Tank size

[M.S.Critter]

Goodday everyone, I am looking at creating a planted discus aquarium with 6 discus and forty or so smaller fish, cardinals ect. I want something 60 to 72 inches long , 27 or so tall but was wondering if 18 inches wide is enough, I would prefer this width compared to 24 for my mobility in the bedroom,

[Altum Nut]

Welcome to Simply Discus....it appears your looking for something around 150g tank. 18" width will work fine if your limited to space but 24" wide offers more foot-print for a planted tank.
It was not mentioned but suspect your in the market for adult discus.
Remember pic are mandatory when your set-up....lol

...Ralph

[M.S.Critter]

Thanks from up the st lawrence, lol pics will be provided , was looking at 27 for height for fish more important than 24 wide for plants , was thinking 150 for energy reasons as next step is 220 for that height, unless I'm missing something ,

[Filip]

I have 65g.- 18 inch wide,and just like altum nut said ,its a challenge to achieve 3D depth effect,especially with 70 inch lenght.
As for discus,with 6 discus in 150 g. Its more than enough IMO. I would not buy them less than 4 inch also.

[M.S.Critter]

Why the larger discus, I was hoping to grow them from young but would this be biting off to much

[Altum Nut]

Why the larger discus, I was hoping to grow them from young but would this be biting off to much

Growing out young in a large tank is not recommended as it would be near impossible to achieve their full potential size.
With that said my reason to browse the beginner basic section...Research your choice to keep Discus before you get in to deep.
Grow-outs require lots of clear water so w/c's will be on your priority list everyday with a min. of 50% to 75%.
High protein foods will also be on your list with 3-4 feeding per day and removing what food is left over so to not spoil the water.
Let us know what route you intend to go with and we will assist so your first experience with Discus is a positive one.

...Ralph

[M.S.Critter]

That answered that and 4inch it will be, have nothing but time on my hands for admiring , feeding and what not but daily waterchanges are a little much, spending most of the days on you tube and reading the basics here right now, thanks again

[seankelly]

That's very good advice SK

[pastry]

That answered that and 4inch it will be, have nothing but time on my hands for admiring , feeding and what not but daily waterchanges are a little much, spending most of the days on you tube and reading the basics here right now, thanks again

Read my thread in planted forum. See my wc routine and then size of fish. If you want them to reach full size... Do much better than me on wc's.

[M.S.Critter]

Just putting this out there and being I don't have much else to do would 10% daily be ok compared to say 30% weekly, and thanks pastry

[pastry]

Hmmm... Not avoiding answer but instead asking what you use to do water changes; water pump and hose or ?

[Filip]

I think that one or two larger % WC weekly will do more good than small % Wc everyday diluttion.
I also i think that you should cosider at least 2 WC s of 70-80% WC weekly with through gravel vacuuming if you want to feed them and raise them heavely.
Thats just my oppinion from my modest 2-3 year experience with discus.

[M.S.Critter]

Haven't really got that far yet pastry but I have some blue food grade barrels for holding water,and was hoping to pump the waste water to the vegetable garden and pump aged water back into tank, still thinking about python setup tho.This setup while I don't mind spending some money here must be easy enough for myself and the people who help me get through the day to use lol.Right now my biggest water concerns are high metal content and finding a household iron removel filter, and is iron that bad for a planted tank lol Thank for your 2 cents Filip

[pastry]

Go to lowes and get plastic flexible tube ( very cheap by the ft; cut to length you need in plumbing section) and order one of many submersible pumps online and your water changes will be super easy and cheaper than buying python. You'll still want to vacuum at times but at least for plain water change then pump and tubing will allow you to " plug and play" then you can do household stuff while water is pumping out/in.

[M.S.Critter]

Sounds good to me, thinking about putting all the water stuff in the laundry room which is below where aquarium will be , I know I'll need a bigger pump but it will keep the clutter and noise down in the bedroom , again thanks think I'll use a python for vacuum detail and dump it into barrel as well for reuse for garden

[pastry]

Long enough hose and you can water the garden as pump is pumping water out of tank. Same tubing at lowes is same that Python uses... But for less

[Filip]

If you take time thinking, planning and playing around with hoses,pythons,tap and a barrel you will eventualy come up with some very simple and easy ,semi-automatic WC solutions.
It may look overboard and scarry to do such large and frequent WC-s at first, but once planned and established routine its allmost time consuming as feeding beefheart for example.
I do mine WC while drinking my pre work morning coffie and it takes me 5 min top,to attach,reattached hoses and run the tap.

[M.S.Critter]

Thanks guys for the input, I was thinking about hard plastic tubing but maybe flexible is the way to go.

[pastry]

Both have pros and cons. Both cheap. Many ways to save $ and yet have better solutions. Lots of material in the plumbing section and lots of good experience on here. You're on the right path. I'd say submersible pump you'll need, then try soft tubing since it's cheap and doesn't have to be fixed in position. Then if you don't want it, then go to hard plastic.