New to the forum and to discus fish in general, Hi!

[ChaseDiscus]

Hey folks, I'm Nick.


Excited to be here. I've been researching about keeping discus fish for a couple of weeks now and I'm finally getting to the point where I'm making meaningful decisions related to my future tank, which I have already acquired and will be getting water in shortly.

Background on me is that I'm an experienced saltwater reef aquarium keeper. I have fairly little experience in freshwater in general. I've kept a few small community FW aquariums over the years and none at all recently. I would say I've managed and maintained beginner level freshwater tanks and gone no further with the hobby. And finally, I'm generally pretty solid with DIY. I've built tanks, stands, sumps, protein skimmers, lights, etc.


Anyways, I would like to keep discus as the primary focus of a community planted aquarium. This is the simple, and apparently not so simple, goal I've set for myself. Partly because I'm totally excited about it and particular because my SO loves discus and the fish is part of the bargain struck that allows me to keep a 120 gallon aquarium in our living room. Also the tank must be ''presentable''.

So that's that, I have a 48x24x24 (120g) aquarium that I've purchased lily pipes for and will be running on a DIY cannister filter with approx. 3x the capacity of an FX6. Essentially all the other equipment is being cannibalized from an old saltwater setup I'm no longer using. So my lights are marine LEDs... however even with the blue spectrum turned off I'll still have more usable spectrum light than 2x fluval 3.0 48" lights if necessary. We're in a new house so I haven't tested the city water yet but I have a test kit in shipment already. I have an auto top-off system, high capacity RO/DI unit, sooo many watts of heating and really anything else I can think might have any application whatsoever at this point.

The main weakness of my setup is that the only aquarium available to be a QT tank is 10 gallons, not entirely ideal for 6-8 discus fish. I had planned to do a planted cycle on the 120g and then quarantine the discus as the first additions to the tank after the plants settled in. I know this isn't ideal but further research has led me to worry that it may just not work? (What do you all think?) I could QT the discus on the 120 before adding any plants with just the substrate and hardscape in place or even with the tank completely empty but this would make the rest of the tank setup just awful. Trying to lay down substrate, hardscape and plants in an occupied 1/3rd full 120 gallon sounds very unfun!


So putting it all together. QT tank is already cycling. Everything will be ready for the 120g display in the next couple of weeks. I had intended to add hardscape, plants and then cycle. Break to let the tank and plants settle in. Add 6-8 larger adult discus from a reputable source like Kenny's and QT in the 120g display. (spending $300+ bucks on a fish species I've never kept is always lovely!) Acquire a school of corydoras and add them to the QT tank. Then acquire a group of fancy guppies and QT. (maybe 1 pleco in there somewhere) Finally, get some sort of top dweller and QT that. I like Clown Killis but research leads me to believe maybe they wont tolerate the heat. Other potential considerations being a betta, honey gourami, rams, tetra or swordtail group, open to whatever.


Anyways, thanks for reading if you made it this far. Would love some advice, just tell me if I'm a crazy idiot who is about to burn a few hundred bucks! And if you have no opinion on the matter then just.. Hello and nice to meet you, I'm happy to be here, seems like a great forum!

[Filip]

Hi and welcome Nick .
Your plan of seting up the tank first , let it fishless cycle with Amonia and maybe a bottled bacteria and adding your discus after a month or so , sounds reasonable to me , of that's the only tank you have to work with .
Without having other fish In the tank to worry about cross contamination you can safely put your discus straight in the tank .
One important decision IMO would be to add a couple of bucks more to your current investment and buy 5-6 inch full grown discus instead of juvies .This is important since you are a first time discus keeper and because you want a planted community environment , which can be more chalenging for discus health .

Good luck and please keep us informed about the process of setting the tank and do send some photos of your discus , once you get them .

[Pices]

Welcome To the forum Nick. I agree with Filip that you would be wise to start with adult discus if you are going to have a planted tank. I’m assuming you want to quarantine discus from cooties that could come in with the plants through snails etc. Many people dip new plants in a light bleach solution or pp solution to kill potential problems. I’m thinking it’s a 10% bleach solution, but Filip knows for sure. It is hard on the plants but they will recover.
I would also highly recommend using a sponsor from Simply Discus when you are ready to buy discus. Starting with healthy stock can’t be emphasized enough. There are many sad stories of people who started with local fish store, Petco, or somethingfishy (website) on this forum. The sponsors here have excellent reputations.
I’ve read that being new to discus and new to planted tanks is also risky and that’s it’s better to have experience in one before starting with the other. Maybe a nice compromise could be a few potted plants that can be hidden with some strategically placed wood pieces? This way you could grow out some smaller 4-5” discus and save some money to boot. You’d also get a feel for discus needs and plant needs and it’d be an easy upgrade when you and discus are ready.
Im just throwing ideas out there as someone who wasn’t lucky breaking all the rules when I started. Ha ha
Patty

[14Discus]

Hi Nick,

Welcome to this fine forum......full of people ready to help w plenty of Discus experience. Sounds like you will be off to a better start than most due to your marine experience.....you already have a grasp of how important water perimeters are.

Your QT concerns will apply more to future additions than the initial set of Discus put in. One can make up a plastic tub QT as well for future additions until a larger than ten gallon tank is purchased. A few things to consider/plan for:

Do you have plans for doing water changes? Having aged, agitated, heated, chlorine treated water ready for each change is ideal. Ammonia and nitrite control are obvious.....do you have a plan for dealing w nitrates? Ultra frequent WCs will largely take care of this, but some people can’t do daily massive WCs...hence the need for nitrate reduction.

Many here would advise bare bottom tanks. If you r like me and prefer a substrate, I’d suggest a thin layer of coarse sand. Such sand is easy to gravel vac with and, being only 1/2 to 3/4 inches deep, means you’ll get it all very clean each time.

I agree with Filip regarding getting adult Discus to start if you can afford it. Your intention to go with Kenny is spot on. I have been super pleased with his fish, his shipping skills, and his great service......all my Discus are Kenny’s fish.

Searching this site for specific questions/issues is easy and will get you answers quickly.

Good luck.....these fish are the best. Do keep us up to date.

[jeep]

Welcome Nick!

I look forward to seeing your setup and its progression!!