


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## Pleco-Nation2013 (Apr 19, 2013)

thank U I have it in a big tub weighted down with rocks yes still leaching a lot LOL maybe by next week will be done.. once again thanks...


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## deepRED (May 22, 2010)

I went to Charles place to pick up some flake food and to make a long story short, I scooped up the last half dozen of these beautiful Tefes.

Here are some pics of the fish 5 minutes after being plopped in to their new home:


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## shift (Dec 21, 2012)

Beautiful tank and photos! nicely done deepRED


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Those are some nice discus. Glad you scooped them up before I couldn't stand it anymore and picked them up. After I saw them I kept thinking about how they would look in my tank.


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## discuspaul (Jul 2, 2010)

Way to go, J - Charles' Tefes are beautiful, aren't they ?
I was in the process of trying to move some of my domestics to make room for those Tefes - but you obviously got there first.
Hey, 'if you snooze, you lose', as they say.


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## deepRED (May 22, 2010)

Yeah, when I saw them I knew I was in trouble. I'm down to a total of 9 discus in this tank now. I kept a few of my old stock but re-homed the rest. This was the long-term plan for this tank after growing out some of my little guys, but I'm not patient enough and the setup isn't really well suited for growing out quickly, too large of a tank and too much "décor" to really keep it super low in organics. I found it was just too much work and I don't have the space for a grow out tank. I also wanted to drop the temp down a bit so I can keep more of a variety of fish. 

The plan is to plumb this tank with a 24/7 drip so I can stop doing water changes. I started an sps tank recently and it's taking more of my time these days.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Yeah, 24/7 drip is the way to go. Otherwise it's just a lot of work. With a drip you just have to clean up the bottom and you're good to go.


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## shift (Dec 21, 2012)

So I'm assuming a drip system would require an RO system to remove chlorine from tap water. Would you have to remineralize the water if you were to go this route?


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

You don't need RO to remove chlorine, just a carbon filter. But if the drip is slow enough, in a 200 gallon, in Metro Vancouver, one wouldn't even need to dechlorinate.


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## deepRED (May 22, 2010)

Yup, just planning on going with a carbon filter. I will probably look to do around 15 gallons of water per day to start and monitor the tds and adjust accordingly. 

It will definitely help reduce maintenance time. If only I could do this with my 300 gallon but the placement of the tank does not make this conducive or practical. 

It was suggested to me by Gklaw a while back when he was visiting, now I just need to find some time where we are both free so he can help me do the plumbing.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

The carbon filter is nice if it's easy to rig up, but honestly for 15 gallons a day in a 205 gallon I wouldn't bother. The only issue is if you decide to increase that to say 40 gallons a day, then you'd have to add dechlorinator, which would be a hassle.


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## deepRED (May 22, 2010)

Yeah, it's more for peace of mind than anything else. And it gives me the option of going higher flow rate if need be. I live very close to the Coquitlam water shed, and I've experienced some turbidity in the water in the past so it'd be really for "just in case". Currently my tds out the tap is at 8, so yeah, it's pretty clean.


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## gklaw (May 31, 2010)

deepRED said:


> I started an sps tank recently and it's taking more of my time these days.


Waite till you have a real baby


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

Nice looking wilds! Great to hear these guys are eating ferociously and giving you some good quality time together


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

gklaw said:


> Wait till you have a real baby


He'll have plenty of time then as he won't be able to go anywhere.


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## deepRED (May 22, 2010)

Well, just another quick update. The fish are doing well and have settled in nicely. Over the weekend, the discus got a new temporary housemate.

Picked up a Red Gold Hybrid Crossback Arowana from Dreamfish in Singapore.

Here are some pics of the new guy:







Discus have really settled in and colored up nicely as well:



Full tank shot:


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

Wow. The discus are amazing! I could watch your tank for hours. Thanks for sharing. If I ever setup another big tank Im getting discus. Ive always wanted them. Yours make me want them even more now.


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## charles (Apr 21, 2010)

Jeremy, the shine on that Asian arawana is excellent for a small fish. It is going to be a looker... The discus are looking nicer and nicer in your tank. I wish they show their true color in mine so I don't have to house them long  I still can't believe the last batch you got last that long in my housing tank. That batch by far was the nicest.


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## deepRED (May 22, 2010)

Thanks guys! Yeah, I'm pretty happy with the quality of the aro. I didn't know what to expect as there haven't been too many of the hybrids imported, so it was a bit of a crapshoot. 
There is strong gold coloration from a top down view on the head and it's already crossing over at such a small size. 

Another good thing, eating pellets second day in. Probably more happy with that then anything else, as these guys can be notoriously hard to change over to eating dried/pellet food. Proper grooming can be done when the fish is still young and with proper diet and clean water it can make all the difference. 

I've raised aros that would only eat kingworms and crickets, and although they get the bulky size (which I personally hate the look) they always look a bit drab to me in comparison to pellet trained fish. (The exception is obviously healthy live fish and frogs, which they feed at many of the farms).
They also seem to have more digestion issues and are more prone to hunger strikes when fed primarily on live insects. 
This is no hard and fast rule obviously, but just my observations over the years. 


Anyways, really interested to see how this guy turns out. Maybe I'll end up keeping this one.


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## dino (Aug 29, 2011)

your tank is really really really cool


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## deepRED (May 22, 2010)

Here's a link to a quick feeding video of the discus. The arowana makes a quick appearance as well as he likes to pick away at the black worms during feeding time.

Sorry for the grainy video as this was done with my phone...... enjoy


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## charles (Apr 21, 2010)

There are more wild discus in there. Did you pick up Danny's?

The arawana gives a false sense of how small it is or how big the discus are


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## deepRED (May 22, 2010)

They miraculously multiplied.... lol ;p

I heard these fish were from you as well, and I wanted to get a few more, so it worked out nicely.

Yeah, the aro is actually not that small, probably 6.5" tip to tail. The discus are just huge. 

Just to give you an idea, the lone golden I have in there is 4.5".



charles said:


> There are more wild discus in there. Did you pick up Danny's?
> 
> The arawana gives a false sense of how small it is or how big the discus are


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## louguhai (Jul 14, 2013)

I love those angel fish


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

Would love to see an update


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## deepRED (May 22, 2010)

Tank is empty now and discus moved on. Am in the process of getting the tank ready to sell due to some unforeseen changes.

Anyone interested in this tank shoot me a pm. Official sale thread will be posted soon.

I have some new discus in my 300 gallon that I'll post some pics of soon. Can't get rid of that tank as it's part of the wall. 

Sent from Petguide.com Free App


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

That's too bad. This was a beautiful setup.


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## mitchb (Apr 27, 2011)

Did you end up keeping the arowana or where did it go? Was it a red tail gold or a cross between gold and red like a tong yan arowana ?


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## deepRED (May 22, 2010)

I ended up moving him to the 300 gallon with the peacock bass. Was in there for a good few months and unfortunately jumped 
out of a really small opening that I accidentally left after feeding. Found him when I got home from work. Poor guy. 
That prompted me to sell all the fish in that tank and restart and the eventual shutdown of this tank. I've kept probably 20 aros in the past and it was my first loss. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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