You all know I've been wanting for some time to have a nice sized tank for my Discus. I finally got the wife to agree to it if I broke down the 55g. Deal!

So I got one yesterday. I wouldn't have even thought of shopping for one of these, but it's cool.

Most 150g tanks are 6' long. This one is 48 x 31 x 24. Not quite a cube, but a big, fat rectangle. It really looks fantastic set up - even though it's by no means done yet.

It just so happened Haley & Chris were wanting to get rid of their 150 african tank at the same time I was looking for one - so good for both of us.

Beforehand, I got my decor ready & my silica sand rinsed. (Thanks mpp - good advice. $4 per 50 pound bag at Home Depot!) So I paid $12 for 150lbs of substrate.

Home-made driftwood thingy...


Here's what it looked like when it was delivered...


It seemed like it took forever to fill. About 1/5 of the water was from a discus tank waterchange to help the cycle out.

Also to help the cycle along, I used a lot of wood and probably 5 pounds of the dirty gravel from the Discus tank.

I placed the decor down, put down a nice thin layer of cycled gravel, and then added the silica sand. Very murky & cloudy...


With only a Magnum 350 running, the water showed notacible improvement by bed time...


But by morning...not too shabby! You can see all the plants, wood & rocks have pretty much just been dumped in at this point.


I then arranged things more or less how I want it (for now)...


I even buried a couple BN hideouts in the sand. One on each side of the tank...



Then I put on a coat of black paint...


And that's pretty much where I am now.

Before bed I added a very well seeded 125g sponge filter. This morning I did some water testing and everything looks good. All indications are pointing toward a quick re-cycling. So I put in 2 c. paleatus and 4 c. metae (which I usually spell wrong) who seem to be doing great. They're having a ball in the new space.

I'm going to monitor the ammonia & nitrites daily and when it looks stable, in go the Discus two at a time.

I'll post more new stuff as it happens.

I could not be more psyched.

Nice tank!

How did you paint it, it looks like it is against the wall when you filled it with water?

Very nice mate Remember though with sand, not to have it any deeper than 1". Also i am curious as well on how you painted the back of the tank

Yeah for the sand 1-1.5 inch only. The gases in the tank building up. Not such a good thing

With sand, there isn't as much water circulation within the substrate so you can develop dead areas underneath which can release some pretty bad chems (i.e. sulfur dioxide--rotten egg smell) as detritus decomposes anaerobically. The same thing happens with gravel if it is too deep, it's just that the too deep level is different for the two because of the size. With gravel though, one does have the option of using a under gravel filter. I'm not a big fan of them but that's just personal preference.
best regards
mike

If you regulary run your fingers through it while you're cleaning your tank, it should be ok. Some MTS would probably be beneficial too.
Hope my last note didn't sound too dire!
best regards
mike

Well, crap. Kinda late for me to learn about that, huh?. Any suggestions?

Yea change your sand layout as you can create problems with dead spots in the sand, mpp is right about if you smell bad eggs Just remember to rake the sand every now and again and it should not be a problem. Your L numbers will also sift through the top of the sand which will help a bit

Hey Gary! Let me know if you want some MTS! I have a crap load of them in my 30 gallon. I just sold around 300 of them, and I STILL have alot more that I can move out!

What about more aggressive gravel vac-ing in the deeper spots twice a week?

You'll find that gravel vacuuming will also remove sand very easily, particularly the silica sand. Gradually reducing it might just work very well.
regards
mike

Good luck with it!

Nice looking tank setup

Thanks Mike(s)

Thanks to the input from this post, I think I have a good plan for stirring/reducing it.

And I think they layout's looking good, too. Still has a bit of the new tank cloudies, but it's getting better hour by hour.

I've never seen my corys so energetic & happy. They're all over the place. Mpp's ABN are in there & all over the tank, too.

By the way mpp - When I get this cycled & get the discus in, I'd like 3 more.

Today (eight days in) I got my first Nitrate reading - although just a tiny one... 5ppm.

So looks like I made it through, huh?

Not one nitrite reading - and only a couple >.25 ammonias. Not shabby.