Hello Newbi from Montville in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland

[vision325]

Hello,
My name is Steve and I live on the Sunshine Coast Qld.
When I was younger I kept mixed species fresh water aquariums but always had an attraction to discus but never attempted to keep them for one reason or another.
Any how I now feel the time is right to start so I have purchased a 240 litre aquarium (1mtr x400mm x 600mm high) and a 90 litre baffled sump.

I have the aquariums set up with out water at the moment as I am researching and building my knowledge base. Have purchased Andrew Soh's “Discus The Naked Truth” (In transit)and am reading all I can about water chemistry, food and and general discus husbandry.

I have decided to keep it simple to start with, with a BB tank with drift wood and discus only.
At this stage I am also leaning toward obtaining adult or sub adult fish as they seem to be more tolerant of misadventure by enthusiastic yet inexperienced aquarist.

What I am working on at the moment is how to maintain correct water levels in the aquarium and sump and how to circulate water between them. ( have no holes cut in aquarium but am considering it.).
Sump media.
Semi auto water changing.
Maintaining consistent water chemistry, mineral content. PH, etc.
I am on rain water held in a 10000 gallon 40 year old concrete tank with a PH of approx 6.2 . in the high rainfall area of Montville, Sunshine Coast Hinterland.
I will post specific questions as I am tackling them and appreciate the contributions to this forum that have already taught me so much.
Thanks steve
[http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/p619/vision325/aquarium010.jpg][/img]

[Discus Planetarium]

Welcome to the forum Steve there are a lot of good people on here with many years of keeping discus Andrews book are very good I have both if you need some help along the way just ask hope to see some photos soon of your tank and discus

[Hooked]

Gday Steve!

Welcome to the forum mate,

Cheers

[swifto]

Hi Steve,welcome to the forum.
Montville is a nice place been there many times,as I got family on the sunny coast. :lol:

[vision325]

Thanks for the welcome. Will post pics of my progress.
Montville is a nice place for sure, only been here a month though.
Cheers

[BobbyBruce]

Hi Steve,

Nice looking set-up but I think you are going to have some problems if it stays in the current position with some direct exposure to the sun.

How are you intending to plumb the sump/tank combination?

Looking forward to more pics.

Regards,

Bob

[vision325]

Hi Bob,
The tank wont have direct sun light but it will have exposure to natural light,
can shield the tank if necessary. I live in the forest so no curtains on that window as is under veranda.
I am contemplating drilling two holes into the main tank, one as an overflow to maintain tank level leading to a float valve into the sump, the other a bit higher as an emergency overflow also leading to the sump but open ended. Am just reviewing fail safe modes in the event of power failure or piping failure, interesting exercise. :x .
I will post pics as I go along and am open to advice on this project.

[BobbyBruce]

Lookiing forward to seeing how it all works.

I spoke to my local dealer about setting a sump system when I got my 6" tank around 18 months ago. He couldn't guarantee that he could drill the holes in a pre-made tank without creating more holes than intended. I decided to stick with the external canister filter option.

I would like to set up a sump system at some stage in the future though, hence the interest.

Regards,

Bob

[Old Dave]

Welcome to the forum Steve.

Rule 1 for new tanks.
If you are going to have a Bare Bottom tank work out what colour base you want (white foam leaves room for improvement) and do it BEFORE you put in the water :oops:

You might consider another layer of foam while you are at it, could be a bit thin when you put 200+ kg of water on it. jmo, hth

:D Dave :D