# My Discus Tank



## Dan Crawford (19 Dec 2012)

Hey folks, it's been a while since i've had much to show you, mainly because i've been busy racing and working. Well this time of year I do very little of either so I set to work getting my "in the wall" discus tank sorted.

I built a stand out of 2" x 2" timber in January this year to hold a 4' x 2' x 2'. The tank came from ND aquatics for a bargain £210. I decided that I wanted an overflow so I followed an old tutorial in PFK, strapped on a pair and get the drill out. It went as perfect as I could have wished. It was a 40mm hole in the top left of the tank.

Next was to put the tank in position, get it level and then figure out where the waste water was going to go. So, with the intention of running a length of hose though the wall and along the back of the kitchen I get the drill out again. After a lot of effing and jeffing and A LOT of whole in walls and kitchen cabinets I had finally fixed the overflow pipe to the drainage for my washing machine.

So the plan is to have RO running into the tank 24/7 and so far it's working well. I ran a 25m RO hose from the waste outlet on the RO unit through the same rout as the overflow hose, through the downstairs bathroom, under the decking and into the KOI pond, everybody's happy 

I then ran the tank whilst the race season got under way. It ran fine with the exception of the occasional flood which is pretty standard at my house. I had a leaky o-ring on an FX5, I was using a G6 and the FX5 but after the two floods the FX5 got relegated to back garden and replaced with another G6.

So, with the tank running fine and Christmas looming I had to pull my finger out as the tank looked a little rough just jammed under the stairs and i'm hosting Christmas dinner for the inlaws! After a lot of head scratching and very little momentum I gave in and called a carpenter. Within two evenings it was finished, the best £100 i've ever spent!

Here it is at Step 1




Step 2



Step 3



Step 4



Finished (iPhone Photo)



The Aquascape




The details:
Tank - 1220 x 610 x 610 ND Aquatics 10mm thickness
Filtration - 2 x Fluval G6
Lighting - 4 x TMC Aquaray 500s
Substrate - Unipac Silver Sand
Rocks - Unipac Giant Lava
Plants - Tropica XL Ferns on wood
Fish - Wild Discus from www.*discus*forthediscerning.com
Scalare Angels from George Farmer's PFK Feature earlier this year.
20 odd Rummynose Tetras and 3 re-homed Clown Loaches.

Here's a load of photos to really test the new forum's speed 











































I'll keep this updated as much as possible but there's very little to talk about most of the time.


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## Ian Holdich (19 Dec 2012)

Love this scape Dan and what a great idea placing the tank there! 

Theres a couple of nice vids of this tank flying around as well. 

Really nice mate!


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## LondonDragon (19 Dec 2012)

Great job on the tank, looks great under the staircase, what are the plans in terms of planting? keeping it simple with this one?

Guess you will have to throw another summer bbq so I can come up and see it in the flesh


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## Garuf (19 Dec 2012)

Real nice, Dan. What about some moss rocks in there? That'd be the icing on the cake of a perfect pseudo biotope tank!


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## Dan Crawford (19 Dec 2012)

LondonDragon said:


> what are the plans in terms of planting? keeping it simple with this one?


You got it mate, I don't do water changes, dry food is fed with an automatic feeder, the last thing I wanna do is get my hands wet LOL



LondonDragon said:


> Guess you will have to throw another summer bbq so I can come up and see it in the flesh


Yep, i'm thinking June 



Garuf said:


> Real nice, Dan. What about some moss rocks in there? That'd be the icing on the cake of a perfect pseudo biotope tank!


Nice one Garuf, I'll do that. It's proper warm in there but i'll see what takes. The area in the void above the tank and below the stairs is so moist i've started to get mold growing so i'm adding a bathroom extractor fan, it should still be damp enough to grow some terrestrial mosses etc though



Ian Holdich said:


> Love this scape Dan and what a great idea placing the tank there!


Thanks pal



Ian Holdich said:


> Theres a couple of nice vids of this tank flying around as well.


I presume you mean this one? This was it a while back, I love the black water......


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## Garuf (19 Dec 2012)

I understand weeping is the most forgiving of higher temperatures, christmas too but a touch less so. 

Get yourself some condensation trays!


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## Dan Crawford (19 Dec 2012)

Garuf said:


> Get yourself some condensation trays!


Good call, i'm so used to open top tanks it didn't even cross my mind!!!


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## Garuf (19 Dec 2012)

Jesus, Dan! Senior moment?  

It's worth mentioning a dehumidifier will work better than a fan typically especially in very enclosed areas like this.


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## Dan Crawford (19 Dec 2012)

Garuf said:


> Jesus, Dan! Senior moment?


Turned 30 last week, obviously going down hill already!


Garuf said:


> It's worth mentioning a dehumidifier will work better than a fan typically especially in very enclosed areas like this.


Agreed, as you can see my tank is by the kitchen, i'm just going to fit the fan to extract the air out of the void and straight into the kitchen, i'm sure the kitchen can cope with the extra moisture.


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## Garuf (19 Dec 2012)

Ooo the big 30, congrats. 

Assuming there's a vent going to outside and it doesn't cause any issues in that room with condensation then I'd think that'd be fine. Good luck.


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## Iain Sutherland (19 Dec 2012)

That's just awesome, sometimes less really is more. The fish are beautiful Dan.


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## nayr88 (19 Dec 2012)

Congrats 

This is easily one of my favourite fishy tanks! Easy peasy


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## Gary Nelson (19 Dec 2012)

It looks really nice that Dan... A great feature for the home! The scape looks very natural too and the fish, wow! Discus are always my favourite fish of all time, but they look stunning mate - really well done


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## Ravenswing (19 Dec 2012)

Dan...Im nearly speechless... You see, I have always thought that planted tanks cant be beautiful with big stones. You showed that I was wrong! So inspiring since I love stones (as well as wood)!!! Man, great work, thats all I can say! Awsome!


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## tim (19 Dec 2012)

excellent set up those discus are beautiful good job making such dominant hardscape look subtle against those stunning fish


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## viktorlantos (19 Dec 2012)

Like collector!  

Love this tank. The unipac decor works really well with it. Wild Discus is something what i need to try also sometime. They looks amazing in your tank.
Congratulation Dan to the lovely setup


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## Garuf (19 Dec 2012)

Out of curiosity, how come discus are kept at 28c+ when it's my understanding in the wild they're normally found at around 23-25c according to Heiko?


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## Antipofish (19 Dec 2012)

Hey Dan, this is a fantastic tank.  There is something really special about the wild caught discus.  I do like some of the domestic strains but the WC look "real" if you get my meaning.  

You wrote "So the plan is to have RO running into the tank 24/7 and so far it's working well".... not on a water meter then huh ?  LOL

The unipac rocks... are they hollow ?


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## krazypara3165 (19 Dec 2012)

beautiful tank! its giving me ideas........


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## nayr88 (20 Dec 2012)

What rocks are they??


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## Dan Crawford (20 Dec 2012)

Thanks for the kind words folks 


Antipofish said:


> The unipac rocks... are they hollow ?


No Mate they are just massive bits of black Lava, if you look closely in the top left there is an artificial rock siliconed to the braces, this is "Okiishi Rock" used here,
Search Results : Aqua Essentials







It's good stuff, it's currently hiding my overflow. My intention is to add more around the top but it's tough now that it's full of water LOL


nayr88 said:


> What rocks are they??


It's Black Lava from Unipac, your local MA or World of Water can generally order it for you 



Garuf said:


> Out of curiosity, how come discus are kept at 28c+ when it's my understanding in the wild they're normally found at around 23-25c according to Heiko?


I don't know buddy but they definitely get grumpy if it drops below 26.


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## Nathaniel Whiteside (20 Dec 2012)

This tank looks amazing Dan, loving the hardscape to plant ratio. Its a nice change.

Great stock too


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## nayr88 (20 Dec 2012)

Thanks for that Dan


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## LondonDragon (6 Mar 2014)

Update time Dan!!


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## Robert H. Tavera (7 Mar 2014)

your tank looks so peaceful and relaxing !! beautiful wild fish... transgenic discus could be beautiful but the wild ones are just stunning !!


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## Lee Sweeting (8 Mar 2014)

Very nice dan. Those fish are beautiful. Looking forward to an update 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Deano3 (8 Mar 2014)

beautiful tank love the position and the rockwork and nice pics showing how it was achieved

Dean


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## Dan Crawford (10 Mar 2014)

hey guys, this particular tank was broken down to make way for a proper planted tank whilst I had the time as it's out of race season. Here's the step-by-step video, I hope you enjoy it....


<iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/83846170" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><a href="">CO2 Free Discus Aquascape</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user9554537">Dan Crawford</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>


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## Ady34 (10 Mar 2014)

Awesome!


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## tim (10 Mar 2014)

Stunning scape and discus.


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## Aron_Dip (10 Mar 2014)

Jaw drop....ing


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## GlenFish (10 Mar 2014)

Very nice! Lovely lush plants with no co2!


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## GDM (24 Feb 2015)

Dan Crawford said:


> hey guys, this particular tank was broken down to make way for a proper planted tank whilst I had the time as it's out of race season. Here's the step-by-step video, I hope you enjoy it....
> 
> 
> <iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/83846170" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><a href="">CO2 Free Discus Aquascape</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user9554537">Dan Crawford</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>





Hi Dan,

Beautiful video. What were the tank dimensions here? 

Thanks
Garry


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