The behemoth tank

[Plantbrain]

Well, you could try talking to him again saying how such a awesome tank will look even better with the fauna you have in mind.

Yes, I try, but it's a slow process, recall when you first saw aquarium fish and wanted every which one?

Same type of thing here.........hopefully with time.
But they like the garrsh color, the mish mash of different species. What do you do?

It's not that bad in person, it really is not, it's much more a photo issue, it does not photograph well. Still, it would look really nice if that was not done, and smaller fish other than discus or fish with natural colors where chosen.

Still, Discus are often called King of the FW aquarium.
So it's really something as far as Discus folks are concerned, they like it, scapers and artists might not.

You cannot be all things to all people

Regards,
Tom Barr

[JadeIceGreen]

Yes, I try, but it's a slow process, recall when you first saw aquarium fish and wanted every which one?

Same type of thing here.........hopefully with time.
But they like the garrsh color, the mish mash of different species. What do you do?

It's not that bad in person, it really is not, it's much more a photo issue, it does not photograph well. Still, it would look really nice if that was not done, and smaller fish other than discus or fish with natural colors where chosen.

Still, Discus are often called King of the FW aquarium.
So it's really something as far as Discus folks are concerned, they like it, scapers and artists might not.

You cannot be all things to all people

Regards,
Tom Barr

I understand completely what you mean, I did this 450 litres tank for my girlfriend's dad and it looked wonderful when I added 200 cardinal tetras in it.

But when I came back 3 months later, he had at least 10 different kinds of fish in there.

It does not look great in a photograph, very messy, but I will have to admit that it was highly interesting seeing how all the fishes interact and live with each other.

[Plantbrain]

Some old pics a few months before the last grow in:









Enjoy

Regards,
Tom Barr

[planted86]

wow... love the schooling discus!!

[JadeIceGreen]

Any hope of a recent picture?
This tank always take my breath away, no matter how many times I view it.

It would be great if our flats here do not have a weight limit, then we can do up a whole wall just like that, it would be awesome. But even then, the monthly cost to upkeep such a tank must be awesome as well.

[Plantbrain]

More pics:









Regards,
Tom Barr

[blue33]

What's the name of the moss on the wood?

[Verminator]

I'm loving the green shimery slime of algae growing on the wood inbetween clumps of moss. Stunning.

[JadeIceGreen]

Tom, would you mind standing beside that tank so that we have a proper scale of how big it exactly is?

Because those chairs of death are nearer to the camera and I bet they are big chairs as well, the tank looks smaller than the size it really is.
Access to the tank is at the room behind the tank?

[Verminator]

I'd bet two things if Tom stood by that tank and took a picture to show the scale.

1) The size and enormity of the tank would blow everyone away even more so than it already is doing so.

2) The size of those discus would truely surprise people more so than the tank i reckon! Just from looking at them i'd say they're bigger than your average males entire hand!

[JadeIceGreen]

I'd bet two things if Tom stood by that tank and took a picture to show the scale.

1) The size and enormity of the tank would blow everyone away even more so than it already is doing so.

2) The size of those discus would truely surprise people more so than the tank i reckon! Just from looking at them i'd say they're bigger than your average males entire hand!

Yeah, I have been using the discus to act as a sort of scale, but like what you have said, a person standing beside it would be mind blowing.

[Plantbrain]

What's the name of the moss on the wood?

Plain old xmas moss.
Grows like a weed at high temps(84F).

Regards,
Tom Barr

[Plantbrain]

I'm loving the green shimery slime of algae growing on the wood inbetween clumps of moss. Stunning.

Yep, that's one of the older pics when we did not use screens on the 1000 W MH's. It's diatoms, the only algae issue that's ever been an issue. Diatoms!
Go figure.

More than 2 hours a day of the MH's, we'd get the diatoms, so we added screens to reduce the light over the MH's, this took care of it.

Nothing else worked.

The amount of light put out by 1000W MH's is nothing sort of incredible.
Hot also, we put a refrigeration air cooler in the hood space and placed the compressor outside.

We knocked the intensity back and now run the MH's about 3-4 hours a day.
Overall, it's a low light tank though.

Before, it was a medium to high light tank, depends on where and how far away you where from those 1000W lights.

The tank would be better served with 8 x 400W HQI's on E ballast and run 4 at a time for 3-4 hours each.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[Plantbrain]

Tom, would you mind standing beside that tank so that we have a proper scale of how big it exactly is?

Because those chairs of death are nearer to the camera and I bet they are big chairs as well, the tank looks smaller than the size it really is.
Access to the tank is at the room behind the tank?

I'll do you one better...
How about in the tank?



I'm 6ft and 200lbs

Mark is 6ft 2"



Regards,
Tom Barr

[Jervis]

This project is getting more and more out of hand

[Verminator]

May i ask why on earth you'd be in the tank in such a manner with fauna inside? Why not get a big ol' net haha. I take you for no fool, i know you obviously know what your doing. Just seems like a lot of stress to put the fish under.

[anfieldmad]

Kudos dude. One of a kind. Would love pic updates if you have the time. Cheers!

[jeffteo]

Chance upon a great thread here. My current project, a planted discus tank at a much much smaller scale... Now I got more inspiration and motivation to proceed with my project with more confident.

[Sword]

Wow, you are my inspiration....

[Plantbrain]

The scale of the tank is difficult to illustrate.

FTS does not even begin to show the beauty.

I'd suggested this white sand from day one, but the client has finally come around and has done most of the real work here.

Now it looks pretty decent.