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Thread: 120G with Stendker Alenquer & Tefe

  1. #1
    Registered Member avraamp's Avatar
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    Default 120G with Stendker Alenquer & Tefe

    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 working with.

    I started keeping fish two years ago when my wife bought a betta for our daughter. I set up a 30Gallons tank and after one year i jumped to 120G. I kept 8 adult discus for about 5 months and then sold them to start again with juveniles. Now I have 11 stendker juveniles growing up.

    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 kept discus for 5 months one year ago and i have already read many sections and have seen many videos of Simply Discus.

    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 tank is Juwel Rio 400, 120 gallons, 150*50*66(h). It runs since October 2016 when i kept discus for 5 months then changed to nano cichlids and tetras but a disease to the tetras killed them almost all, so i decided to start with juvenile discus. The only fish I kept from the previous set up is the corydoras adolfoi and nannostomus beckfordi.

    4) Describe the décor for the tank; type of substrate or bare bottom (BB), whether the tank will be planted or a biotope.

    The tank has beige sand, driftwood and plants (echinodorus, egeria and ceratophylum at the moment)

    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.

    I change water 2-3 times per week, about 50% per change. The water is been prepared and aged in a barrel 50% RO and 50% pre filters.

    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.

    I run an external filter, Eheim Pro 3+ 2080 and i will upgrade to a second filter in a few weeks, my choice is a JBL crystalprofi e1901 external filter.
    The heater I use is an Eheim Jager 300 and I use T5HO bulbs, 2 Juwel daylight and 2 Sylvania Grolux.

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

    - temp 29 C

    - tank ph 7,6. Thinking of dropping it to 6,8.



    - ammonia reading 0

    - nitrite reading 0

    - nitrate reading 10-20 (depending on the WC)



    - municipal water


    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?

    11 Stendker Discus
    6 Stendker Tefe
    5 Stendker Alenquer

    I purchased my discus from an official Stendker dealer in Athens.


    9) Describe your planned or existing feeding regimen. Include what and how often you are feeding on a daily basis.

    I feed my discus with a variety of foods including dried pellets, like tropical wild, D-50, Tetra bits, JBL GranaDiscus, flakes like Ocean Nutrition Discus Flakes, JBL NovoBel, frozen Beef Heart & Artemia.

    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?

    In the future i want to make a tank as closest to the discus biotope as possible, breed and raise up discus once just for the experience.

    Here some pictures of the tank and my discus:

    The first photo is the second day of my discus in the tank on 07/26/2017, the second is 3 days later.
    The two next photos were shot after one month and all the other were shot the last week.
    The fishes were purchased as a pre-order and were about 2.5"
    Today after two months and a half the fishes are about 3"-4", I could say some fishes 3" and some others 4". Only one fish was a little bit smaller than the others and i could say that it is about 2.5" now.

    I wait for your comments and proposals for improvement!!!
    IMG_4120 0726.jpg
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by Filip; 10-09-2017 at 07:47 PM.

  2. #2
    Registered Member Phillydubs's Avatar
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    Default Re: 120G with Stendker Alenquer & Tefe

    Looking very nice... So how long have you had them, what sort of growth rate are you seeing?
    The red spotted guys are cool! Which are those?

  3. #3
    Homesteader Filip's Avatar
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    Default Re: 120G with Stendker Alenquer & Tefe

    Great looking setup Makis . Your tech and equipment envolved sounds like you are headed to sucsses with this batch of discus .
    I love the Stendker Tefes , and the Alenquers , not so impressed from mine TBH .I expected for them to turn out something more reddish and striated I guess and they end up to be just brown .
    You are one step ahead too for starting understocked . Your margin of error with water quality is much wider that way .


    What's the meaning of 50% prefilteted along with your 50% RO ?

    How do you plan to lower down your PH from 7.6 to 6. 8 in the future ?

    How many GPH / LPH would you have with the 2 canisters total ?

    What's their timeline ? Age , size, growth etc.

    Great job Makis . Your tank looks simplistic and natural . Please keep posting updates with their growth every month or so .

  4. #4
    Registered Member avraamp's Avatar
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    Default Re: 120G with Stendker Alenquer & Tefe

    Quote Originally Posted by Phillydubs View Post
    Looking very nice... So how long have you had them, what sort of growth rate are you seeing?
    The red spotted guys are cool! Which are those?
    Thanks a lot!!!
    The red spotted guys are the Stendker Tefe!
    Quote Originally Posted by Filip View Post
    Great looking setup Makis . Your tech and equipment envolved sounds like you are headed to sucsses with this batch of discus .
    I love the Stendker Tefes , and the Alenquers , not so impressed from mine TBH .I expected for them to turn out something more reddish and striated I guess and they end up to be just brown .
    You are one step ahead too for starting understocked . Your margin of error with water quality is much wider that way .


    What's the meaning of 50% prefilteted along with your 50% RO ? I mean that 50% of the water i use is filtered from the tap, without using RO and the next 50% is from RO

    How do you plan to lower down your PH from 7.6 to 6. 8 in the future ? When i will get the second filter i will may stop the air stone and I may think of increasing the percentage of RO water. The KH will decrease so in long term the PH will do so. I do not think of using Turf yet.

    How many GPH / LPH would you have with the 2 canisters total ? The Eheim 2080 i already use circles 1700LPH and the canister volume is 12,5lt + 1lt prefiler. The JBL will circle 1900 LPH and the canister volume is 15lt with the prefilter

    What's their timeline ? Age , size, growth etc.

    Great job Makis . Your tank looks simplistic and natural . Please keep posting updates with their growth every month or so .
    Thank you Fillip. I' m trying my best, facing some problems some times (lost an Alenquer about two weeks ago) but i try to clean as much as i can the tank and change the water the sooner possible.
    I forgot to write the dates to the photos, actually i am new to the forum and i am a bit lost with its functions. I wanted to put the dates before every photo, so let' s try to do it now.
    The first photo is the second day of my discus in the tank on 07/26/2017, the second is 3 days later.
    The two next photos were shot after one month and all the other were shot the last week.
    The fishes were purchased as a pre-order and were about 2.5"
    Today after two months and a half the fishes are about 3"-4", I could say some fishes 3" and some others 4". Only one fish was a little bit smaller than the others and i could say that it is about 2.5" now.


    Fillip what do you mean by TBH?

  5. #5
    Registered Member Larry Bugg's Avatar
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    Default Re: 120G with Stendker Alenquer & Tefe

    Why are you considering dropping the PH? 7.6 will be no problem at all with domestic discus. Adjusting the PH quite often creates more problems than it is worth.

    Your tank looks great.
    Larry Bugg

    NADA - Vice President
    Atlanta Area Aquarium Association

  6. #6
    Registered Member avraamp's Avatar
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    Default Re: 120G with Stendker Alenquer & Tefe

    Quote Originally Posted by Larry Bugg View Post
    Why are you considering dropping the PH? 7.6 will be no problem at all with domestic discus. Adjusting the PH quite often creates more problems than it is worth.

    Your tank looks great.
    Thank you Larry for your good words!
    I am considering o f dropping PH because acidic water is better for the fish.
    I know 7.6 is ok for domestic fish, they are not wild, but I believe their dna is acidic.
    I do not want to adjust it often, just drop it and keep it there, but.....
    You make me think of it again!!!

    I tried to make a post and unfortunately I double posted.
    If a mod can fix it and also delete this.
    Thanks
    Last edited by avraamp; 10-09-2017 at 04:36 PM.

  7. #7
    Homesteader Filip's Avatar
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    Default Re: 120G with Stendker Alenquer & Tefe

    I've deleted the double post and edited your timeline before the pictures in your initial introduction post Makis .

    TBH is an abbreviation for "To be honest " . We oftenly use a ton of abbreviations on the forum for faster typing.
    What I meant to say is that I didn't quite like how my Alenquers grew up to to look like .

    About my question about the prefilter of tap water I was curious of what do you use to prefilter your tap water before it gets in your tank ?

    About the PH lowering . Be careful if you try to adjust/ lower the PH values and always test it and play with it in your ageing barrel not in your discus tank . I Agree with Larry though , that it might be better to leave it as it is than trying to lower it down .

    And about your problems and loss of discus , don't worry too much . Because who ever tells you he didn't had any problems with discus ever , is either lying to you or he didn't keep discus long enough to experience them .
    Last edited by Filip; 10-09-2017 at 08:07 PM.

  8. #8
    Registered Member avraamp's Avatar
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    Default Re: 120G with Stendker Alenquer & Tefe

    Quote Originally Posted by Filip View Post
    I've deleted the double post and edited your timeline before the pictures in your initial introduction post Makis .

    TBH is an abbreviation for "To be honest " . We oftenly use a ton of abbreviations on the forum for faster typing.
    What I meant to say is that I didn't quite like how my Alenquers grew up to to look like .

    About my question about the prefilter of tap water I was curious of what do you use to prefilter your tap water before it gets in your tank ?

    About the PH lowering . Be careful if you try to adjust/ lower the PH values and always test it and play with it in your ageing barrel not in your discus tank . I Agree with Larry though , that it might be better to leave it as it is than trying to lower it down .

    And about your problems and loss of discus , don't worry too much . Because who ever tells you he didn't had any problems with discus ever , is either lying to you or he didn't keep discus long enough to experience them .
    Filip,
    Before i purchase my discus i spent many hours watching photos and videos of Stendker' s discus on the internet. Stendker' s Alenquer show their colours when they grow up. I agree about the brown, but the blue that pulls the fish to the head and the fins when it grows up is amazing. I also wanted fish with strains looking similar with wild discus and that' s why i chose these two strains. My favourite discus from Stendker is the Leopard Snakeskin, but i didn' t want at this point such a fish. Maybe at the future, when i will decide to change my tank, i ' ll get a group of leopard snakeskin.

    Concerning your question about the prefiltered water:
    After the prefilters of my R/O system I use a T quick fitting of 1/4" where i get the prefiltered water one hose and other hose sends to the membrane of R/O. So I have two hoses, one with R/O water and one with prefiltered water. I connect a flow regulator to the prefiltered water and after that i connect the two hoses to one with a quick connector. Now I have one hose directly to the float valve to my barrel. What i have to do is to regulate how much water i want from my prefilters. The less prefiltered i use, the more R/O water in my barrel. I test the tds of the water from the tap and i test the water to my barrel, if my water directly from the tap is about 140TDS i regulate the water to my barrel at about 70TDS. If I want to increase the percentage of R/O water i will just decrease the prefiltered water.
    I also have a shut off valve to my R/O, when my barrel is full, till the float valve is enabled, the pressure to the R/O system increases and the shut off valve stops the R/O operation and the water flow.
    I do not know if i explained well the whole functionality and you understood how it works.
    If you want I could take some photos and upload them in the afternoon when i' ll go home.
    Last edited by avraamp; 10-10-2017 at 04:08 AM.

  9. #9
    Homesteader Filip's Avatar
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    Default Re: 120G with Stendker Alenquer & Tefe

    Thanks for your thorough explanation Makis .
    It sounds like your RO unit is perfectly fitted to serve the purpose of prefiltration of tap water as well as water parameters "fine tunning" .

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