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View Full Version : New Tank - First Discus, what have I missed?



rlockwoo88
10-18-2016, 02:02 AM
Hi All,

Jumping onto the forum from Australia, currently I have a couple of 75 Gallons and a 55 Gallon. All heavily planted and have most passive tropical fish from Cardinals to Torpedo Barbs.

I've recently been given the green light from the better half to construct a display tank in the living room and out of the "fish room", some conditions had to be met of course and as a result I will end up with a very nice piece of furniture as a stand.

I've also figured that I should give Discus a go at least once the tank is setup and stable, however I still want a densely planted with other species in there.

I figured I should run through what the design is, what hardware has been ordered and will be used. Everything seems fine to my current knowledge of Tropical fish but I may be missing something for Discus:


6x2x2.5 (LxDxH) 210~ Gallon Tank with corner overflow.
75 Gallon sump with Media:
45cm x 33cm Poret Foam in 5cm layers, 10>20>30>45 PPI.
Synfill Water Polisher
Room for 32 Litres of Bio Media (Marine Pure Spheres are in use in all my tanks)
Potentially a Purigen Reactor
Schego Titanium heaters connected to an external lab grade temperature controller.
Ecotech Marine M1 DC Return pump, throttled way down :)
3x Kessil A360W Tuna Sun
UV Steriliser - Undecided what yet.
ADA Base Soils with many different plants. (Any no-nos for Discus?)
Tank will initially only home Ghost/Crystal shrimp for the first few weeks/months until the population is largish - will see if they survive addition of fish. (Plenty of hiding spots)
Cardinal Tetras/Torpedo Barbs will be the first fish added.


As I wouldn't think of adding the first batch of Discus for at least 6 months after initial setup are there any glaring omissions I've made for Discus that I should fix at setup rather than retrospectively?

Oh, water changes will be done with straight tap water + Prime. I'm lucky it seems in that my cities tap water is 60-80ppm and causes me very few issues.

Thanks for any input that you guys can provide, really keen to keep Discuss but want to make sure it's doable from the start. In the meantime will post on the forum once I start setting this tank up.

Cheers,

two utes
10-18-2016, 03:21 AM
G'day, and welcome to simply discus.
That's great that you're going with a 6 footer in your living room, l'm sure she'll look sweet. I cant offer any advise with your set up as you're opting to go for a densely planted tank. There's lots of good info' on here so have a good look around.
Have you considered the size of discus you want to start with? Maybe purchase a group of juveniles and grow them out in a 75 or 55 gal tank in preparation.
Which part of Australia are you from? as you have already pointed out we are very lucky to have good water for discus keeping, especially in Melbourne.

Keeping discus is very doable, but l like the KISS method.....Keep it simple....


Good luck with your new venture

Filip
10-18-2016, 04:16 AM
Hi Rlockwoo and welcome to simply discus.

If you go through the stickies in the begginer ,planted and other sections you will soon realise that densely planted ,rich soil planted tank is an very unfriendly and unhealthy environment for keeping discus . It demands certain level of experience in discus as well as planted tank understanding .
Adult fullgrown discus are recommended for a densly planted environment , but even than I would advice you to limit the soil areas and dense plants only to some spots on the back and sides of the tank and leave the whole tank with only one inch PFS sand .
You will also have to be prepared for a more frequent WC .
Good luck with your tank .

bluelagoon
10-18-2016, 10:17 AM
Hi and welcome.You might also want to reconsider adding torpedo barbs with discus.I had them with discus in a 6 ft. tank and had to remove them.The barbs were too fast and got too big for the discus especially at feeding time.They constantly are on the move.The barbs would make a nice centre peace fish tho,but not with discus.Adults are the best way to go in a planted tank.

Ryan925
10-18-2016, 10:26 AM
Hi Rlockwoo and welcome to simply discus.

If you go through the stickies in the begginer ,planted and other sections you will soon realise that densely planted ,rich soil planted tank is an very unfriendly and unhealthy environment for keeping discus . It demands certain level of experience in discus as well as planted tank understanding .
Adult fullgrown discus are recommended for a densly planted environment , but even than I would advice you to limit the soil areas and dense plants only to some spots on the back and sides of the tank and leave the whole tank with only one inch PFS sand .
You will also have to be prepared for a more frequent WC .
Good luck with your tank .

+1

I started with my fish in a moderate to heavily planted tank. I soon was able to see the results with the fish growth and appearance was sub par. After making the switch from planted to hardscape with sand the difference in growth and appearance was almost immediate.

If you really want plants you could also use types that are attached to wood like Java fern, anubias, Java moss. That would still give you some green while still allowing you to keep bottom clean. As far as "no-no" plants you just have to keep in mind plants that can survive in the higher discus temps.

Don't know exactly about Torpedo barbs but I know barbs are usually not recommended with discus as they are stressful to them. I'm sure someone can give you more info on that.

Best advice I could say is to get a good grasp on the needs of the discus alone before trying to figure it out in a planted. Lots of WCs are yours and your dicus best friends