Newbie with filtration question

[zach5187]

I don't do any posting normally just reading as everyone has there opinion to what is rite or wrong. None the less I'm open to hearing every suggestion to filtering my 55 gallon. My goal here is to get 4 checkered pigeons and then 4 of another strained. Down the road once they have paired I will get rid of the others and just have 2 pair each in there own 55. For now the 8 will be housed in the 55 as juvies. I have a marineland 400 emperor that I was going to fill with just fine pad to polish. Then run my aquatop cf300 with course sponge, bio balls and ceramic rings. Should I get good results from this or does someone else have a method that they think would be a better option. Thanks in advance

[Akili]

If you are plan to keep 8 Discus in a 55 gallon tank till Adulthood then you are overstocked. You are can grow out 6 in 55 gallon. Your filtration idea is fine, you can add a sponge filter or two.

[zach5187]

Plan is to eliminate the leftover after getting a pair from each strand

[John_Nicholson]

Getting 4 is usually asking for trouble. They do best in groups of 6 or more. I would suggest getting at least a 75 gallon tank and getting all 8 at the same time. Also getting discus pairs is not as easy as you are making it out to be. Sounds like you are planning on raising out some young fish. To do it well you will need to also do daily water changes.

-john

[zach5187]

I don't think your following what I'm saying. I get that it may not be that easy to get a pair, if I encountered this then I will get rid of 2 and just have 6 in a 55. I currently have 1 55 I want to get 8. If I have 2 pairs form out of that group then I will stick each pair in there own 55. Which is sort of irrelevant seems I'm asking about filtration. I stated the facts cause I'm sure if I didn't someone would say well what's the stocking

[Darrell Ward]

To answer your question, get 2 med. size sponge filters and put one in each corner, and start off with a mated pair, as discus are harder to get pair off than you may think.

[zach5187]

Thanks Darrell forgot to mention I am running 1 hydro for a 125. As well as the cabister with hob.

[zach5187]

This is my first time with discus so I wanted to start off with some fish that didn't cost 550-650 to make sure I got it down pat

[Akili]

This is my first time with discus so I wanted to start off with some fish that didn't cost 550-650 to make sure I got it down pat

That being the case, get 6 of the strain you like the best for your 55 gallons. Once you have your pair,move own to the next strain.There is a drawback to all of this is that it will take you a long time to achieve your goal and a lot of frustration not accounting the water and heating bills.It is also lot of hard work with water changes .What is recommended is not go through all that and purchase a proven pair. It does workout better in the long run.

[Keith Perkins]

What you use for filtration is secondary to your water change routine. You can use what you originally suggested, add the suggested sponge filters, or any other number of options. At the end of the day regardless of what you use for filtration you'll get better results if you do huge daily water changes.

[Dudley Eirich]

I fully understand the argument for acquiring adult discus. They are much hardier and you can get away with less stringent husbandry without having it bite you in the behind. You also get the pleasure and beauty of adult discus without a lot of frustration often accompanying the growing-out process. I have a bit of a different perspective however. Having always grown out discus to adulthood (close to 60 so far over about 40 years of keeping discus off and on), I can understand why Zach would want to do the same. It is a lot of work, but it allows a newbie to make mistakes with less expensive fish while learning a lot about what it takes to keep discus healthy. If you can keep juvenile discus growing well while maintaining a healthy environment, then you can easily keep adult discus happy enough to thrive and thereby increase the chances of your discus pairing off and breeding. If you then are blessed with a pair that doesn't eat the eggs or the fry and eventually become good parents, then you have a much better chance at keeping the fry healthy and growing them to a size where you might be able to sell them to someone down the line. I have found that there are really no short-cuts to the learning process (and I am still learning). You can learn a lot by educating yourself (by reading a lot of posts on SD), but there are still certain things that you can only learn well by experience. In my opinion, starting with adult discus is a bit of a short-cut and eventually one's lack of experience will come back to haunt you. The down side of growing out discus for a newbie is that you may get frustrated enough with dealing with issues created by your own lack of experience that you will eventually abandon the hobby altogether. However, the same thing could happen even more readily by starting with expensive adult discus.

[dprais1]

I would just run two sponge filters.

They are cheap. They are easy to clean. They are quick to clean. You don't have to turn them off to do a waterchange. You don't have to turn them on after a waterchange. They won't suck up all the food you put in the tank. They add O2 to the water. They are cheap to run.

[Dudley Eirich]

I run two sponge filters and a Whisper 60 power filter. I like this combination because the water movement from the Whisper filter on one end of the tank keeps all of the tank debris down on one end of the tank for quick and easy removal. I turn it down to the low-flow setting during feeding and turn it back on to high about an hour afterwards. I may get a bit of food into the filter, but it hasn't seemed to bother the discus. I squeeze the sponge filters to clean them on a weekly basis and do the same thing to the fiber filters in the Whisper. By the way, I toss the charcoal that comes with the Whisper filter material. So far my grow-outs have thrived on this combination.

[zach5187]

Thanks for all the advise. I think I will stick to running my 1 sponge filter fine floss in my hob only and then in my canister just bio balls, ceramic rings, and probably course floss that way I never need to touch the canister really. Replacement of the fine floss should be a breeze because I can just swap it out quick. I'll post a build thread when everything gets in. I will probably end up setting up a 20 gallon below. If I don't have success with a pair within a year and I am successfully keeping the juvies then I will proceed with a pair. Thanks for all the advice I will post my build on another topic. Happy keeping everyone

[zchauvin]

You want to put bio balls and floss in a canister and don't want to clean it? Man oh man. And I don't know where you planned to buy adult domestics for $500 or more. You realize they have a sponsor section here with several people selling adult fish for like $100 each right?