My first 55 gal Discus Tank

[rellik]

So long time lurker here, recently registered and decided I would put up a post about where I am and where I hope to take this tank.

First I should mention this will be my first time keeping discus, but not fish in general. I have had salt and fresh water fish most of my life and almost always have at least 1 tank going in the house some where I have kept planted as well as bare tanks and everything in between.

So here is my plan.

Bare bottom 55 Gallon tank, possibly with a little driftwood, but I want to keep this bare bottom for my first discus tank. I built the stand with room for a sump, but found a very nice deal on a couple HOB filters and went that route. I had been "preparing" 2 sponge filters in one of my other tanks for a while and just put them into the new tank to jump start the cycling process. It has been running for over a week now, fishless and everything has stabilized nicely.

Stealing this from the questionnaire in the other part of this forum I will add it here :
Temp - 84.5 +/- .5
Tank PH - 7.2 - 7.4
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - <.5 ppm
Nitrate <10 ppm
The water is city supplied, de-chlorinated and aerated, brought to temp then used. I don't do anything with the PH and from testing over the past year it has been very stable between 7 and 7.4.

Now the stocking questions. I have a local fish store that has been awesome to me over the past year they have been opened and recently started bringing in some discus. I would like to stock the 55 gal in the range of 4-6 adults, maybe more, but starting light

Here are some pics of a few of the fish they have, I wanted to get your opinions on them. I have spent a few weeks looking at them and they all seem healthy, active and well, but there are many more experienced folks here.






Let me know what I am missing on the setup, and what you all think of the fish. Thanks all and glad I finally decided to stop being a lurker!

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi rellik and welcome to Simply. While the discus appear overall healthy their eyes seem quite large to me. Generally we do not recommend discus from the LFS as they tend to get added to the general fish population which exposes them to all sorts of parasites etc. There are other options if you care to explore the sponsors on Simply. Where in Orlando are you. I am in the Lake Nona area.
Pat

[rellik]

I am up in Oviedo actually, but most people have no idea where that is unless you live around here Was down at the farmers market by you a few weekends ago. I am open to look at all options honestly, thanks!

[Ryan925]

That is a very good recommendation from pat. All too much often we see new discus keepers have a bad first experience with discus due to lfs purchase. As you know getting started into discus is an investment so you want to do all you can to give yourself best chance for success. Starting off with quality stock will help you avoid a lot of issues.

Take some time and browse the sponsor page. You will find trusted trusted suppliers with high quality stock, most of which will ship right to your doorstep.

Good luck

[rellik]

Yes, there are some beautiful fish there. Honestly was a bit overwhelmed at first. Having the fish at the LFS was a nice way to see some of them in person. Now that I am not as overwhelmed I can go back and look through there again. I must have spent an hour on Kenny's current list alone Thanks guys, love all the advice here.

[Ryan925]

Yes, there are some beautiful fish there. Honestly was a bit overwhelmed at first. Having the fish at the LFS was a nice way to see some of them in person. Now that I am not as overwhelmed I can go back and look through there again. I must have spent an hour on Kenny's current list alone Thanks guys, love all the advice here.

I know the feeling. All my fish are from Kenny. I've visited him three times for fish and now I'm out of room lol

[rellik]

If only I had know when I lived in CA or MD that there were such amazing fish and people there to visit... Maybe when I am back visiting relatives.

[rellik]

So I spent some time talking with people on the forum and a few friends and gave Kenny a call last month. Like everyone says, he is awesome! He walked me through things, gave me a bunch of advice and helped me pick some great fish to get my tank started. He also has helped get me addicted and now I need more tank space... Oh well, I suppose that is a good side effect.

I ended up going with

• 1 x 3.5-3.75" HB Blue Diamond x Cobalt
• 2 x 3.75"+/- Blue/Red Snakeskin
• 1 x 3"+/- Albino Platinum
• 2 x 4.5" Mosaic Turquoise

The shipping was very well done, everyone was warm and snug. The box was held at the fedex location so I could pick it up there and all went smooth. I took them out as soon as we got home and floated them for a while, ph was just about the same so scooped them out and put them in the new tank.

One thing I was surprised by a little was just how skiddish they all were at first. Darting all over the place and splashing like kids if I moved to fast near the tank. I decided to try an old trick I heard of and covered the tank for the first couple days, then slowly started getting them light. They are now on a timer and besides the morning moans of waking up they are fine with the light. Still like to hide, but are much more friendly and now when I walk by they beg for food. Seriously, how do you not feed them around the clock when they are always asking for food and will eat out of your hands

Now the pictures
This is when I first put them in, turned the lights on for a picture and then into the dark they went. I wanted a "before" picture if you will.





Those were from just about a month ago. Here is some I took the other day.








They have all adjusted well from what I can tell. I would like to put some driftwood in the tank and move some pothos over on top, but in time. I wanted to keep it as clean as I could in the beginning to make sure they all transitioned well. They are getting the FDBW, Discus gold dialy food, and some occasional frozen bloodworms when the rest of the fish get some. Thanks again for all the advice everyone!

[rellik]

I should also mention I got a new camera around when I got the discus, I only have the kit lens at the moment, but need to hit up the other section of the forum for advice on what other lenses to get and tips on taking fishy pictures