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Thread: Long time hobbyist, but new to Discus

  1. #1
    Registered Member ggillies's Avatar
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    Default Long time hobbyist, but new to Discus

    Hi,

    I'm a long time hobbyist and have had numerous saltwater and freshwater tanks over the last 30 years or so, but I moved to a new home and decided to finally get a decent sized tank, now that I have room for one.

    I got a 200 gallon (72" x 24" x 30") tank with bracing and decided to try Discus.

    I got the tank up and running about three months ago by using a ton of (12 lbs) media from my previous tank/filter; it cycled very quickly and I added all my fish and verts from the previous tank. That comprised 7 German Rams (2 males 5 females), 10 Buenos Aires Tetras, two bushy-nosed Plecos, one Catfish of indeterminate type, 8 Viper Shrimp, around 20 Malaysian Bamboo shrimp (all the shrimp are huge, 3" plus and around 3 years old), one lonely Ember Tetra (the survivor of a 36 hour power outage a couple of years back - all the rest of his clan died, so he's a tough SOB), one Serpae Tetra who survived said previous power outage.

    I used the majority of my plants from the previous tank as well. That tank was up and running for around 6 years total and had ongoing perfect water parameters, probably due to being very mature, completely cycled and well over filtered! My water parameters never varied from 7.4 ph, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and around 5-10 ppm nitrates (heavily planted). I ran Bio-home ultimate in that tanks and two Aquaclear 110s for a 55 gallon tank. The nitrates would occasionally be at 0 when the plants went into growth cycles.

    The new tank is a sand bottom, planted tank with some of my HUGE plants with root ferts for the planted, and dosed for the Anubias on my ancient driftwood. The tank is lit by 3 X Prime HD Freshwater lights and filtered by 2 X Fluval FX6 filters stuffed with around 6 lbs each of the Bio-home ultimate, I run 2 x 300W heaters for redundancy and 2 X 1250 gph powerheads for flow and to oxygenate the water.

    At the moment, it looks deserted due to the low stocking level of fish for the volume of the aquarium, but the fish LOVE their new home, especially the Rams and the Buenos Aires Tetras - all that room to swim and a ton of current to play with. The water parameters at the moment are 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and 0 nitrates. I am adding fish in batches to avoid ammonia spikes and this week I have my cleanup crew additions coming - 100 nerite snails, 20 Otocinclus, 11 Julii Coreys, 20 more Malaysian and 15 more Viper Shrimp.

    Once the cleanup crew is settled, I will be adding 25 Cochu's Blue Tetras, 50 Ember Tetras to keep my lonely one company, 15 Glass Catfish, 20 Cardinal Tetras and 25 Lemon Tetras.

    Once those are settled and all water params are good, I will add 12 Discus.

    Cheers.

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    Last edited by ggillies; 10-30-2018 at 05:20 PM.

  2. #2
    Moderator Team LizStreithorst's Avatar
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    Default Re: Long time hobbyist, but new to Discus

    Adding Discus to a tank with other fish without quarantine and the addition of a sacrificial lamb is not recommended. But if you decide to go ahead with your plan regardless, I would add only adult Discus and 6 rather than 12.

    The fact that you have a reading of 0 nitrate indicates that your tank is not fully cycled. How much water to you plan to change and how often? If you have read around here you know that Discus require a lot of good, clean, stable water regardless of your filtration.
    Mama Bear

  3. #3
    Registered Member ggillies's Avatar
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    Default Re: Long time hobbyist, but new to Discus

    Liz,

    Thanks for the reply. The tank did the cycle correctly; I used a fishless cycle and got the prerequisite ammonia spike, the nitrite and finally nitrate spike. I then did a 75% water change as I always do with my freshwater tanks.

    I then added the plants (which also had a ton of beneficial bacteria on them from the previous tank) and then my existing fish from the old tank. Things have been stable for 3 months now, with my readings having settled down to 0-0-0 (There are so few fish to the volume, that my nitrate readings are zero).

    I will be doing 3 X 20% water changes per week; I have automated my changes, so it's push a button and go. I am obviously going to quarantine my new fish; that's what my old tank is now set up as.

    I was told by the breeder of the Discus that for a 200 gallon tank, he recommended 10 - 12, I shall check back with him on this matter to be sure I'm not adding too many.

    Cheers, and thanks for the feedback!

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Long time hobbyist, but new to Discus

    this is my style tank. clean and simple! also, 100 nerites? how are you going to stop them from laying eggs? I got rid of mine once I saw white specs all over my glass. I know the eggs will not hatch, however, it's not a pretty visual when you have white spots everywhere. I tried to get rid of the egg layers, but you literally have to sit there for a long time, and I'm not that patient.

    are you going with 10-12 of the same type of discus or a mix?

    Oh! and welcome

  5. #5
    Moderator Team LizStreithorst's Avatar
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    Default Re: Long time hobbyist, but new to Discus

    Make sure you show him a picture. With your plants I think that you should get half that many, and that they should be adults. Remember, the most important thing for a seller is selling fish.

    If your nitrate is 0 you will have to do big WCs daily until the nitrate reads, reach 3. Hostilely, a tank with 0 nitrates is not fully cycled. You will probably succeed if you take it slow, but that's just a feeling. There are people here that know more than me. They will chime in. I'm interested to read what they think.
    Mama Bear

  6. #6
    Registered Member ggillies's Avatar
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    Default Re: Long time hobbyist, but new to Discus

    Mando, thanks for the welcome and the questions.

    Yes, I decided on a simple version of my previous planted tank; I got too biotope specific for a while and then I let it get overgrown, but MAN was it a healthy tank! This substrate is easy to clean (heavily washed and rinsed pool sand, 250 lbs of it!!), the plants are old and now MASSIVE and healthy, so contribute a lot to the overall health of the tank, as well as provide shade and shelter when fish need some quiet/alone time. I have a couple of very big rocks in there as well, taken from the previous tank as well.

    In my previous tank, I used about 6 assassin snails and they tended to gobble up any small (slower) snails (I had some Malaysian Trumpet Snails and those things BRED!!!!) and kept the Nerites and Malaysians in check. My Rams and Buenos Aires Tetras got a taste for the eggs and the tiny snails as well, so I hope that will stop the mass of eggs from covering the tank.

    I was going to start with a mix and see if I end up with any preferences in color/type. I usually go with as close to nature as I can, but my wife misses our Saltwater tank from around 7 years ago, plus I have a 4 1/2 year old daughter and a 23 month old son, and I was thinking a lot of color would keep them more interested in the tank.

    Cheers and thanks for the reply.

  7. #7
    Moderator Team LizStreithorst's Avatar
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    Default Re: Long time hobbyist, but new to Discus

    Sorry...
    Mama Bear

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    Registered Member + MVP danotaylor's Avatar
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    Default Re: Long time hobbyist, but new to Discus

    Oops, I tried to add to my post and I deleted it but accident...no biggie Liz, there is lots of info in the initial post, easy to get the numbers mixed up. I can barely read them without my glasses lol

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