Tank Size Question

(2nd time lucky, posted this just now and it "vanished" ;o) )

Looking to buy a second tank to go into our family/dining room.

It's going to go where the telephone box is currently located (that's being moved to where the TV is, everything moving one place to the right lol).

I am constrained to a max usable width of 100cm/39" so will be getting this 36"*24"*24" tank (approx 300L/65 UK Gallons / 80 US Gallons") .


Thing is will I be ok with keeping 4-6 Disco in it (along with some Cardinal Tetras & Bronze Corys)?

Save anyone asking water parameters are:

PH 7.2
GH 2.9 dgh
KH 1 dkh



Attachment 125447

6 Discus are better than 4. There is often fighting with fewer than 6.
A 65 will be fine. I hope you're tall with long arms. Otherwise you'll find it hard to clean.
With such a low kH you will either have to do large every day or add a bag of crushed coral to your water storage container.

Good luck. Keep us updated as you go. BTW, I adore that phone box, but I bet that if I had that in my house I'd replace it with another tank. This fish thing is an addiction.

I did think about sealing the phone box up and filling it with neon tetras but my GF would rather keep the booze in it lol.

Its probably early next year before I pull the trigger, just using the time now to run through the options.

I have a recurring dream about fish swimming all over the house. One time The dream was that they were all swimming around in the shower.

I guess the big thing I'm looking for is if anyone has experience on keeping Discus in a [3ft *2ft :: 80 US Gallon/65 UK Gallon] tank rather than what may be considered a more "traditional" [4ft * 1.5ft :: 80 US Gallon/65 UK Gallon] tank. (ok, in an ideal world I'd like something closer to a 6ft * 3ft tank but I just don't have the room ;o) )


To my mind both have the same footprint and whilst the longer narrower footprint provides a greater theoretical max separation between 2 objects (in this case fish but could be dogs, people, dodgem cars) it's easier in the shorter wider tank for multiple objects to maintain a bubble around them.

Attachment 125456

Hi,

I have a 36"x18"x24" as a secondary discus tank. (I call it correctional institution)
I would encourage you to go 48"x18", if not longer.

36" long, while not impossible, if you are lucky enough that all 5-6 of your boys/gals are 5.5" inches and up,
it's gonna look cramped.

Also, if one or two start to turn psycho and become territorial (and believe me, they will),
36" will barely have space left for others to live peacefully/decently.

without knocking a chunk out of the chimney breast (which wouldn't go down too well) 36" is bout as big as I could go (ok maybe 39" if I had a custom sized tank made) in that room (unless we did away with the dining table which also wouldn't do down too well!!!).

The other side where the TV is currently is pretty much the same width (I know it looks bigger, odd things pictures sometimes especially using the wide angle lens) but has the added complication of the main electricity fusebox & meter against the outside wall

I think 36x24x24 are awesome tank dimensions for a discus tank. As long as you keep yo the 1 adult discus per 10gal rule you should be fine. Individual fish can be more temperamental than others so as always, you'd need to watch your group of fish closely as they settle in. They are tank dimensions I have always wanted to have. Keep us posted!

wrong tank link in original post

Its this one, same tank but with cabinet :)