Hey guys,
Sorry I've only been sporatically, my back is a mess and it seems like everytime I want to do anything I start and then end up lying down on a heating pad before I get halfway done...
But still, despite this stupid brace I have to wear I've finally managed to get my 48 gallon column Discus tank FINALLY set up properly. And let me tell you, it wasn't easy. I set it up about a month ago, and everything was going well, until 4 days later it crashed and clouded up horribly. I immediately moved the new Discus to the bowfront, and spent the next week trying to figure out what happened. Turned out I had a dead Inca snail in the very back where it was hard to see it. And by the time i found it, there wasn't much left but the shell. I don't know if it couldn't handle the water conditions or the Discus took it out, but I guess it's irrelivant at this point.
Well, I did massive water changes in the Column for the next few days, as well as running both Carbon and Resin to remove any toxins. And of course, right when I thought things were going to be OK, the bowfront crashed from being overstocked. Oh, and to make things even more fun, I discovered this about 2:00 am (going to the little fish-heads room). So I double and triple checked the column, everything was back to where it should be for Discus, and did another emergancy tank swap.
Well, the bowfront recycled itself in a couple days and is fine again, but by now the Discus were looking pretty bad, and I thought I was going to lose them. I thought it might be stress related, but it turned out to be Costia, which I've never dealt with before. And because Costia resembles fin rot in a lot of ways, i was treating them wrong for the first few days. Fin Rot is bactereological, Costia is Parasitical, and treated just like ick. Once I got that figured out and started treating them correctly they showed signs of recovery. But of the 4 only 2 were doing good, the other 2 were still wasting away. What I didn't realize at the time is that the healthier 2, despite being only about 3" long, are acting very much like a pair and squeezing out the other 2. And I hate to admit it, but I didn't catch it in time. I tried to move them back to the bowfront so they could eat, but it was too late. They had totally stopped eating and died a couple days later.
So anyway, that was about a week ago, and since then both tanks have settled down and seem to be running back at peak effeciancy. So this morning I decided it's time to take some new pics to show you guys:
These first 2 are of the bowfront, my Mystic Swamp. The first is a copy of the last pic I posted, back in March. This is the pic I submitted to the 2008 ADA contest. The second is this morning. As you can see, a lot has changed. My crinium is gone, but i'm not sure if it's dead, or the bulb went dormant. Only time will tell there. Lots of the Vals in back took a bad hit when the tank crashed, as well as the crypts and Hygrophila, but they're coming back now. Probably the biggest differences are the chain swords taking over the front, and that I've been slowly training Riccia to replace the Java moss.
March 03, 2008
This morning (May 25, 2008)
Next is a shot of both tanks. The CO2 rig between them has been completely rebuilt. Turns out regular plastic tubing leaks really badly, and in combination with a cheap gang-valve I was losing CO2 at an alarming rate. Now it's completely re-tubed in heavy duty cloth-lined rubber airbrush hosing. And instead of a gang-valve I have a T-splitter (now also completely encased in silicon tank sealant) going to 2 seperate needle valves, one for each tank. Turns out, if you go by the drop checkers, that where-as I was running about 4 bubbles a second, now only between 1 & 2 is more than sufficiant.
Anyway, here's the tanks and the CO2 rig:
And finally here they are, my 2 new Discus. There's a million variety names of Discus, but I guess the best for these 2 are Red-turquoise and Blue-turquoise. But only the blue has really dark stripes, the red either doesn't have them, or doesn't show them. It's hard to tell for sure, they can do some pretty cool color changing. I would like to get a couple more for the tank, but right now i'm not sure if it's wise. If my suspicions are correct and these 2 are already on their way to being a pair despite being small, any new discus might end up like the other 2... dead.
Anyway, here's the babies... enjoy:
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They can be pretty mean towards each other.
. Such beauties. I'm glad the other 2 beauties survived. I hope they'll do well for you. You tanks look stunningly beautiful and I'd never tell by their look that they've been in any kind of trouble. All right ... so I hope YOU and your Discus, all start feeling and doing better real SOON 
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