New member prepping for first discus tank

Hello all, I just joined the forum last week and am totally impressed with the quality and quantity of info - great stuff.

After researching in the forum, YouTube, etc - here goes.

I’ve got a 110 gallon African cichlid tank that I’m going to empty, clean and prep later this week. Plan to keep the ehiem canister filter, two air stones and one sponge filter and a few of the larger volcanic rocks to support the nitrogen cycle.

I’ve never conditioned tap water in the past and am running an experiment right now on how / if pH changes over time with air and temperature. Our tap water is 7.2 as a reference. Assuming the pH is stable, anything other than clean water and Prime recommended? I’m a bit cynical and have tended to stay away from other additives and conditioners but am not against it.

Had a lot of success using Prime and aquarium salt in my other tanks. Should I continue this practice with discus?

Plan to go with a bare bottom tank and target temp of 85 - 86F. Further down the road, will likely add driftwood and plants, possibly some substrate.

The discus from the forum sponsors like Chicago Discuss and Kenny look awesome but I’m leaning towards Hans discus for my first discus tank. Thinking about 12 - 14 two and a half inch discus.

What am I missing or not considering?
Thanks

Sound like a solid start! If your water has been good for your other fish it should be good for your discus. As to the volcanic rock: no good. Discus have a tendency to dash. If they dash into that rock they will get cut up. If you leave your filter running in other tanks the cycle will stay alive. So after doing whatever to the tank just refill it and add the filters and your good to go. Hans is a good start. At 2.5” they will need daily water changes of at least 50% and 6+ feedings to grow big.

Your ph is good as is the use of prime and if sick salt. I’d start with 10 discus and go from there. Hans discus are Stendker and to me stronger than some of the others. Once you grow your 10 to 4+” you can look into getting more. If you want. 10 may be enough. I’ve mixed Kenny’s with Hans without a problem. After a long qt that is and adding a Hans to the Kenny’s group to see how they did. This was over 6+ weeks.

Good luck ask many questions! Nice mustang! Check out the car thread. There are some nice cars owned by the crew here!

My advice:

-Only discus, no tankmates.
-No salt out the gate
-Smooth rocks only, no lava. Driftwood is fine.
-Keep the temp at 86
-Sponge or HoB filter with prefilter sponge. No canister in my opinion. They get too mucky too fast and there is a tendency to slack on cracking them open and cleaning regularly.
-No live plants for a while unless you want to try a few Anubias.
-Put the Prime in immediately BEFORE you start refilling with tap during water changes.
-Have at least 1 quality variety of the following 4 types of food and rotate them (frozen, freeze dried, flake and sinking granule).
-Feed bare minimum 4x a day. Granules like Sera or Royal Menu work well in an Eheim autofeeder if you are at work or not around to feed.
-50% water change daily. Vacuum up pooh at bottom daily if possible or at least 3x week. Wipe the inside of the tank glass of algae and slime weekly. Squeeze out the sponges at least 3x week.
-Test your PH out the tap. Then fill a bucket of tap water and run an airstone or powerhead for 24 hrs. Test that water. Compare the two values. This will determine if you need to age your water.
-Make sure the water surface has some agitation -- from either the filter outflow, airstones, powerhead, etc. Discus can take more flow than people think.
-Check out this thread: http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...st-discus-tank

Thank you both and I appreciate the input, especially about taking the lava rocks out and everything else. Next step is to order 10 2-1/2” discus from Hans. If all goes well, should have pics to share next week.

Can you resend the link for the thread; I wasn’t able to open it.
Best

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...st-discus-tank

Tank is ready and now just waiting on FedEx to arrive but they are late! They were supposed to be here by noon and are now showing end of day for delivery.
Temp is 84-85F, pH=7.2, ammonia and nitrites @ 0 and using prime along with stability.
As soon as fish arrive, plan to cut open tops and add 1/8 - 1/4 cup water into each bag every 15 minutes for an hour and then add just the discus to the tank.

Any other thoughts or recommendations?
Thanks

Good afternoon and thank you again to this forum for the info and input.
Great news - 12 discus from Discus Hans arrived Wednesday afternoon and so far, so good.
Packaging was outstanding - see below pic and bags were still at 81F upon arrival.
Attachment 130364

I followed instructions and added a similar amount of water from the tank and waited 10 minutes, placed discus in tank and turned off the light.

Two weeks ago, this was an African cichlid tank and I removed all the substrate and rocks, cleaned the tank and did not change anything in the ehiem 2217 canister filter. The lone remaining tenant is a good sized pleco for the cleanup crew.

Tank temp is 86F and pH 7.2. Here is a pic 6 hours after arrival.
Attachment 130365

I’ve been feeding four times a day alternating between frozen beef heart, bloodworms and sera discus granules. Also doing a 30% daily water change while cleaning the bottom of the tank and using prime and . For the first two days they were pretty timid and slowly schooling around the tank. In the last two days, they are starting to show their cichlid tendencies and swimming up to the top of the tank to greet me and eat and I’m rolling the recommendations of feeding them on both sides of the tank to minimize bullying. I’m sitting in front of the tank as I type this and they are happily swimming around the tank after lunch. Will be doing the WC later this afternoon.

Attachment 130366
The 12 discus are - 2 German Wonders, then one each of the following - white leopard, PB snake, dark angel, brilliant turquoise, Marlboro red, PB red, red leopard, checkerboard, PB silver and blue diamond.

More to come and thanks again for the comments and info.

Congrats!! Hans discus always look great!! Good luck raising them and enjoy :).

Great looking babies. Nice assortment as well.

Keep up the good work! Feel free to post updates frequently. We would love to see them!

Great looking juvies. I made the switch from Africans 6 wks ago and my juvies have already grown 0.5" by following the advice from people like Iminit and Oxboy.

Well, I can’t believe that my new discus journey is already 5+ months.

Thanks to all that have posted and also to the forum for all the good info, especially the source for pre-filters and recommendations on what to do when you’ll be out of town for a week. I’ve had to take two separate one week trips and everything worked - stopped feeding a day prior to leaving and then did large water change and left the lights off. After the trip, they were a bit skiddish for a day or two and then livened up again.

So far so good and I only lost one discus. It was a runt and I even tried putting him QT but it wasn’t meant to be. It’s been amazing how quickly they are growing and especially how the colors are coming out.

Some pics follow.


Attachment 131622

Attachment 131623

Our water out of the tap is 7.0 and stable. Been doing 50+% water changes every other day and keeping tank at 84F. Added gravel substrate and driftwood and plan to add a school of rummy nosed tetras when they come out of QT in about 10 days.

This is one of my favorites - the place gets belligerent sometimes gorging on beefheart but the blue diamond doesn’t back down anymore.
Attachment 131626

Best to all.

This was awesome. I just started my journey with Hans discus too. I'm still cycling my 75 gallon tank, but I'm super excited. Your tap is significantly lower than mine (7.6). Did you ever worry about KH/GH in your water? I just started a thread too:

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...)&goto=newpost

I'd love to get your wisdom and feedback!

Tank and discus look great! What type of pleco?