Big tank waterchanges

[orm]

Hi! New to SimplyDiscus but an old timer in the aquarium hobby. I have even kept discus in the late eighties, before the Internet was around :)

I have been keeping corals and marine fish for the last 5 years but i'm restarting after moving to a house and building a 250g tank.

I understand the need for water changes to keep discus healthy and growing them out. I live a rather busy life and would like to minimize the amount of time spent on maintenance.

Basically, my question is: 7 discus in 250 gallon tank with big canister filters, can i get away with 50% weekly water changes?

Its going to be kind of community tank with substrate and DW, some corys and tetras and some hardy plants like Anubias on the DW.

Vbr
Daniel

[Phillydubs]

Daniel,

Good morning and welcome to simply and back to the fresh water side of things!

Can you get away with it? Sure, you can get away with anything and they are your fish so their health and look is up to your care. Getting away with and successfully keeping healthy discus are two very different things.

In all honesty and not to be too blunt but when I hear you say busy life and minimize maintenance it makes me think discus are not for you as these fish require optimal husbandry for success...

That being said, if you go with large adults and can find a way to up your changes and do it 2-3 times a week, your fish will be a lot happier. Also, if you want to go minimal and still keep discus I would suggest leaving behind all the other additions and going barebottom with some drift wood and calling it a day. It will be much easier to maintain, much easier to keep debris from building up and will allow you to cut back on water changes.

Trust me, in the beginning I tried the minimalist approach... Today I go the optimal route and I am much happier with my fish and my fish are light-years ahead of previous fish where I slacked...

[Filip]

Hi Daniel and welcome to forum and discus keeping.
While 50% WC a week isn't considered sufficient for optimal discus health , your advantage is that you only want 7 discus in 250 gallons of water.And that's a good ratio IMO.
I def. would try to do it , but only with grown up discus , as Phillydubs said before.

Good luck .

[chuckiesmalls]

Hi! New to SimplyDiscus but an old timer in the aquarium hobby. I have even kept discus in the late eighties, before the Internet was around :)

I have been keeping corals and marine fish for the last 5 years but i'm restarting after moving to a house and building a 250g tank.

I understand the need for water changes to keep discus healthy and growing them out. I live a rather busy life and would like to minimize the amount of time spent on maintenance.

Basically, my question is: 7 discus in 250 gallon tank with big canister filters, can i get away with 50% weekly water changes?

Its going to be kind of community tank with substrate and DW, some corys and tetras and some hardy plants like Anubias on the DW.

Vbr
Daniel


Welcome welcome sir. You came to the right place.

I am also pretty sure the internet has existed forever but....who knows? ;)

ANyways, I think people have probably commented that you should do a lot more than that.

You will need to if you want the discus to be happy and meet their true potential.

My advice if you want discus is to get a submersible pump, some hosing from HD, and/or think out a strategy that will allow you a little more ease. Lots of good info on this forum too. That search bar in the top right is actually really good tool I have found.

Just in case no one has, check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXe3VKh7qF8 to learn the basics of discus keeping.

Put on your seatbelt because discus are a crazy ride!

Good luck and always feel free to reach out!

CJ

[orm]

Can you get away with it? Sure, you can get away with anything and they are your fish so their health and look is up to your care. Getting away with and successfully keeping healthy discus are two very different things.

In all honesty and not to be too blunt but when I hear you say busy life and minimize maintenance it makes me think discus are not for you as these fish require optimal husbandry for success...

That being said, if you go with large adults and can find a way to up your changes and do it 2-3 times a week, your fish will be a lot happier. Also, if you want to go minimal and still keep discus I would suggest leaving behind all the other additions and going barebottom with some drift wood and calling it a day. It will be much easier to maintain, much easier to keep debris from building up and will allow you to cut back on water changes.


First of all its so nice to have found a lively forum! It seems that the fresh water / planted forums have gone to sleep during my marine years, but not here!

And a big thank you for the welcome from all of you.

I appreciate you being blunt.

The positive thing is that i most often busy at home as i have 2 small kids and a wife working weekends and evenings so i think i will be able to manage at least 2 WC a week. For me the well being of the animals in my care is of the utmost importance.

If it were up to me i would love going barebottom. I have always done BB reef tanks and BB monster fish tanks in the past. But i have a wife that wants something pretty to look at and i need to compromise. For her sand is an integral part of the viewing experience. And im also extremely fond of corys and apistogrammas and really want to have kind of an community tank with Discus as my main focus. If it cant be done, then i will have to chose something else as the center piece in the tank.

[orm]

Hi Daniel and welcome to forum and discus keeping.
While 50% WC a week isn't considered sufficient for optimal discus health , your advantage is that you only want 7 discus in 250 gallons of water.And that's a good ratio IMO.
I def. would try to do it , but only with grown up discus , as Phillydubs said before.

Good luck .
Thanks! I could go with less Discus even, but as they are schooling fish i think 7 is the minimum one should keep? Stendker recommends at least 10. That might be because Stendker want to sell more fish tho.


Welcome welcome sir. You came to the right place.

I am also pretty sure the internet has existed forever but....who knows? ;)

ANyways, I think people have probably commented that you should do a lot more than that.

You will need to if you want the discus to be happy and meet their true potential.

My advice if you want discus is to get a submersible pump, some hosing from HD, and/or think out a strategy that will allow you a little more ease. Lots of good info on this forum too. That search bar in the top right is actually really good tool I have found.

Just in case no one has, check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXe3VKh7qF8 to learn the basics of discus keeping.

Put on your seatbelt because discus are a crazy ride!

Good luck and always feel free to reach out!

CJ
Thanks. I actually posted just 3 minutes after looking through that entire video. Its funny as i have built DIY king's stand for the 250g ;)

As for changing water, i have prepared with PVC piping from the laundry room where i have a floor drain and might be able to build something that makes WC easier.

[afriend]

Hi! New to SimplyDiscus but an old timer in the aquarium hobby. I have even kept discus in the late eighties, before the Internet was around :)

I have been keeping corals and marine fish for the last 5 years but i'm restarting after moving to a house and building a 250g tank.

I understand the need for water changes to keep discus healthy and growing them out. I live a rather busy life and would like to minimize the amount of time spent on maintenance.

Basically, my question is: 7 discus in 250 gallon tank with big canister filters, can i get away with 50% weekly water changes?

Its going to be kind of community tank with substrate and DW, some corys and tetras and some hardy plants like Anubias on the DW.

Vbr
Daniel

Daniel,

Welcome to the SD forum. This may seem too good to be true, but it is possible to have a beautiful show tank with adult discus and yet spend minimum time in keeping it clean. This can be accomplished by setting up an automated system that maintains a tank in pristine clean condition, requires just a couple of hours once a month for maintenance, and maintains healthy conditions for the fish. How to accomplish this is explained in detail in the following link:

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/forumdisplay.php?372-Adult-Discus-Show-Tank-(afriend)-NW-Arkansas

It is not cheap to implement, and it's time consuming in the beginning, but the rewards are great. My tank requires just a couple of hours once a month for cleaning the filters and wiping the glass. Algae is eliminated, the water remains crystal clear, feces and uneaten food are automatically removed, and the tank appears pristine clean for an entire month. All I need to do is feed the fish. A 30% water exchange is automatically done once a day.

With the right lighting and decor, it's also possible to create what I consider to be a very nice bare-bottom effect with beautiful reflections. How to do this is explained in one of the posts contained in the link above. The filtration system keeps the bottom glass nice and clean so that the reflections remain nice for an entire month.

This system is not for everybody as it does require a considerable amount of planning and building. My system has been in operation for about three years now and I'm so pleased by how it turned out. If you decide to attempt building your own system, I would be glad to assist by answering questions.

Paul

[chuckiesmalls]

Not saying this would happen to you because you obviously very much know what you are doing but for a stupid peasant such as myself.... It would be such a huge undertaking to accomplish such a system that once complete any thought of maintenance or possible repair scares the living be-jesus out of me.

[orm]

Daniel,

Welcome to the SD forum.
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/forumdisplay.php?372-Adult-Discus-Show-Tank-(afriend)-NW-Arkansas
Paul

Great read :)

I could do automated water changes, but then i would loose the benefit of vacuuming the substrate.

Anyway, I think i'm good to go now, time to start the build. Its going to be a blast :)