Our 90 gal display/40 gal grow tank adventure....

[Onewolf]

The destination

A 90 gallon Discus/community/display tank in the family room with 6-7 adult Discus. While waiting for the juvi Discus to mature in a grow tank the 90 will be populated with ~16 Cardinal Tetras, ~14 X-Ray Tetras, 5-6 Sterbai Cory, 3-4 Ottos, 1 Pleco

The journey

We would like to purchase 10-12 approx 2.5" Discus of 6-7 different strains/patterns. We want a mix of colors/solids/stripes/etc.

The reality: I have not been able to find many 2.5" Discus of desired strains from a single breeder so the current plan is to purchase approx 3" juvis which seem more plentiful/available. Hans has everything we want except Yellow Diamond/Crystal so I plan to purchase 8 juvis from Hans and 3 from Wattley.

The current planned mixture of strains looks like:

Wattley:

2 Albino Yellow Crystals Yellow
1 High Body Turquoise Blue
16 Cardinal Tetra (Go immediately into 90 community tank)

Hans:

2 German Wonder Blue/Brown/Red
2 Blue Diamond Blue
2 Pigeon Snakeskin Orange/Red/White
1 Checkerboard Orange
1 Fire Red Red

The 'Grow' tank is a 40 gallon breeder tank located in my wife's sewing/crafts room. Her only requirement for this tank is that the stand look like a decent piece of furniture. Therefore I built a 2x4 stand enclosed in 3/4" red oak veneer plywood and 3/4" red oak boards on the front. I think it's overbuilt such that it could support 10,000 lbs.

We live in Central Florida and our tap water is rather hard and we have a whole house water softener. For some reason the water softener removes a lot more GH than KH.

Tap water (with our whole house water softener):

7.5 PH (tap and aged)
120 ppm KH
20 PPM GH
250 TDS

Grow Tank Details

Bare Bottom
Daily 50% water changes
Maintain the grow tank at 87-88 degrees - Aqueon Pro 150 heater
Penn Plax Cascade 100 HOB filter + Lustar Hydro IV sponge filter
Beamswork ET Series 36" light + timer

Feeding Plan: Feed Frozen Beefheart (Start with San Fransisco Bay) three times daily (6AM, 12PM, 6PM) + Auto timer feed flake/pellets at 9AM and 3PM). Water change after 6PM feeding.

Current Status of grow tank:

The 40 grow tank is assembled and I am cycling the filters using Dr Tim's Ammonium Chloride solution (I was unable to find 'household' ammonia that didn't foam up when the bottle is shaken) and Seachem Stability to encourage bacteria to grow.

I have been cycling the tank for 4 days now and the ammonia is at 2ppm but no signs of nitrite.

Once the filters have cycled I will order the discus.

Current Status of 90 gal display tank

My wife insisted on having a full canopy because she's concerned that having four adventurous cats could be a problem with just a glass canopy. Therefore we ordered an Aquarium Woods Grande Crown stand/canopy in Espresso (http://aquariumwoodproducts.com/aqua...andseries.html) from a LFS and it took 5 weeks before it was delivered to the store. While we waited for the stand to be delivered I cycled two Penn Plax Cascade 1200 filters with the tank in the garage. We picked up and setup the stand/tank in the family room. I like the canopy setup with the front doors for easy/quick access and the whole front of the canopy can be flipped up/back for more complete access. I still have the two canister filters cycling using 5 gallon buckets in the garage with Dr Tim's Ammonium Chloride and Seachem Stability.

We are currently waiting for the tannins to finish leaching out of some driftwood in our swimming pool before we aquascape and fill the tank with water. I plan to install a black backdrop for the tank as well.

Stay tuned.



















The 90 gal cycling the filters in the garage:

[Ryan925]

Looks really nice. Where did you get the trim for the top of your stand build?

[Onewolf]

Looks really nice. Where did you get the trim for the top of your stand build?

Home Depot. It's door/window casing.

[Phillydubs]

What are you going to do w fish from two sources ? You plan to mix them from the jump in the grow out ?

[Onewolf]

What are you going to do w fish from two sources ? You plan to mix them from the jump in the grow out ?

Yes, unless advised otherwise I plan to arrange to receive them on the same day and add them to the grow tank at the same time.

[Davidzil]

Nice job on the set up, looks like you planned everything out.
Where are you located?

[Onewolf]

Nice job on the set up, looks like you planned everything out.
Where are you located?

North of Heathrow/Lake Mary.

[Onewolf]

What are you going to do w fish from two sources ? You plan to mix them from the jump in the grow out ?

What are the specific issues related to mixing juvi Discus from different breeders ? I assume the risk of disease/parasites can be minimized by purchasing from long established top rated breeders? Cryps vs Bloods?

[Phillydubs]

What are the specific issues related to mixing juvi Discus from different breeders ? I assume the risk of disease/parasites can be minimized by purchasing from long established top rated breeders? Cryps vs Bloods?

Most here will tell you it is not a good idea... I am the last one to be lecturing on QT procedures, so it's really how much you want to gamble and what your luck feels like.

There has been some different documentation here mixing german discus with asian discus to begin with, even after long qt periods. You are going to take 2 groups of fish from way different sources, juvis at that, they will be on a long journey in a box to you, then tossed in the same tank. You just have a high risk for cross contam and having sick fish, or one group will be fine the other will get sick.

Again, you may have zero issues or you may have a nightmare. It is really a dice roll...

[Ryan925]

What are the specific issues related to mixing juvi Discus from different breeders ? I assume the risk of disease/parasites can be minimized by purchasing from long established top rated breeders? Cryps vs Bloods?

The risk is always there. Even getting from the same source at different times can pose the same risk. Most would recommend you get all your fish, from the same source, at the same time if possible.

Could you mix the fish and have no issues? Sure. Could you mix the fish and have a disaster? Sure. Qt is a sucky process but it's in your best interest if you can bear it

I think the theory is the two groups being exposed to something they have never been exposed to before. These fish can be happy and healthy at the supplier but with the stress of shipping and being placed into a new environment could cause them to fall ill to something they have been resistant to while in a stress free environment

[Phillydubs]

Are you dead set on this combination of fish? I think I would strongly suggest substituting the fish from one supplier with Fish from another and as Ryan said and so poetically rewrote everything that I just said to buy from all one supplier

[Davidzil]

+1

[Ryan925]

Are you dead set on this combination of fish? I think I would strongly suggest substituting the fish from one supplier with Fish from another and as Ryan said and so poetically rewrote everything that I just said to buy from all one supplier

Lol. Maybe we can just go by Pete and Repeat

[Onewolf]

Ok, we have decided for forego the Yellow Diamond/Crystal and purchase all the juvi Discus from Hans.

We are waiting for 40gal to cycle and for Irma storm threat to pass before placing order with Hans.

Looks like Wattley is right on the forecast track for Irma. Hoping they aren't impacted significantly by the storm.

[Phillydubs]

Good luck there mr onewolf and safety first!

I think you are making a wise decision doing it this way and that you and your fish will be much happier in the long run.

Keep us posted!