Well the tank is springing back nicely. And my persistent algae problems are massively diminished. So while some of the leaves of plants have algae on them that they acquired several weeks ago, no new leaves have algae. And that is a nice change.

The Hygrophilia corymbosa is slowly filling in and getting bushier. I initially let it grow too tall before I trimmed it. Now I’m topping it off every week so that it will fill in better. The Hygrophila difformis snapping back. And my Cryptocoryne wendtii and Echinodorus ‘Rubin’ are both totally algae free! Only the Echinodorus bleheri - the sword plant - has any algae. But that plant is off the the side and not getting enough light, and it appears to be underfertilized too. I’ll have to look into that…

I’ve put in an Eheim autofeeder to make sure the new red 3R2’s are getting enough food, often enough. The upshot is that ALL the fish are getting more food. I can see them all fattening up, and getting larger. Good for them I suppose.

The overall tank is still unbalanced visually, and improving the aquascape will be the focus of my efforts this year, now that I’ve got this algae licked. Well, I say “licked”… the GDA on the glass is still there. But it is quite manageable - requiring one 15 minute session of glass cleaning every week. And that persistent algae on the sand has stayed away for a few weeks, thank goodness. So it’s all controllable.

The new red 3R2s are still hiding. Three of the five barely ever come out. If anyone is in the room at all, the skittish three hide. So I have no idea of they are coming out to eat. I hope so. I’m just hoping that they will get over this with time.

I made a number of important changes to the tank to get ahead of this aglae. I know you can only change one variable at a time if you want any idea of what does/does not work. But I was desparate to control my algae problem and changed multiple variables. Problem is, I just don’t know which one was responsible for the change, or what combination:

1. Started using a “siesta”, or 90 minutes in the middle of the day with no lights.
2. Reduced the photoperiod to seven (7) hours total time of lights on.
3. Eliminated macro dosing, except potassium.
4. Reduced potassium dosing way back to one tenth of its normal volume.
5. Reduced micro dosing back to one tenth of its normal volume.
6. Reduced CO2 back to around 15 ppm.

A lot of people will tell me some of those things are real “no-no”s. But it’s working, and it’s hard to argue with success. Over time I’ll pick up the CO2 dosing. And I’m sure I’ll be forece to tweak the macro/micro dosing. But for now, I’m happy to have the tank healthy.

Wow. Been a while since I last posted. Sorry.

Things in the tank have been going fairly well, all but the recent CO2 goof up I posted about. And the fact that I massively over-trimmed the plant AND simultaneously did a filter media change. So the tank has been recovering from that. But the operative word is recovering. But the big news is - NEW FISH! I love new fish!

In the first pic you can see two little 3″ (well almost 3″) reddish discus in the background. They are “3R2″s from Wayne Ng, a breeder/importer. My wife was jonesing for some red fish, and these were the best I could do. I got a total of five, and they are expensive little buggers.

I’ve actually had them for seven weeks. The first six were spent in quarantine. They were maybe 1/2″ smaller when I got them. They were healthy as can be. So after 6+ weeks I dumped them in the tank. But before I did that, I took my runt Cobalt out and put him in the quarantine - to see if it had any pathogens they couldn’t deal with, and visa versa. You can see the “runt” in the pic below behind one of the 3R2’s.

But to my dismay, I could not leave the runt in their tank. He is normally the most shy, skittish, beat-up upon fish in the tank. I guess that goes with being the runt. But once he got in with these little guys he decided he was BMOC, Hot Sh*t, Top Dog, and all that! He would NOT let my 3R2’s eat! As far as he was concerned, the food was HIS. Quantity did not matter.

So, knowing I was risking my whole tank - I dumped him back into it, so that the 3R2’s could get some food. About five days later i just tossed the 3R2’s in the main tank… since the cross-contamination test was effectively blown. I figured both populations looked healthy, so dump ‘em in and hope for the best.

As I stated up front, I got five new fish. But these pics only show two. Good reason… these fish are wicked skittish. Two of them will only come out when no one is around. One walks the line, but certainly will not come out for pictures. The two in the pics are pretty “up front”. But as I walked around with the camera they got nervous and retreated. That’s why they are in the background in the first pic. And from the difference you can see between the two pics, they darken up a lot when hiding near the plants.

Apparently 3R2’s are pretty skittish as a breeding line. But that said, my Cobalts hid in the plants for darn near a month when I first got them. So I think this is one of those “time will tell” sort of things.

My wife (and I - truth be told) wanted RED fish. Not orange. But orange is the color discus tend towards. If you see red discus - as far as I can tell - it’s either because they have been fed hormones, unnatural amounts of food supplements, or the tank light has been altered. Failing that, PhotoShop can always redden up your digital fish pics if needed.

I got these fish because I trusted the gentleman i bought them from - Al Sapetta - the owner of www.simplydiscus.com. Al’s a stand-up guy, and he knew my wife wanted red - and he knew of the natural orange tendencies of discus - and he recommended these fish. That is good enough for me.

I’m feeding them frozen blood worms, Tetra Color Bits (now renamed something like Color Granules) and a little bit of NaturalRose red color enhancer. So yes, I’m cheating. But not so much that it jeopardizes the health of the fish. Problem is, my other fish are eating it too! So if my blue Cobalts start looking purple, you’ll know why! LOL

More about the tank itself soon. But all is fairly well. But not perfect. Otherwise… why post?

PS - I forgot to mention! That darned runt is a runt BECAUSE he won’t eat Tetra Color Bits. All the other fish do - they got big, and he didn’t. Well, while bullying my 3R2’s he started eating the Color Bits, aparently just to spite them. WELL… since putting him back in the main tank he has participated heartily in the multiple Color Bit feedings and has grown VISIBLY in just one week. Sounds unbelievable, I know. But true.

Well, as you can see, things are returning to normal after all the aquarium and fish excitement I’ve had over the last few weeks. From the pic below you can see the the fish seem fairly normal after my nearly killing them with a CO2 overdose last week. Two of the high bodied leopard discus actually spawned a couple of days ago. And a couple of the cobalt discus are doing their serious tail shimmy - let’s get it on - dances right now. I take breeding as a sign of health and well being. So I’m happy for that.

The tank is going through some changes. My CO2 tank ran dry, just as I was messing with the pH probe, and I shut off the lights and fert injections for a few days until I could get a replacement CO2 cylinder. So I’m leaving the ferts off for a little while, just to see how the tank (and algae) reacts.

In order to fight the algae problem, I’ve raised my lights by three inches, reduced my temperature to 82 (though lights and pumps still raise it a few degrees during the day), have reduced my total photo period to seven hours, and spit it up with a 90 minute siesta. So that’s three and a half hours light, hour and a half dark, and another three and a half hours light.

Lots of people will tell you that a siesta is bunk. It may be. But I also know my most algae free tanks has siesta. Coincidence? I wouldn’t know. But I know it won’t hurt.

The plants are growning back after my bone-headded huge trim. But with the ferts and lights dialed back, they are taking their time about it. But that’s OK. The algae’s kind of chilling too. And that’s the goal.

A couple of weeks ago I posted saying I wasn’t going to trim my plants. Big mistake.

The hygro was growing out of the top, and was long overdue for a trim. Unfortunately I let it get too tall - too leggy. So when I cut it last week, I cut it way back. But the leaves that were exposed by that process were too old. When they were exposed to the direct light this week GSA set up on them badly.

That was made worse by the fact that I spent weeks without cleaning the GDA off the sides and let it get too bad. I had it where I could do a quick scrape every few days and the tank was fine. But by waiting weeks it got thick, and when I cleaned it it went all over the tank. Including those old leaves on the hygro. And it hit the wysteria pretty hard too. And because I let it get so out of hand before I cleaned it, it was unusually thick on the tank walls by the end of the week.

All this might have been avoided if I hadn’t neglected regular maintenance.

But I replaced the filter media on one of my OceanClears. Big mistake after a huge trim. The trim removes biomass, and the filter change took out half of my bio-filtration too, Stupid. But I did it. I wonder how long I have to be in this hobby before I stop making newbie mistakes?

So I ripped all the stems out, and the hygro, and cut it way, way back. And I removed the Ludwigia repens too. I hated to do that - I love that plant. But it’s getting warm in the summer weather - 85 degrees in the tank every afternoon - and it is just not dealing with the heat. All its old growth is algae covered, so it’s better out of the tank.

What went back in the tank was only 1/3 the plant mass of what came out. Now my tank has precious little biomass. That’s potential trouble. So I’m anxious to see what this week is going to bring.

Live and learn I guess.

Well, the Green Dust Algae got pretty nasty. I hadn’t touched the tank in weeks, and it looked like it, so I broke down Friday nite and cleaned it. There was so much GDA that after scraping it off gave the water a strong green tint. So I did an 80% water change too, just to get most of it out. And I’m still having trouble with some kind of green algae growing on the sand. So I gravel vacuumed up the top 1/2″ or so, Chloroxed it, and put it back.

I’ll have to go back and check my records I think it had been three weeks since I touched the tank. And doing so created a maintenance effort that was probably 3 hours in total. A good bit of work I’m afraid. Or, I suppose you could say 1 hour a week for 180 gallon aquarium isn’t too bad. Especially with plants and discus.

I obviously trimmed the plants while I was at it. It felt like a pound or two of trimmings were pulled out. Tank looks better now though.

These photos really look aweful. The depth of field - or rather lack thereof - makes the tank look flat. I need to get a better camera, because I can tell you these boring, unidimensional pictures, just don’t show what the tank looks like in real life… where you can see the layers of depth. It also makes the fish look like they’ve got no room, when in actual fact they’ve to all kinds of room. So one day, a new camera. But for now, here’s a few pics of my fish.

I’ve got two types of discus, Cobalts and High-bodied Leopards. Both sets purchased from Dan at Gulf Coast Discus. If you look hard, or click on on of the pics to pull up a larger shot, you can see that one of the Leopard’s tails is a bit raggedy. I’ve got two fish that get beat up by the other fish. The ragged tailed Leopard, and my runt Cobalt. I’m not sure the runt can be seen in these pics - he’s hanging to the background where it is safe.

Anyway, here’s some pics.

I’m tired of cleaning green dust algae. Tired of trimming plants. So I’m taking a break from maintenance this week.

Usually I’ll clean the tank on a Friday evening if we don’t go out. Or Saturday afternoon/evening if we do. But last night we didn’t go out, and I was tired. Didn’t feel like farting around with the tank. And this afternoon we are going to the SimplyDiscus.Com 2008 Northeast Meeting and Cookout. So it won’t get cleaned then. I’m sure that tomorrow I’ll feel compelled to clean. But I’m not doing it on schedule.

Actually it didn’t get cleaned last week either. So the plants have been at least two weeks without a trim. So some old leaves are getting algae - that’s natural. Others are rotting. Natural too. But that’s why regular maintenance is required.

And the green dust algae (GDA) is getting bad in some places. Here’s a pic. Not very good, and clicking brings up a larger one. In this you can see that the GDA really does need attention. And the crypts need old leaves trimmed off.

I chose this pic because it reminded me of something disconcerting this week…

Earlier this week I came in to feed the fish one morning, and there was a bunch of foam on the surface of the tank, up against the tank wall. Uh oh. Looks like protein film. Hmmmm. I wonder what died?

All the discus were there. But a couple of days ago I noticed that one or two of my cockatoo dwarf cichlids seem to be missing. I had four males and two females. This pic is a typical feeding shot. When I drop in frozen blood worms everybody comes out of the bushes in a hurry! Dwarf ciclids, corys, biota striata (zebra loaches), and ghost shrimp. They all love bloodworms. But now, no more than two or three male cockatoo dwarfs. At least one is gone. If I can get them to hold still long enough maybe I can count.

I’m not really up on these fish… I suppose one or two could be guarding a brood. I’ve got breeding caves hidden in the plants. I wouldn’t know. I just hate to think that one or two died. They were young, and apparently healthy. I quarantined them for almost six weeks, and hit them with all sorts of prophylactic meds. If that didn’t kill them, I’m concerned that tank conditions would.

But it has been hot this week. The tank temps have been climbing as high as 85-86 degrees F every afternoon. Maybe it’s time to turn on the air conditioners and bring the ambient temperature in the room down a bit. It’s definitely killing my Ludwigia repens. Could be giving my poor cockatoo dwarf cichlids a hard time too.

And speaking of hard times… my favorite plant forum plantedtank.net has been down for two days. And I notice that aquaticplantcentral.com is down for repairs. I wonder that there has been another attack on aquatic plant sites? Hope not. And I hope that whoever it is that does that discovers in a nasty way that there is karma in the universe, and that what goes around comes around. But mostly I hope everything is ok.

Well! The tank survived a year! No mishaps. No floods. No tank killing algae. Cool!

I would have posted sooner, but we have had house guests, and tank things had to wait.

Hardware

I had some work to do before I made it to the 1 year mark. I wanted to finish all my under the stand stuff. So I bolted down my second Ocean Clear filter that had been loose before. And I did a thing I had really been dreading… moving my water depth sensor.

I haven’t posted the technical details of my setup yet, but suffice to say I have an auto water change rig that does not require any floats or sensors in the tank. It detects a “full” condition with a water pressure switch in the stand that gets water through a bulkhead hole in the bottom of the tank. And so that little critters don’t crawl down the hole, in the tank it’s covered with a somewhat unsightly filter sponge. If you have noticed the patch of crypts to the front left of my tank, it’s there to hide the sponge.

Well I wanted to create an open area to the left of the tank, and that meant that I had to push those crypts further back and to the right a bit. But that exposed the sponge, so I had to unscrew it from the bulkhead, cap off the bulkhead, and screw it into a different, better hidden bulkhead. That’s a real PITA with a tank full of water and three inches of sand in the bottom of the tank. And none of that describes all the hardware I had to move under the tank. Anyway, maybe you can see why I procrastinated.

I’ve got a few additional changes to make, with the hardware waiting in the wings. But I don’t need any of it yet, so I figured there’s no harm in crossing the 1 year threshold without doing that too.

Now that the tank has been up a year, there are a number of long-term maintenance things to start doing. Like changing the carbon filters that strip the chlorine out of the water as I add it each night. And changing the UV filter light. And - though I don’t like the cost - the HQI hologen bulbs need to be changed. Drat! This is going to add up.

Fauna

Been a lot of changes this year in fish. My school of Green Neons (P. simulans) has lost a few fish. It’s getting pretty small now - no more that 30 I’d guess. And I recently added six juvenile cockatoo dwarf cichlids that are doing quite well. And my small school of Otocinculus catfish has gotten smaller. I think I’m down to less than 10. But that’s OK, they can be tough on discus sometimes.

But my shrimp are doing great. I’ve still got quite a few Amano’s. I’m guessing 25 or 30. They are hard to count in a planted tank. And I’ve got no idea how many of the orginal 100 ghost shrimp purchased for this tank are still around. But it’s a bunch. Every week I find a new one or two on the floor in front of the tank - or so it seems. But at that rate they should be almost all gone. But they aren’t and I don’t think they are breeding because I never see any juveniles. Either way, I’m glad they are still around because they are great at eating excess discus food.

And as for the discus, they are fine. Or at least I assume that since they are still breeding like rabbits. I have at least two pairs breeding every couple of weeks. Maybe three pairs. I have to admit I don’t pay much attention since all the eggs are toast in a tank full of neons, dwarf cichlids and shrimp. But knowing that they are breeding is my way of knowing they are reasonably healthy and stress free.

Flora

I’m going into the second year for this tank with something that I’m not really happy to call an aquascape. IMO it’s a little lousy looking - closer to what I refer to as JABOP, or Just A Bunch Of Plants. But I’m still working through the set of plants that will tolerate my ultra soft water and the warm water temps that discus need. And having somewhat low maintenance plants is also an important criteria they must all pass.

So another real aquascape is coming. But not yet. Crossing the 1 year mark I ripped out a lot, trimmed a lot, and moved a lot of plants around. So I’m letting things settle a month or so before I go messing with stuff. And just to manage expectations… my aquascapes are not set up to look good in pictures. They are set up to look good in person. For instance, the open area on the left is that way to attract and hold fish. The tanks right side is in a corner of the room. So that keeps fish closer to where the people watching them are. But it does not always make for the best looking aquascape in photos I’m afraid. Sorry.

Conclusion

It’s been a pretty good 1st year for the tank. Algae pretty much under control, even if it did take too long. Fish are fine, plants healthy, and that tank hardware pretty much installed and complete.

This next year I’m going to have to redouble my efforts to get this to a nice looking aquascape. I like a challenge, and that will certainly be one.

Well, here’s a pic of my current tank. I give all my tanks names, and this one is “Kahuna’s Revenge”. It seems that my bigger tanks have all met with untimely ends. The first I called Big Clear Kahuna (I’ll post more on that later). It was followed - in true Hollywood “B” movie tradition - by “Son of Kahuna”. After that take tank bit the big one in very dramatic fashion, I had to have another. And this is it… “Kahuna’s Revenge”.

It’s a 180 gallon planted community discus tank. It’s a lot easier to have a a big, heavily planted tank with a few tetras swimming in it. But discus look much more dramatic, and it’s a bit more challenging to do successfully. So being the masochist that I am, once I started planted tanks I was drawn to discus like a moth to light. And in true moth fashion, I’ve been burned. But at the moment the tank looks OK. Not great. But OK.

I say that because the the aquascaping technique is a bit lame at the moment. I’ve got some plants growing out and are left in bad positions temporarily. And a few plants need to be removed once others grow in. But it’s pretty healthy.

I set this tank up about 11 months ago, and I been vigorously battling algae for about 10 months, 2 weeks, and 4 days. In other words, the algae has not been gone long. More about that later. But it does seem to be on the retreat now. But it was a wicked, hard time getting here. Now I just need to let a little time pass so I can grow out the plants and rearrange to a better aquascape.

This is my first real post to my Journal. So take note of how the tank looks today. It’ll change. And if the past is any indicator, all the changes will not be for the better. But relatively speaking, it’s a good day for a 1st post. Some browsers will let you click on the picture for a larger (and much more attractive IMO) pic. If you can get to the larger pic, you can see one of the discus guarding its eggs on a leaf in the back right corner. Spawning is my “canary in the coal mine”. If they are spawning, I assume they are happy.

More later!