Plans for the Future

[HokieFish]

Well, this will be my first post here, and I wanted introduce myself and outline how I intend to get into keeping discus and get some pointers from everyone. I've kept a lot of breeding pairs of cichlids over the years, and I'm looking forward to keeping discus for the first time.

Right now I have a 150 gallon (48x24x31) in my garage waiting to be re-sealed. It decided to spring a leak last Thursday, and after traveling for Christmast I've finally gotten the house back in order and I'm ready to work on re-sealing the tank and getting it up and running.
My goal is to set the 150 up as a low tech planted tank.
Filtration: Marineland Mag 350 Pro, Marineland Mag 350 feeding UV Sterilizer, HOT Mag 250 with Skimmer, HOT Mag 250. 4 filters in total, plus the UV.
Lighting is a 48" CF fixture that i had when I did a low tech planted Jack Dempsey tank.
Currently I have one Flash Pleco, 2 Raphael Cats, and a group of 7 Buenos Aires Tetras (I lost a few in the tank catastrophy and will eventually build their school back up to 10) in a temporary 55 gallon set up (they had all been in the 150 before it leaked). I'm planning on adding these fish back into the 150 once re-sealed.
As far as planting goes, I want to do a moss wall (mixture of thai and christmas, maybe java) for the back of the tank, some anubias, java fern, and a patch dwarf hair grass. I have 4 large pieces of driftwood (2 that are currently soaking, and 2 that i've been using) to make a very natural looking habitat.

I would like to start with a group of 6 discus, and possibly a few angels. Sorry for such a long first post, but I wanted to outline my plans so that you guys are able to give me any advice that you think might help me as I get this tank up and running. Thanks for the help!

[Skip]

if you are starting with discus.. go with BAREBOTTOM first.. UNTIL you get the hang of the discus.

if you problems. its alot easier to care for them and figure out problems.. if only BB ..


adding plants and substrate and other fish.. WITH discus AND first time.. could and will probably be disaster.. or more complicated then needed..

word of experience..

just Keep It Simple S.. :) words to live by

[Mannie Bothans]

The mosses, java fern, and anubias should do very well with no aditional CO2. They can even survive in low light with no column dosing. The dwarf hair grass might not be as forgiving (plus it is quite susceptible to many different types of algae). A lower-light foreground alternative might be marsilea minuta-- unless you found that the DHG thrived in your Jack Demsey tank, then you would know better than anyone whether or not it would thrive again in your specific conditions.

(You can also check out aqadvisor dot com to give a rough guide about bioload capacity, but that database doesn't flag all incompatible tankmates or tell you if your filter flow will caise problems for your fish.)

I will be watching this thread with great interest as well. My tank is much smaller, but is planted as well. Mine has just finished cycling.

I have a 56 Gallon 24 inches tall x 30 inches wide x 18 inches from front to back. I am feeling more and more that a planted tank my size isn't large enough to support thriving adult discus. I'm currently running an Emperor 400 HOB filter and an AquaClear 50 HOB filter, and right now the tank only has Amano shrimp, Crystal Red shrimp, Taiwan Fire (Cherry) Shrimp, Malasian Trumpet Snails, and Red Ramshorn Snails that came is as hitchhikers on the plants. The plants I have are Hygrophila difformis (Wisteria), Ceratophyllum demursum (Hornwort), Limnophila sessiliflora (Asian Ambulia), Pogostemon Erectus, Hygro Pinnatifida, Myriophyllum simulans (Filigree), Echinodorus Angustifolia (Twisty Vesuvius), Proserpinaca palustris (Mermaid Weed), Hygrophila polysperma (Sunset/Tiger/Rosanervig), Corkscrew Vallisneria, Microsorum pteropus (Java fern), Anubias Coffeefolia, Anubias Nana, Ludwigia Hybrid Red, Sagittaria subulata (Dwarf Sag), Subwassertang, Marmio Algae Balls, Pogostemon helferi, Eriocaulon Cinerum var Australia Type 2, Cryptocoryne red wendtii, Marsilea quadrifolia, Flame Moss, Marsilea minuta, a red Cryptocoryne affinis from Pahang Barat, several Cryptocoryne keei, and a Bucephalandra brownie red. I have a piece of driftwood and a rock, but the bottom of my tank is really taken up by 1 inch layer of MTS covered by 1 inch layer of PowerSand, with a slope in back created by a gradual increase from 0 to 5 inches of Flourite, all covered by a 2inch layer of AquaSoil originalAmazonia/New Amazonia (2011) mix.

I'm looking forward to learning from others who have good advice for you.

[chiligum]

Many will advise against having the Angels in with your Discus but speaking from personal experience, i have never had a single issue with keeping the 2 species together and found the Angels a good fish for getting newly aquired and sometimes shy Discus to be out in the tank and feeding and not hiding and timid...JMO but it worked for me.

[Mannie Bothans]

I think the biggest concern is that the angels will be more aggressive when feeding. Some neat videos here though:
forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?89667-Altums-and-Discus-compatability

[chiligum]

As i said, i never had a single issue and my Discus had their fare share of the food and were not pushed out the way at all.

[CrazyAngels]

+1, I completely agree that sometimes adding angels into a tank that has discus which just want to hide, tends to wake them up.
I've had both species in my tanks for a few years now with no problems either. The only time it seems to be an issue is if a pair forms then all bets are out. So all I do is pull the pair if I want the spawn, or let it ride and nature takes it's course, but never have I had injuries to any of the fish from them being together. Good luck.


Many will advise against having the Angels in with your Discus but speaking from personal experience, i have never had a single issue with keeping the 2 species together and found the Angels a good fish for getting newly aquired and sometimes shy Discus to be out in the tank and feeding and not hiding and timid...JMO but it worked for me.

[shoveltrash]

hiya - another noob here that has had very good luck keeping Discus & Angels together. the AF do tend to be more aggressive feeders, but hey-ho that sure get my Discus *fired up* at feeding times LOL!

as for plants, can you start off bare-bottom and just keep plants that you can attach to your diftwood? anubias or java grows well on wood if i remember correctly???
(just a note from my experience, I removed my substrate AND plants shortly after getting my Discus......made life MUCH easier!)