Another New Tank, Another New Guy

Tank Setup Questionaire

1)My name is Patrick I have been keeping fish for about 10 years. I started with a 55 gallon tank and a bunch of tetras plastic plants and blue gravel. I quickly realized that 55 gallons was not near enough. I searched around online didn't really find anything that fit my budget so I moved directly into building 180 gallon.

Since I've had the 180 gallon tank it has just been in evolution. I started with a hang on back filter, drilled and put in a homemade sump. I maintain this tank for around 4 years with really good success raising seven angelfish and lots of tetra. After removing a few times for my job I am ready to set the tank back up and feel like I'm competent enough to delve into the discus field.

2)I have not kept discus in the past. But I have been scouring the Internet and my local library and fish stores around me for about the past six months. I have watched the speech by the forum owner that Joey went to. I also have watched about anything and everything on his channel as well.I have also been digging in and out of this site for almost the full six months.

I have a 180 (72x24x24) gallon tank drilled with overflows and a 55 gallon tank converted into a sump. I have created a 3D foam/concrete background. I'm using poolsand and flora max as a substrate (flora max pockets under the plants). It will be moderately planted-couple Amazon swords, some Java moss, maybe some micro sword patches, and definitely some frogbit floating on top.

This will be a built in display tank. I have RO/DI at home and will be typically doing 25% weekly WC. At a later date I will be looking at putting together a breeding system but not right away.

My tank is not set up but maybe shortly. Will cycle with a few tetras for scopula of weeks then will slowly add 8 corycats, 6 flying fox, some nerite snails, and maybe 2dozen neon tetras. Looking to put between 10 and 16 discus in there from Kenny here.

I will be making my own food have seen a lot of different recipes for discus and will be using one or another they all seem to be really balanced for the fish. Then have a contact on FB that will freeze dry it for me.

Well that's about what I got for now thanks for having me here on SIMPLY DISCUS. Any advice is appreciated not even sure what questions to start asking you guys. Maybe any solid food recipes or maybe particular strains that are harder to keep than other?

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Hi Janssen and welcome to Simply discus .

Your tank size and your described visual image , looks very promising right from the start .
Its good that you have already read many articles and watched videos on discus before you decided to take the plunge.

My advices on your two questions .
All the domestic strains are equally demanding to keep .Wilds are known as something for a little more experienced discus keepers , other than that domestics are all the same .
Whatever you decide to feed them I would advise for variety in foods and bigger time frame between first and last meal especially for juvies.

What size/ age discus do you plan to purchase ?

Another advice would be for your WC regime .
25% a week is very minimal for discus . Maybe you will GET AWAY with 10 adults on this WC regime , but if you decide to buy and grow 16 youngs and feed them beefheart multiple times a day I'm afraid that 25% weekly would not suffice .
I will start at least with 50% biweekly for the first months and adjust it from there accordingly.

Good luck and please send some photos of your tank and discus when you are all set and ready .

Thanks for the heads up on water changes i know they demand a lot of fresh water and was not sure if the amazing amounts of water change were mostly geared towards breeding. i had read or watched a video of a breeder that sold not only the fish but also a maintinence service on them as well. he mentioned it was a weekly deal. i ideally would like to acclimate them to my local water supply then work into a drip WC system that constantly flushes the system with fresh water.

For size i am looking at small as possible mostly because i dont want to kill a 100 or 200 dollar fish. but also because i like to watch the progression in my tanks. there is something very rewarding about a project that comes together vs buying a ready made tank.

What all foods do people here rotate? i know the homemade beefheart is popular and the freeze dried blood worms seem to be a crowd favorite here as well. also is three times a day enough? i have seen were people are doing 5 or 6 a day and that seems a bit excessive to me.

here is the tank in the wall. i will get some new photos as it progresses.Attachment 112891

it will be the thinner tank in the middle of the wall

You're probably thinking of freeze dried black worms, not blood worms. Blood worms provide little nutritional value compared to black worms. Al ( forum owner ) sells freeze dried black worms thru his website at aquaticsuppliers.com. I personally use black worms, beef heart, discus chow, diskus gold, and on occasion Han's discus flakes.

That is going to look very cool. If you are looking to get smaller fish then plan on changing lots of water. If you go with larger mode expensive fish then maintenance is less. It's a give and take.

Since this is a whole new build I would build in some easy ways to change water

i am going to test my water in the morning and see if you guys think it will be possible to get any of Kenny's fish to acclimate to my tap water parameters. If i can get to that point then i have a drain near that i will plumb into for a constant water change system designed like Joey's on the King of DIY.

Yes black worms are what i was referring to. there have been quite a few mentions about them on here, and all the ones sold by Al.

i guess one more thing and maybe i should just ask the man himself, but what are the parameters that Kenny's Fish are used to? how far could they stray from there and would it be better to get smaller fish and have them grow up as i gradually move the parameters to my tap water. or to buy bigger more established fish and move them to my parameters?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Janssenjr84

i am going to test my water in the morning and see if you guys think it will be possible to get any of Kenny's fish to acclimate to my tap water parameters. If i can get to that point then i have a drain near that i will plumb into for a constant water change system designed like Joey's on the King of DIY.

Yes black worms are what i was referring to. there have been quite a few mentions about them on here, and all the ones sold by Al.

i guess one more thing and maybe i should just ask the man himself, but what are the parameters that Kenny's Fish are used to? how far could they stray from there and would it be better to get smaller fish and have them grow up as i gradually move the parameters to my tap water. or to buy bigger more established fish and move them to my parameters?

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My fish are all from Kenny. I use straight tap with no issue. He ships them all over the us so I'm sure they can adapt.
Stable conditions are what's important

yeah i am pretty sure im just gonna go through Kenny it all just pretty much points if they didnt they think they should have, or they have and will never go anywhere else. i have yet to find a seller that gets that kind of responce.

so here it is my water parameters:

TDS: 316
KH: *6
GH: 107ppm (maybe off on this one color blind Red/Green)
PH: 7.7
Phos: .25ppm
Nitrate: 5ppm

so these dont seem to terrible for tap water especially compared to my previously water supply. Consistancy is what im going for that seems to be words spoken round the discus world!

what kind of acclimation should i do with Kennys fish? not so much the immediate but to get them used to my water. should i just fill the tank with tap and put the fish in that or should i gradually work the ro out over a month or too.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Janssenjr84

yeah i am pretty sure im just gonna go through Kenny it all just pretty much points if they didnt they think they should have, or they have and will never go anywhere else. i have yet to find a seller that gets that kind of responce.

so here it is my water parameters:

TDS: 316
KH: *6
GH: 107ppm (maybe off on this one color blind Red/Green)
PH: 7.7
Phos: .25ppm
Nitrate: 5ppm

so these dont seem to terrible for tap water especially compared to my previously water supply. Consistancy is what im going for that seems to be words spoken round the discus world!

what kind of acclimation should i do with Kennys fish? not so much the immediate but to get them used to my water. should i just fill the tank with tap and put the fish in that or should i gradually work the ro out over a month or too.

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I floated my bags and dropped them in. That's it. My ph is 7.6 and Kenny says his is about the same. I live about an hour from him

Kenny is a fantastic resource and will always answer any questions you may have