New to Discus

[Chef]

Hi people I'm new to the hobby and I would like to start keeping discus. I have a 75g 48x30x12 tank and would like to keep about 6 discus. I plan to do a lightly planted tank with ADA soil or similar on the sides and pfs over the rest and over the soil too. It would be scaped like a bowl kinda. Would that work? I'm running a fluval 205 and an eheim 2213 for filtration and a sponge filter? Is that enough? Also, I'm planning to run 4 t5 48" bulbs on the tank? Will that freak the discus out? Or should I tone down the lighting? Any feedback would be sweet

[freespool]

I have been working on building my first discus tank also. From what I have found, you need LOTS of filtration. I would probable add a 110 aquaclear HOB of a larger canister in place of one of the canisters you have now. I am planning to use an FX5 and a 2217 on my 110 gal. Also the lighting may be a little much, but you do plan to have plants so it may be needed. Not sure if I understand your aquascape design, but Discus like wood. They live in the roots of trees in the Amazon river. Check with Dustin at Houston Aquarium Warehouse in Stafford down the street from you. He has some nice Discus.

Make a thread of your build so we can follow it and make comments as you go. Good luck and I am sure it will turn out great.

[wesleydnunder]

I agree the light will be on the bright side. Unless you're planning to inject co2, bright light and enriched soil aren't necessary and may wind up a huge algae farm.

Six discus will work in a 75. I'd filter it at a turnover rate of at least 10x an hour and divert the filter returns to the surface to maximize oxygenation. Water change volume and frequency will depend on stocking density, plant mass, feedings, type of discus and other factors.

Mark

[Darbex]

Hi people I'm new to the hobby and I would like to start keeping discus. I have a 75g 48x30x12 tank and would like to keep about 6 discus. I plan to do a lightly planted tank with ADA soil or similar on the sides and pfs over the rest and over the soil too. It would be scaped like a bowl kinda. Would that work? I'm running a fluval 205 and an eheim 2213 for filtration and a sponge filter? Is that enough? Also, I'm planning to run 4 t5 48" bulbs on the tank? Will that freak the discus out? Or should I tone down the lighting? Any feedback would be sweet

From my experiment with soil and sand is that make sure you have something to separate the two otherwise the soil with the larger grains will rise to the top and the sand will settle to the bottom creating in my opinion a dirty look. If you want this to be a display tank I wouldnt blight it with a sponge filter sitting inside of the tank. The lighting will depend on the type of plants you want to keep. Discus can handle brighter lights but much prefer lower light. I had my discus with 800W over their heads for 8hrs a day but they definitely like the reduced light that I have on them now. Make sure you read up as much info as you can before jumping in they are harder to keep than most other FW fish.

[Chef]

What kind of substrate is suitable for plants and discus? Ive got an ac110 and the 2213 now which will help on the filtration. 10x filtration? I'm wondering if I need 2 ac110s I have plenty of manzanita wood now so that's covered. What type plants or mosses would do well in a high temp environment

[Darbex]

Anubias and swords IMO are the best suited for high temps and they are low-moderate light plants as well. You can use Aquasoil if you want but if you use the ones I mentioned then sand only is fine just add root fertz for the swords. Also what I have experienced with soil is that due to its dark color discus will generally darken up when they are over it as compared to sand. If you look at my discus thread you will see that I had soil and sand mix and I switched it out because 1) I the soil and sand started to mix and I didnt like the look and 2) the discus colors were darker when they were over the soil areas.

[Chef]

Thanks everyone! I would post pics but I'm feeling a bit inadequate after seeing the 330 monster. Just kidding. I will definitely have pics posted in a journal. Honestly I couldn't do fake plants. Would you guys that have way more experience stick with sparsley planted tanks? Also are you currently using peat moss to lower the ph? I also have a question on WC. Do you preheat the water or how do you make up the temp difference specially in the winter time?

[Darbex]

I switched my water to RO/DI because I am lazy and got tired of messing with peat and IAL (Indian Almond Leaves). Peat works I know Nacra99 had a tank on peat and it reduced is pH to 5.0 range. My problem with peat was the size of my tank I would have needed a lot of peat to lower the pH in that size tank and I didnt have the room to do it in. I already had a 2262 stocked full of peat and it maybe brought my pH from an 8.5 to an 8.0. Now you dont have to have low pH to be successful at keeping discus it just makes it easier IMO. With discus the less you do the better. Meaning if you remove possible variables to water conditions the better you will be at successfully keeping them. So in that regard the absolute easiest to keep discus in is BB (Bare Bottom) tank on RO water. But if you are like me that is way to boring and my tank is a display so I would suggest minimal amount of plants or easier plants to keep so plants with low-moderate light and no CO2 are the best because they will be less taxing and they will also minimally help in filtering the water of organic compounds ie, Nitrates and etc.

[Darbex]

Oh and on WC when I was running straight from the tap I made the water coming out the same temp as the tank water just by feel. Now that I have my RO/DI holding tank is in the garage so I dont worry about temp until winter comes around which I havent thought about what I am going to do. I will probably through a heater in the tank and turn it on a few hours before WC.

[Chef]

In the winter that method would take a day for a 330 wouldn't it? You're keeping adult discus right darbex? I wonder if juvies are much more difficult without going BB?

[Chef]

Can I put screening material over soil? I'm only using soil to cover certain patches where the plants will grow

[Darbex]

In the winter that method would take a day for a 330 wouldn't it? You're keeping adult discus right darbex? I wonder if juvies are much more difficult without going BB?

My RO tank is only 130G and its in the garage that has insulation so temp isnt that bad up or down. I dont mess with juvies because they eat a lot and need clean water so you have to do more WC on a juvie tank. I do a 40% WC every 5 days or so. On my QT tank I do 80% daily when its being used.

[Darbex]

Can I put screening material over soil? I'm only using soil to cover certain patches where the plants will grow

You can try it I never used that so I cannot comment specifically. Just make sure there is a good barrier between the soil and the sand so they dont mix.

[Chef]

How import is a qt tank. How long do I have qt discus for? Since this is a startup do i to quarantine?

[Darbex]

I QT 4 - 6 weeks on any fish. There really isnt a reason to QT if they are all new from the same place.