Grow out Tank Questions

[furcas767]

So i got a group of 15 2.5" fish from Hans 2 months ago and put them into a barebottom 65gal tank to grow them out. At the same time i set up my 100gal tank in my dining room planning on it being the final home of 10 Discus with some dither fish, sand, driftwood, and a few plants, mostly Java fern and anubias attached to the wood, a potted sword, and a small patch of crypts in the substrate. Both Tanks have plumbing right to the sewer line and to my aging barrel to make water changes easier.

I have been on an aggressive feeding and water changing routine in the Grow out tank feeding every three hours with the beefheart mix from hans, the FDBW Al sells on his site, and some other foods that they eat less enthusiaticly like the cobalt flake, various pellets and doing a water change of roughly 20% in the morning after the first beefheart feeding, then a large 80% change after the last feeding the day, both tanks do not have a sump but are heavily filtered, sponge, cannister, UV, HoB, About 1000 GPH on both systems and i havent seen any nitrates with that schedule.

Fish are growing pretty quickly getting about an inch a month on the faster growing ones and im concerned that i might be overcrowding the 65gal soon so i have a few questions.

1. When should i move the fish into the larger tank? i could for instance split the fish into two groups by size ( starting with a hero fish) or am i ok in the 65 untill they are all over 5 inches?

2. I also dont feel comfortable with feeding the beefheart mix in the tank with substrate becuase of the mess it makes, are the FDBW cubes a complete enough diet for them, i like how they stay in the water until they are pretty much all gone.

3. Hans suggested i set the temp at 85-87f for the juveniles which i did, but ive read here that 82 is more optimal for them as they get older, should i be turning that down yet or wait for a while to back it off?

4. The 100g with the plants in it has a LED light that is pretty powerful, i have it on a dimmer set to 50% but still get algae on the plants so i dose 10ml of flourish excel every other day and it keeps it at bay, is that going to be a problem once i add the discus?


Heres a cpl videos of the progress the fish have made in two months, thanks guys


First week upon arrival

https://youtu.be/rULZ643s7zY


Two months later
https://youtu.be/7vwBOx8fGTA

[LizStreithorst]

Move them now and quit feeding the beef heart. Stick with the black worm cubes.

[danotaylor]

Good growth in 2 months Brian, well done mate!
Are the dither fish in the 100gal already? If so the hero fish is a wise idea before moving them all.
How do you know your filters are cycled if you're not seeing any nitrates?
If you do move them all into the 100 gal be sure to put the filter media out of the 65 gal in the filters on the bigger tank so that your filters can handle the sudden increase in bioload.
Show us some pics of your display when you kame it happen!

[Willie]

Nicely done. Your fish look great and I like the approach. Frankly, not all discus turn out well. You might want to move only the best 10 to the 100 gallon tank and sell off the rest.

As for plants, it's very difficult in a sparsely planted tank to compete with algae. I'd go with low light plants and more aquascape material: logs and rocks.

Willie