Newbie questionaire fill in the blank

[Daniland]

A copy and paste laying out the basics of my setup and the goals i hope to acieve with your help
I found this stickyed and i thought it would be a great way to introduce myself.

This questionnaire may be used to either help you to describe your new tank setup for discus.

1) Please Introduce your self and tell us what your experience is with fishkeeping, give us as much information as possible as to how long in the hobby, what you have kept in the past and what you currently are keeping.
I am Dani, just turned 21, and i work at my LFS doing maitenence on private aquariums and commercial office aquariums for the last 3 years. I have grown up with aquariums my whole life but only the last 7 or so years have i been doing it "correctly"(learned about the nitrogen cycle and fish behavior). I started with bettas in bowls and now my pride and joy is my 40 gallon reef aquarium and my new 135 gallon discus community. I have also kept spiny eels, every mannor of tetra, african and south american cichlids, and i have experience with everything from chili rasboras to leopard groupers.

2) If you have no previous experience with keeping discus, have you done any research to properly prepare yourself, e.g. have you read any Stickies in this section of SimplyDiscus, or other material?
I have never kept discus until 3 months ago when i fell in love with red marloboros and yellow snakeskins at my work. I watched all of the king of DIY's videos on discus and i watched a few hour seminar by the founder of this forum before making my purchase. My goal is not to breed but to raise some beautiful specimens for my personal collection. I have recently been looking at this forum for advice on successful tankmates.

3) Describe your tank, its size and dimensions, breeding or display. Include how long it has been setup or if it is still being cycled.
My aquarium is 135 gallon acryllic rectangular tank with a crude diy sump that adds 25 gallons to my total water volume. I purchased this tank just 2 weeks ago but the media in my filter (seachem matrix)has been running for about 4 years.

4) Describe the décor for the tank; type of substrate or bare bottom (BB), whether the tank will be planted or a biotope.
I strongly considered barebottom but i ended up doing a 1/2 inch layer of inert sand because the bottom and back of my tank came painted black and in the end discus just look better against lighter backgrounds and at this point the substrate was the easiest way to do that. I also purchased a mangrove driftwood showpiece which has added some wonderful tannins to my tank. I will lightly plant my tank with elodea and jungle val just to add some things for my planned future fish to interact with.

5) Describe your water changes planned or practiced, percentage and how often. Include if you age your water and use of tap/RO or mix.
My ideal watetrchange schedule is 50% per day but it is actually going to be more practical to do 60% water changes every other day because of my work schedule. My water changes are done with municiple tap water and seachem safe dechlorinator. My tds meter reads 24ppm out of the tap and the only testable "contaminent" in my tap water is phosphates which i remove by running a phosban reactor in my sump.

6) Describe the type of filtration planned/used for the tank; sponge, HOB and/or sump. Also include the other equipment you are, or will be, using in your tank, e.g. heater, lighting, etc.
so the filtration is where i start to need some advice. I purchased the tank very recently and it came with a 25 gallon sterilite bin and a sterilite 3 drawer tower with holes drilled as a makeshift wet dry filter. I have added filter floss in the first drawer, carbon in the second, and my matrix in the third. I dont know how sustainable this system is but i also have 2 large (60gallon capacity) sponge filters that i transfered from their old tank running in that sump. I want to switch to either a more formal sump or a fluval fx6 canister as those are some of the easiest for me to maitenence, however i dont know if the canister will be over pressurized as the tank is drilled through the bottom. Anyway, i have a jager 300watt heater set to 84 degrees farenheight and just a 48" standard 65000K daylight flourescent light fixture. Inplan on adding an aquatop powerhead for extra oxygenation and to kind of sweep debris off of the top layer of sand.

7) If the tank is already setup and running, include the water parameters;

- temp 84

- tank ph 7.4

- Ph of the water straight out of your tap 7.8

- ammonia reading 0ppm

- nitrite reading 0ppm

- nitrate reading 0-5ppm

- municipal water X


8) Describe your current or planned stocking levels; number/size of discus and number/type of dither fish. Where did you get your discus from or do you have a proposed source for getting your discus?
Incurrently have 5 4-5" discus, 3 pigeon blood, 1 blue diamond, and 1 yellow snakeskin. And i have 1 longfin albino bristlenose pleco and 4 sterbai cory catfish. I plan to add 4 more sterbi corys and 2 more discus (red marlboro) and i would like to add 25-50 crdinal tetra once my discus reach a more mature size (at least 6").

9) Describe your planned or existing feeding regimen. Include what and how often you are feeding on a daily basis.
Currently i feed omega one discus pellets in the morning, hikari frozen discus food (1 cube), frozen brine shrimp (1 cube) and more pellets in the evening. And then on a weekly basis i rotate in a cube of frozen bloodworms, frozen tubifex, frozen beefheart, and chopped raw shrimp. All frozen food soaked in garlic guard.

10) What are your goals in this hobby? For example are you looking to keep discus in a planted community tank, or do you hope to become a hobby breeder of Discus? Do you want to raise Discus with the hopes of competing in shows?
I only want to keep healthy fish for my own enjoyment. If i ended up with a color compatible breeding pair perhaps i would consider a breeding project but i realize that is highly unlikely in the setting i am currently raising them in. And i just dont have the time to dedicate to aiming for that.


Thanks if you took the time to read any of that and Hi! ❤️🐠🐠🐠

[Daniland]

Sorry for typos i am using an ipad to post and i dont always catch mistakes.

[Bizarro252]

Hello!
I am still a NOOB around here but will add my thoughts! Fantasic looking setup first of all!

I totally understand on the sand, I want to get some as well, and you did the best option you could IMO, a thin layer, just be sure to keep it clean and you will be fine.

On the FX6, I have one on my Mbuna tank and love it (well an FX4, but same concept) - I would HIGHLY suggest a prefilter unless you want to clean that thing a lot. I run a 406 on my discus tank with a prefilter and was cleaning it monthly, it was barely dirty. This last time I waited 2 months and I dont think I would want to go to much further than that as it was kinda nasty this time. The pre filter helps a ton however.
You mentioned you didnt know if it would be OK to run since the inlet side may be under pressure. Unless you somehow would plumb the inlet into a hole drilled into the bottom of the tank I think it would be OK. If that is what you are saying would happen I would either plug up the drilled hole and install the FX6 as normal, or at least put some sort of stand pipe on the drilled hole to raise the inlet up closer to the surface. I agree that you would not want that inlet to see a LOT of pressure.

I was going to ask if you age your water, but your PH aged vs tap looks OK. As long as you dont have microbubble issues in the winter it doesnt look like you will have to worry about it. My water ALWAYS has microbubbles and moves 1 whole point in PH from aging...so I age...

I think your 50-60% every other day is more than fine for you, and will likley be fine forever as long as you dont get to crazy on your stocking.

Good luck and welcome!! Just remember everything will be better if you can offer them consistency, that is the key - you seem to already know not to bother chasing 'perfect' PH or TDS values, as in the real world you will cause more stress chasing these ideals than you would just keeping it simple, and consistent

[Daniland]

Does a sponge over the standpipe count as a prefilter? Sorry if thats a super dumb question...

I definitely see more micro bubbles in the colder weather (which for me is 8 months out of the year) but i have usually been able to contain it by covering my hose with a 4" filter sock.

[LizStreithorst]

My only concern is the pH swing. I have a .4 pH swing and I found that over time it started to stress the discus. Give it a try but the fish may tell you that you have to age your water.

[Neptune]

I take it you tank is drilled and plumbed for a sump?

[Daniland]

I take it the ph swing is mostly from my new driftwood and will decrese over time.
Yes the tank is drilled and has an overflow box with a 12" stand pipe. It has a 25 gallon sterilite bin as the sump right now.

[LizStreithorst]

What kind of dog do you have?

[Daniland]

A pomeranian terrier mix. She loves to stare at aquariums and chase the cory cats up and down the tank.IMG_3138.jpg

[LizStreithorst]

Good looking dog to me. I'm a dog groomer. I wish I could get my hands on her. I could make her look like a million bucks. I don't see any Pom in her. I'd have guessed a Cairn/Jack Russell cross. I have a Maltese/ Poodle cross who tries to catch the fish through the glass. It's funny.

[Filip]

Hi Dani and welcome.
I like your big tank and simplistic discus setup .
You seemed like you have done some previous researching on discus and ibthink that you are headed off to a good start .
On your prefilter question . Prefilter is whatever sponge or filter floss on your intake that doesent allow any dirt particles to enter in your main filter , which is usually stocked with bio filter materials , thus keeping your bio filter cleaner for a longer periods. If putting a sponge on your standpipe does all that , then you can have a prefilter on your standpipe .

I'm a little sceptical about giving Frozen tubifex and Bloodworms to your discus , because tubifex worms especially , are notorious as pathogen carriers. I would stay out of it just to be on the safe side .

Good luck with your fish and keep us updated Dani.

[Neptune]

In terms of filtration.

I would stick with a sump design for a couple reasons.

1. It so nice to have the equipment out of the tank. Especially with acrylic tanks, they often have weird cutouts in the top.
2. You are already plumbed and probably have a return pump.
3. You can very easily make a sump. Get another cheap tank and glue in baffles or set up trays. Lots of people can give you help and it really is easy.

[Ryan925]

In terms of filtration.

I would stick with a sump design for a couple reasons.

1. It so nice to have the equipment out of the tank. Especially with acrylic tanks, they often have weird cutouts in the top.
2. You are already plumbed and probably have a return pump.
3. You can very easily make a sump. Get another cheap tank and glue in baffles or set up trays. Lots of people can give you help and it really is easy.

+1 I had no experience with sumps at all. I just built my first and it was pretty easy. I got a 40B at a petco dollar per gallon sale. If you wanted to go super simple you could do poret foam baffles and make it even easier