My son's 56 gallon tank

[hayhar27]

This is a fairly simple build for us, we have nothing elaborate. We purchased the tank and stand from Craigslist, and the guy was kind enough to throw in the hood and a heater. We are using a standard whisper power filter and do daily water changes.

We currently have 5 discus in the tank (planning for 1 more), and a few other tetra.

The tank is bare bottom with some driftwood, and 4 plants (My 2 favorite being sword plants)

I set up the tank over a year ago before I joined this forum, i do not have photos of the empty tank or the month I spent cyck8mg the water.

[hayhar27]

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[jmf3460]

Welcome to the forum Mike, and kudos to you for using fish aquariums and chemistry as a way to teach and bond with your son. Its a great way to learn responsibility, chemistry and aquatics as well as biology. I applaud you, if I had children I would do the same in fact I have a niece who's aquarium I maintain with her.

you have a nice clean looking tank, is it bare bottom or gravel? I see gravel but perhaps that was before you took it out. do you have any FTS (full tank shots)? Any plans to upgrade in the future?

[hayhar27]

Hi Jacklyn, both of my kids are big into animals and science. My daughter maintains our hermit crabs and red eye tree frog, and my son (5 years old) helps me maintain the fish tank. He also maintains his betta tank. It really has taught both of them about responsibility and caring for others. I am amazed at how attached they both are to our pets and it make me so happy when they ask to pick out a new discus.

My tank is now a bare bottom tank. When we first set up the tank, we had gravel and a pirate scene in the tank (a pirate ship bubbler and a cannon that fired bubbles at the pirate ship. After research and lots of reading here, I chose to remove the gravel (you can see the thread in the Discus R Us forum.) I have a FTS or two that I need to move off of my phone and will post them in the near future. I will definitely be upgrading in the future. I haven't decided how big I am going to go yet. It will be somewhere between 150 and 300 (which is my dream tank but now sure if I'll be able to convince a certain person in my life.) With a few excellent discus importers within 45 minutes of me and so many reputable dealers on this site, there is no way I'll be able to get all of the discus I want in a 56 gallon.

[Ryan925]

Hi Jacklyn, both of my kids are big into animals and science. My daughter maintains our hermit crabs and red eye tree frog, and my son (5 years old) helps me maintain the fish tank. He also maintains his betta tank. It really has taught both of them about responsibility and caring for others. I am amazed at how attached they both are to our pets and it make me so happy when they ask to pick out a new discus.

My tank is now a bare bottom tank. When we first set up the tank, we had gravel and a pirate scene in the tank (a pirate ship bubbler and a cannon that fired bubbles at the pirate ship. After research and lots of reading here, I chose to remove the gravel (you can see the thread in the Discus R Us forum.) I have a FTS or two that I need to move off of my phone and will post them in the near future. I will definitely be upgrading in the future. I haven't decided how big I am going to go yet. It will be somewhere between 150 and 300 (which is my dream tank but now sure if I'll be able to convince a certain person in my life.) With a few excellent discus importers within 45 minutes of me and so many reputable dealers on this site, there is no way I'll be able to get all of the discus I want in a 56 gallon.

Glad to hear its coming along Mike. Since my son isn't able to help a whole lot with the discus I started a planted community for him which he maintains other than wc. It's a cool thing for sure. He is 5 as well.

No matter how big you go on your next tank you will be left wanting an even bigger one for even more fish

[hayhar27]

Glad to hear its coming along Mike. Since my son isn't able to help a whole lot with the discus I started a planted community for him which he maintains other than wc. It's a cool thing for sure. He is 5 as well.

No matter how big you go on your next tank you will be left wanting an even bigger one for even more fish

Thanks Ryan! Great idea with the planted community for him. We started with that a planted community glofish tank 3 years ago and he really took a liking to it. Since then, as you already know, we've upgraded.

I know how addicting this hobby is, this isn't my first discus tank, but it was a few years in between tanks. A few years back we started with a 65 gallon fish only saltwater aquarium. It progressed to a 150 gallon fish only aquarium. Now we have the 150 as a reef tank and a 220 gallon fish only aquarium. My son likes to "help" with those as well but he's able to do allot more with the discus tank because it's in his room and I do allot of saltwater maintenance after he goes to bed. And yes, the discus tank is allot more work than either saltwater tank.

[Ryan925]

Thanks Ryan! Great idea with the planted community for him. We started with that a planted community glofish tank 3 years ago and he really took a liking to it. Since then, as you already know, we've upgraded.

I know how addicting this hobby is, this isn't my first discus tank, but it was a few years in between tanks. A few years back we started with a 65 gallon fish only saltwater aquarium. It progressed to a 150 gallon fish only aquarium. Now we have the 150 as a reef tank and a 220 gallon fish only aquarium. My son likes to "help" with those as well but he's able to do allot more with the discus tank because it's in his room and I do allot of saltwater maintenance after he goes to bed. And yes, the discus tank is allot more work than either saltwater tank.

That's cool man. We have gone the glofish route too as you can see by the small group in my discus rank lol

I think a reef will be the next project

[hayhar27]

Reef is allot of fun, there are so many directions you can do with it. We started out with only easy soft corals. We progressively purchased some more difficult corals.

Then you can go with hard corals which I never tried.

[hayhar27]

Here is an almost full tank shot, not the best but I'm having trouble uploading them. I'll try again soon

[hayhar27]

A better full tank shot