Switching From African Cichlids to Discus

[rwhenchey]

Good morning,
I am in the process of switching my African Cichlid tank to a discus tank. By "in the process" I mean I am slowly finding new homes for the Africans and doing a lot of research on how to plan and create a planted Discus tank. I have a Marineland 120 gallon corner flow tank with an Eshopps WD-125 wet/dry trickle filter and an AC110 HOB so I can provide further mechanical filtration. Do I need to disinfect my current tank before adding Discus? I'm hoping the answer is no, because I have a really mature bunch of biological filter media in my sump. I know the water parameters are all together different and I'm prepared for that. My plan is to remove everything from my existing tank. Clean it (rinse everything) Put down a substrate of pool filter sand (most of the posts I read recommend it). I already have a beautiful branchy piece of wood from Aquaglobe to put int he tank and then I'm going to plant it. I'll probably run the tank for better than a month before I add any Discus. I'll start with companion fish, Tetras, Cory's, etc and add them slowly........

Any advice here will be much appreciated!!!

Bob

[John_Nicholson]

You might already know this but it is very, very hard to grow out nice discus in a planted tank. I strongly suggest you buy adults. You will end up with a much better result.

-john

[Udeservit]

following

[rwhenchey]

Thanks, John. I wasn't going to plant heavily, just enough to give the tank some color and contrast. Maybe a few Amazon Swords in the back and a few small plants in the driftwood. What do you thin about that?

[John_Nicholson]

I stll say go with adults....or grow them out in a bare bottom tank and move them to the planted tank when grown.

-john

[rwhenchey]

Either way, I will follow your advice and go with adults. Do you have a recommended source to buy from?

Thank you!
Bob

[John_Nicholson]

I have dealt with Hans for many.many years and have never had any problems. The fish have always been great.

-john

[discuspaul]

You'd be wise to follow all of John's advice. Best of luck to you.

[rwhenchey]

Thanks, John....I'll do it.

Bob

[rwhenchey]

Thank you!

[Cichlidcraze]

Welcome to SD Bob.

I too switched from Africans to Discus and i have never regretted it. There is lots of good advice and info here at SD. Good luck with your discus experience.

Cass

[skie]

im in the processs of doing the same thing Bob except im just making a new tank. a 36 bow ( i sometimes round up and say 40 on accident)its been running for 3 weeks and has 5 rummys and 5 neons and a blue ram. all are doing fine. i plan to get some filter media to jack up my existing filter... like add purigen and matrix on top of the biomax that came with the filter and removing carbon. after that and after i master a few other things ill be ready to go.

[timmy82]

Good to see research and advice being taken on board :-)
What John says is correct for a display nothing but adult discus you wont get the results desired trying to grow them in that enviroment. Good food and good water is a must. Don't go chasing PH either just stable is good. Any issues change water pretty well and more water again. The sponsors on here are the best start for stocking. I am on the other side of the world Australia and get my stocks from Jeffrey Yang FTZ Via Rod and carn't fault them always better than discribed and very good Discus. Enjoy and keep reading.

[SortSay2003]

Welcome to SD Bob. You're getting A LOT of GREAT advice for free The sponsors here are a great source for quality, service, and knowledge.

Although all of the suppliers here receive positive reviews, my choice of supplier has been Kenny's Discus since the quality is ALWAYS consistent.

Good luck withyour experience, whichever supplier you go with.

[LisaT]

I also started out with African ciclids and still have a 120 gal Frontosa tank. I am really enjoying my discus but they are definitely more work. I change the water in my ciclid tank whenever I get around to it, feed them when I get around to it, etc. I've had them all for 3-4 years without a single death (knock-on-wood)!
As far as disinfecting, I asked the same question and was told to bleach everything and basically start all over again. I didn't want to spend 6 weeks cycling my filter again but I did, and now I'm glad I did. Not only have I become attached to my discus, but they are expensive.