75 Gallon Discus

[Rapture]

On 1/11/16 I purchased the 75 gallon Marineland ensemble while it was on sale. Since then, I spent some time purchasing supplies and such needed, with plans to keep discus for the first time. This was also the first time for me to have a tank larger than 10 gallons.

For filtration, I decided to go with a HMF, aka Hamburg Mattenfilter because of its large surface area, simplicity, and location inside the tank (no leaking canister filter or sump - I rent the house I live in, so I want the lowest possible chance of water getting out of the tank accidentally). I purchased the HMF from Angels Plus, along with a Sen350 pump. I also purchased an extra, small piece of Poret foam to block the view of the pump from the front of the tank. I also have a 300-watt Eheim Jager heater located with the pump, as well as a large bag of Purigen. I cover the pump with a layer of 100-Micron filter pad to polish the water. The heater was turning off prematurely because of the insulative property of the foam, trapping the warm water inside the filter, so I cut a few holes in the pump outlet tubing so the warm water can flow into the rest of the tank.

At first, I wanted plants and substrate like in my small tank, but I eventually decided to go bare bottom with some driftwood, and possibly attach some plants to the wood later after it sinks.

I knew I would have to perform large quantity water changes frequently, so I also bought a Python water changing system. I practiced with it a little and found that while it makes it very easy to fill the tank directly from the kitchen sink, it did not work very well for siphoning debris from the water. The suction was just not strong enough. It also took a long time to drain enough water from the tank. I decided to purchase a large water pump to empty the tank quickly since the tank could not be drilled for a bulkhead. I purchased an Ecoplus 1056 because it would be able to drain about 75% of the tank in under 4 minutes.

I also bought an automatic feeder since I would not be hoe to feed the fish throughout the day on days that I work. The problem with the feeder was that I also have cats, and I was worried about them trying to get into the food and possibly dropping it into the tank. To prevent this, I bought a canopy to protect the light (cats were already messing with that) and the auto feeder. I plan to close it off to keep the cats out completely. The back of the stand is also open, and one of the cats climbed in and torn open all of the Ken's fish flakes, so I will have to close that as well.

Last Saturday, I went to Eric's discus store, Aqua Pets Paradise, for the second time. I wanted to get 2.5" discus, but realized that I would have had to wait at least another 5 weeks for them if I wanted to get fish from him as planned, and might not be able to get the colors I wanted at that size, either. So, I went ahead and bought some of the larger juveniles that he had in stock already.

I am doing large daily water changes and the fish really seem to benefit from it afterward. I feed them a home made mix, freeze dried blackworms, and tetra color bits. Tonight I gave them some freeze dried tubifex worms as well, that I got for my betta a while back but he didn't touch them.

As for the discus, I got 6 total - 2 Brilliant Turquoise, 2 Cobalt, and 2 Snakeskin Blue. The two turquoise are a bit poorly shaped with large eyes, and the larger of the two has damaged fins. I have been wondering if I should trim them so they can grow back evenly. I am not overly concerned about their shape, seeing as they act totally healthy. If their shape improves with lots of food and clean water, that would be great as well. I have also seen some white specks/dots on some of the fish's fins as well. I am hoping it is not ich, but I am not sure. I have seen photos and videos of other discus with the same little specks/dots on their fins and/or tails.

Here are some pics of my discus journey:

Putting water in the tank for the first time, after installing HMF


Water logging some driftwood



The closest I could get to having fish in the tank at the time


On the way home from Aqua Pets Paradise



Floating


Cobalt


The first time they came to the front to see me


Day 2


The stunty Turk on day 4


Cobalt on day 4


The larger turquoise with his damaged fins. You can also see the white spots on the other Cobalt's tail in this pic.


The group on day 4


A common sight at my house


The group on day 6 (yesterday)


Thanks for looking. Any feedback on what to do about the fins especially is welcome.

[skuzzbukkit]

I don't have any advice, but the tank looks good! Can't wait to have enough room and money to keep discus.


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[thegoodlife]

Very cool post...I've always liked discus and had them briefly for a few months...With 10 tanks I couldn't give them the attention they deserved and got rid of them...Best of luck with your group!

[EpikMuffin]

Look great. I like white sand in discus tank than bare bottom

[Rapture]

Thanks! Skuzz - I am jealous of the dario dario in your icon, is it yours? I was wanting to get one for my little planted tank but couldn't find one and got a betta instead. :( When I got this tank, I was actually planning on a much smaller tank with apistos, but this one went on sale, and barely fit in another part of the house than planned, so I'm glad that worked out and I'm also glad I realized that it might be big enough for Discus since at first I had no idea what I wanted to put in it.

Thegoodlife - I can see how 10 tanks would be a lot with one being Discus, especially if they are not adults. I am changing their water daily in hopes that they grow well, however I realize now that when I got them they already missed some good growout feeding schedule and diet, but that just means that in the future I may get smaller ones directly from Discus Hans/Stendker instead of through a store. I still don't regret getting these, though, as they have seemed very healthy, I was able to pick them out in person, and Eric gave me a lot of information and tips to use while visiting his store. The 90% water change takes me about an hour, and most of that time is just waiting for the tank to fill back up from the tap. I do other things while waiting for it to fill that I already am used to doing daily, so it's not a huge deal. This is my only large tank, though. I could see me not having time for any more large water changes on other tanks, with the way I do them now.

[Rapture]

Thanks Epik, I may do substrate in the future when they are not eating and pooping so much. Right now they are still young. The driftwood is also still floating so it always looks different every day after I push it around to siphon all the waste on the bottom of the tank.

[ptran]

Very nice tank and Discus!:emt_thumbs:

[thegoodlife]

Thanks! Skuzz - I am jealous of the dario dario in your icon, is it yours? I was wanting to get one for my little planted tank but couldn't find one and got a betta instead. :( When I got this tank, I was actually planning on a much smaller tank with apistos, but this one went on sale, and barely fit in another part of the house than planned, so I'm glad that worked out and I'm also glad I realized that it might be big enough for Discus since at first I had no idea what I wanted to put in it.

Thegoodlife - I can see how 10 tanks would be a lot with one being Discus, especially if they are not adults. I am changing their water daily in hopes that they grow well, however I realize now that when I got them they already missed some good growout feeding schedule and diet, but that just means that in the future I may get smaller ones directly from Discus Hans/Stendker instead of through a store. I still don't regret getting these, though, as they have seemed very healthy, I was able to pick them out in person, and Eric gave me a lot of information and tips to use while visiting his store. The 90% water change takes me about an hour, and most of that time is just waiting for the tank to fill back up from the tap. I do other things while waiting for it to fill that I already am used to doing daily, so it's not a huge deal. This is my only large tank, though. I could see me not having time for any more large water changes on other tanks, with the way I do them now.

Yes the daily water changes while they are young is what discouraged me...I am now down to 6 tanks as I got rid of all my small ones and added a 75 gallon...Believe it or not the more tanks you get, the more likely you are to find a quicker way to change water...I can usually do all my tanks in 3 hours...

[troy tucker]

Very Nice Discus. I have never been to APP where are they located? I have Discus from a few places, some from members here. But the ones that came from Houston Aquarium Warehouse have the best shape and color. I feed a lot of high protein foods like beef heart, blood worms and color flakes too. I only do water changes 2 times a week but I have 150g and a huge sump. With any other fish. I could go a month without a water change. But Discus need fresh water to help them grow. 50% 2 times a week is all I can do but they are growing and even the ones that are just a little off are still beautiful to me. Would like to go check out APP.

[EpikMuffin]

Very Nice Discus. I have never been to APP where are they located? I have Discus from a few places, some from members here. But the ones that came from Houston Aquarium Warehouse have the best shape and color. I feed a lot of high protein foods like beef heart, blood worms and color flakes too. I only do water changes 2 times a week but I have 150g and a huge sump. With any other fish. I could go a month without a water change. But Discus need fresh water to help them grow. 50% 2 times a week is all I can do but they are growing and even the ones that are just a little off are still beautiful to me. Would like to go check out APP.

14520 Memorial Dr Unit 58, Houston, TX 77079 Aqua pet paradise. Eric is out of the country though. I went there yesterday and only his brother there.

[Rapture]

Thanks ptran!

thegoodlife - If I happen to do more with discus, and have some tanks in the garage or something... I will undoubtedly plumb them, but draining them isn't what takes me so long, it's filling them back up, and I'm not sure what can be done about that if it is related to the water pressure from the tap. It may be that the Python hookup isn't very efficient, because it does leak a lot of water around the fitting on the sink faucet, so not all that water is going through the hose into the tank. Might skip the Python hookup and use a 2-way hose splitter instead since I don't actually use the Python to siphon water out of the tank.

[Rapture]

Thanks troy. I know these Discus could be a little better shaped if they got all the water changes and beefheart every day. When I saw Eric the day I bought these, he said he ran out of beefheart at some point and was only feeding Tetra color granules. I'm guessing that didn't happen very often, because I do think that he is dedicated to his Discus, but to get their full potential, they really need all that every day from what I have read. My two most misshapen ones are the turquoise, and there were only 3 to choose from. There are naturally always some fish in a group that don't grow quite as well, and I probably ended up with those turquoise just because the other ones were already gone. Even if I buy a group of babies direct from the breeder, I'll end up with a couple that just don't grow as well as the others.

[LordBarron7692]

Nice looking discus the bare bottom is easier to clean but not very pleasant on the eyes but good looking fish and once theyou get to around 4.5 to 5.5 inches then you can add substrate.

[Rapture]

Thanks LordBarron, I actually don't mind the bare bottom. I've liked the look of bare bottom reef tanks before I learned that it is good for growing out young fish. I may never add substrate, but once the driftwood sinks, I would like to anchor some plants to it, so it will be a bare bottom planted tank... maybe with fine sand, maybe not.

This pic form the old HAW is my inspiration!

[thegoodlife]

I use a submersible pump draining to the bathtub and a python attached to a hose outside to drain quickly and then the python from the water hose outside to fill up...I used to fill up with both but have gotten distracted and flooded a few tanks before...