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Thread: New to Discus

  1. #1
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    Default New to Discus

    Hello everyone!

    I have been interested in aquariums since I was about six years old, and got my first one around that time period. I had several aquariums when I was young and they were mainly maintained by my parents and I got to feed the fish when they told me, and sneak feed them when I wanted to! Looking back that is probably why some of my fish ended up dying, because I was over feeding them, but I didn't understand that at that time. Thankfully my parents had a good sense of "style" and prevented me from having clown puke substrate and too many decorations, I've always had more natural aquariums and I still enjoy them to this day. I had several more aquarium off and on my entire life since the first one. The longest period I went without an aquarium was from about ninth grade till I was 20.

    Fast forward a whole bunch of years and I am gifted two 30 gallon aquariums and a metal stand that held both tanks, one on top of the other, about eight years ago, and boy has it been an addiction since! When I got those two aquariums I wanted to have duel personalities, a peaceful tank in the top tank and a cichlid tank in the bottom. At this point I hadn't done any research on what I should do and just tried to take it from my child hood memory on what to do, so I washed everything really well and set the aquariums up, I let the cycle for a little bit and then added my fish. While at a local big box Pet store I was drawn to their aquatic plant section, and I knew I just had to have a planted aquarium. At this point in my life I had a pretty large in door garden, I believe I had upward of 100 potted plants, so I was confidante in my abilities to grow aquatic plants, I remember thinking "They are plants surrounded by water, HOW HARD could it really be?!?" and then I laughed all the way to the pet store and proceeded to buy about $100 of over priced plants. I got the staples, like onion plants and modo grass, a few vales and some other stuff I cannot remember. All was well for the first week or so then I started noticing the plants were slowly dying off. Fast forward a few more months and few more plant purchases and I was super frustrated. Thankfully I wised up and search the internet and found some aquatic plant forums and began reading, I read for months before ever making a post on one of the forums, after I felt I had a decent grasp on how thing were to work out I was more determined than ever to grow plants in my aquarium! So I replaced my mixed lava rock substrate with some Activ-Flora plant substrate and rigged up the most ghetto DIY co2 I've ever seen and thought I was in the clear. I tried again and although my plants lasted a while longer, I learned not to buy non-aquatic plants at this point, I still had a lot of them die off and didn't understand why, so I started posting and asking questions on the forums to see if I could find some help.

    About a year later I had things down pat, I bought new lights and had a pretty lush low tech 30 gallon aquarium. I had recently got a new job and had finished up college and had more time and money to invest in a new aquarium so I got a 75 gallon aquarium and set it up as a more high tech planted aquarium. I struggled with trying to learn how to balance my light with my root tablets and keep things in check. About six months later I got a paintball co2 system and set it up and had really good growth, I still ask myself why I never got co2 sooner, it made things so much easier to manage and everything was very lush and grew like a weed. The only problem was I had to replace my co2 canister about once a week and it was fine in the beginning but then they store I went to started running out of co2 on a regular bases, so there would be times I couldn't get co2 for upwards of 2 weeks, and then the algae kicked in. I battled BBA and watched my lush new aquarium go up in proverbial flames. I struggled with this for a while and started to lose all hope of ever getting an aquarium like what I saw online. I met a few local fish friends and was convinced to go to a fish auction where I was able to purchase my first "Big boy" regulator and a new diffuser, about a year passed before I upgraded to a full size co2 tank, I decided to go back to low tech for a while and they met my needs but then I started to see red, yellow, pink and purple plants and I HAD to have some. So I revamped my aquarium, added another light with the infamous PetCo 50% off coupon, and setup my new to me Milwaukee regulator on a 20 pound co2 canister. Bought some expensive "flavored" bottles of water form the pet store that was supposed to be liquid fertilizers and basically started from there. I eventually learned about dry fertilizers and started using those shortly after, then started making my own liquid fertilizers from the dry powders.

    Everything went well for about 3 years and the aquarium addicted heightened I went from just having one 75 gallon aquarium to re-setting up my two thirty gallons, a 10 gallon, a 2.5 gallon and a 20L, and am in the process of gearing up to get my 180 gallon up and running as a discus grow out tank. Then I went on a two week vacation out of the country on a cruise. I had a friend take care of my aquariums, although I wrote a lengthy tome on what had to be done and had them over several times to show them what to do, things ultimately went bad, I came home to aquariums full of dead plants and algae, I still don't know what happened but whatever did happen ended up taking out about 2/3s of my plant collection. So since then I had been out of the planted forum loop, I am eager to replace most of the plants I had and get some new ones. I start training for my new job in May and will be able to get all kinds of goodies soon I hope.

    Now for the visuals!

    Pre-vaction:







    I did a great deal of work on the aquarium recently, I moved in some plants from one of my other aquariums and put back some of the plant I tried to salvage from my crash. I ended up cutting up all my lobelia last week and made a kind of carpet with it because I was just getting depressed seeing my aquarium so sparse. I then pulled some Blyxa and AR mini from my other aquariums and planted it behind the lobelia to give it a bit more depth and texture, I also planted a few AR mini and the last couple teeny-tiny bits of s. reopens in the front of those, I have more AR mini but I stopped putting those in because I wasn't sure if I was going to leave it like this or not. I eventually want to pull up about half of the lobelia and replace it with s. reopens if I can ever get mine to grow back or get a good deal on some. This will give a more open field of play for the fish, but right now it all kind of looks very linear. I have tried to make S lines before with plants but once it fills in some it's hard to tell they aren't in a line, or it just looks messy. I do have a giant annubis in the far left side, it is pretty much taking up a quarter of the space in the aquarium right now, I am not sure if there is a way to hack it down to something more size-able or if it is just gonna have to go. At this point I am open to all suggestions, I was thinking of only rescapeing the right half of the aquarium but if anyone can toss me some ideas about what I could do with the plants I have I am open to a complete rescape, I am ready for a change and to move forward with this aquarium. Here are some more photos I took just now to show what I did with the front right half of the aquarium yesterday.

    Full tank shot:




    A close up view of the area I have been working on:





    I have always been interested in discus but haven't ever been able to afford them. But recently I was able to get a good deal on two of them, they aren't a pair and I bought them at different times but they were only $30 each which is in my price range. The smaller one which is peach colored is a bully and chases the other fish around and nips at them, and when I added the much bigger powder blue it wouldn't quite chasing it and now the powder blue hides in my crypts, hopefully they will warm up to each other and stop all that nonsense. I've had a 180 gallon in my living room cycling for about a year and since I got those discus I have decided to make it a bare bottom grow out tank (well almost bare bottom, still a fine coating of sand I couldn't get out). I originally wanted to make it a planted discus tank but while read many posts and how-tos on discus I came to the conclusion that I will need a bare bottom tank to grow them out in, plus I am in an apartment right now and don't want to have to move the 180 with 500 pounds of substrate and plants in it! So I did some major work on the tank recently, I took out all the sand, and put in a few annubis plants, and got one of my old four foot T5ho lamps and set it up, I also am re-hydrating an awesome piece of driftwood I've had in my closet for about two years. So i figure for the next year or two while I am still in this apartment it would be best to start growing out my discus! I plan to get maybe 6-8 more, I believe they will have plenty of space in my 180, I don't want to put too many in there because eventually I want to move my other fish in there with them.

    This is how the 180 looked when I got it and rewired all the saltwater leds to get them working again:




    This is how it looks now after several hours of work cleaning the sand out and giving it a good scrub down, I let about 50 gallons of water in the sump to keep the filter cycled, I also added some bacteria to help boost the colonies I destroyed when I took the sand out and scrubbed the glass. The circulation pump on the back glass isn't turned on, I would use it but it makes so much dang noise, and discus like calm waters so it's a win-win.




    I originally had the sump setup with a filter sock only but have changed it now to where one side of the sump is filled with lava rock to provide a wet/dry style of biological filtration.




    I also have a massive UV filter for this aquarium on a 500GPH pump. The sneaker is size US 11.5 just for size comparison:




    Now on to the discus!

    This peachy colored one is the bully, he/she keeps beating up on the other discus and forcing it to hide in the bushes. This one has a good bit of peppering but is still pretty to me.






    Here is the powder blue, I don't have good pictures of it because the peachy discus is being mean.








    Any advice is greatly appreciated, I plan to start another thread later tonight to see if there is something I can do to make the two discus get along better. I am always open to comments and suggestions!

  2. #2
    Registered Member rickztahone's Avatar
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    Default Re: New to Discus

    Welcome to SimplyDiscus. I had written a whole wall of text and unfortunately, lost it somehow . The gist of it was that a 180 will be too large to grow discus in and a smaller tank may be more suited to doing the task. Currently, some of our members have been buying tanks from your local Petco with their $1/gallon sale.

    Click here to view my 75g Acrylic Tank w/ Bean Animal Overflow with 40g Sump Thread

    Also, click here for my 25 group of discus grow out thread


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  3. #3
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    Default Re: New to Discus

    Why would a 180 be too large?

  4. #4
    Registered Member rickztahone's Avatar
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    Default Re: New to Discus

    Quote Originally Posted by Aquarist View Post
    Why would a 180 be too large?
    To grow out discus to their full potential, you need to feed a lot. If you feed a lot, your tank water fouls easily. Which in turns means more water changes. This means doing regular large water changes in a 180 gallon tank. If that doesn't matter to you, then you can go ahead and raise some juvies there.

    Click here to view my 75g Acrylic Tank w/ Bean Animal Overflow with 40g Sump Thread

    Also, click here for my 25 group of discus grow out thread


    http://i3.cpcache.com/product/162117...ht=75&width=75
    Want to look like Al did at his ACA talk with his white Simply Polo shirt?(You can catch Al's awesome Discus talk HERE)
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  5. #5
    Registered Member dagray's Avatar
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    Default Re: New to Discus

    I used a 75 gallon tank, but I raised the discus to silver dollar (the coin) size before turning them to the tank so I could localize feeding. I then fed live blackworm and flake as well as pellet and frozen food. I did feed many times a day, and would vacuum out the breeder boxes an hour after feeding flake or non-live food. I had an advantage in tank cleaning with Angels that would come suck some flake through the bottom of the breeder boxes.

    Discus ended up in the six inch diameter range. I would agree a smaller tank is better as you can localize feeding and the discus get used to you with no place for them to run and hide.
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  6. #6
    Registered Member John_Nicholson's Avatar
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    Default Re: New to Discus

    I am not really worried about the size of the 180 but here are the basics that you need to be aware of.....the recommendations have been proven for years to provide you with the highest possibility for success but others have also done it differently.

    1. Discus do best in bare bottom tanks. Paint or cover the outside bottom and back of the tank so the fish cannot see through it.
    2. Feed a high protein feed( I prefer a beef heart mix )
    3. Because of the of the feeding you need lots of water changes. I suggest 50% daily in most situations.
    4. Discus do much better in groups of at least 6.
    5. Buy healthy discus....i.e. not from your local fish store and damned sure not from a big box store.
    6. Temp should be set to 82 degrees.
    7. I am sure I have forgotten something so the list may continue to grow.....

    -john
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  7. #7
    Registered Member bluelagoon's Avatar
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    Default Re: New to Discus

    8.The Rose-line Torpedo Barbs are must too fast in a discus tank.Not only fast feeders but also fast enough to cause injury.

  8. #8
    New Members Solid's Avatar
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    Default Re: New to Discus

    Rainbowfish and Rose-line torpedo barbs are very active fish which can stress discus especially at feeding. Also both these fish prefer temps in the mid 70s. I wouldn't keep them with discus.

  9. #9
    Registered Member Loosir's Avatar
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    Default Re: New to Discus

    Quote Originally Posted by John_Nicholson View Post
    1. Discus do best in bare bottom tanks. Paint or cover the outside bottom and back of the tank so the fish cannot see through it.
    2. Feed a high protein feed( I prefer a beef heart mix )
    3. Because of the of the feeding you need lots of water changes. I suggest 50% daily in most situations.
    4. Discus do much better in groups of at least 6.
    5. Buy healthy discus....i.e. not from your local fish store and damned sure not from a big box store.
    6. Temp should be set to 82 degrees.
    7. I am sure I have forgotten something so the list may continue to grow.....
    I think John just listed everything I've ever learned in one paragraph!

  10. #10
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    Default Re: New to Discus

    I have an empty 55 gallon and an empty 29 gallon, would one of those work better for growing them out?? I am looking for some quality discus locally in Raleigh, but haven't found any yet, I plan to go through the sales area here soon hoping to find some in the sub $50 price range, since I am still new to discus I don't want to buy 6 $100 fish and end up doing something wrong and losing them.

    Right now my 55g is empty and I can set it up and do a quick cycle on it with cycled water and media from my 180, the 29g is a dirted planted aquarium that I planned on shutting down in the next few weeks, it was a grow out tank and I got all the plants out of it that I've been growing out for the past six or seven months. Seems like the biggest concern here is un-eaten food making you do water changes, what if you had a couple bristlenose plecos in with the discus to eat the food they don't eat, then the only thing you would ultimately have to worry about would be fish waste. I've read that many people use a 55g as a growout tank but not sure on the plecos or not. I'm not really interested in breeding right now, so not to worried about trying to tweek the conditions for that just yet.

  11. #11
    Registered Member dagray's Avatar
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    Default Re: New to Discus

    sometimes from our breeders here you can get smaller discus for under $50.00 each. use the one inch of fish length per gallon to give you your limit of fish stocking, and then figure discus do best in groups of six or more.

    29 gallon tanks are usually used for fry and small discus, and to breed adults. the 55 would work, but you want to be sure you don't over stock the tank, and you may have to put a divider in to keep the discus where you can localize the feeding.

    once they get used to the guy who feeds them they will beg for food when you come to the tank, and if the discus are fat and healthy this is a behavior you want to see.
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