Advice for planned discus tank

[jake37]

If the tank is seriously understock is poop a bad thing with regards to water quality control. Also if the fishes are a little larger (4 or 5 inches) will that alleviate some of the waste issue.
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Not all eager to have a bare bottom tank in the living room as a show piece for 2 years.
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Also that raises another issue are the discus finicky eaters or will they accept (do well) on (high quality) pellets with an occasional frozen bloodworm or flakes.
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Not sure I want to get into live foods - again the issue being providing a place to grow such - though i suppose a culture could be setup in the basement but not sure i want to go that far - the gbr i have are finicky eaters and don't really like flakes but they've been happy with pellets.

The reason for bb is easy vacuuming up the leftover food and poop while you are growing the fish out. That doesn't prevent you from having driftwood and plants attached to that while you do the grow out.

[cooper666]

Hi Jake, I am pretty new with Discus, have only had mine for three weeks (got small ones) but they are growing very fast. I credit the growth to seemingly ridiculous amounts of water exchange and unbelievable amounts of feed consumption. I'll share what I know.

Growing little ones needs heaps of feed and incredible amounts of fresh, warm water. Gravel beds harbour a universe of bugs, discus don't like them. Also, like any filter gravel beds need cleaning which is labour intensive (not for me) Bare bottom tanks can look good (IMO) you can still have plants, just don't paint the underside of the tank blue (like I did), I suggest black. Use google for ideas.

For your sump, look at the first section for good, easy cleaning mechanical filtration, followed by lots of biological filtration. I can recommend MBBR filters with K1 media. They do not build up filth like other biofilters and its worth checking out.

You can have a look at my journal if you want, but It's work in progress and is pretty far from my idea of magnificence Also - Im pretty fresh with discus, so take my advice with grain of salt, except the MBBR filter, that stuff is gold.

[jake37]

Bit confused - is MBBR superior to the sump (basically matten-berg filter ?
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I think part of the issue here is that the placement of the tank is problematic to discus. With the 120 i currently have - i do water changes twice a week but it always results in a bit of a mess (few drips here and there; dragging out pumps and pails; running hoses to a sink and such). The hope was to keep this as a very clean setup in the living room (hence the continuous flowing water et all). However it is starting to sound like discus are just not compatible with this sort of setup and perhaps rams or angels would be a better choice ?
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This video goes over a bit of mbbr and some of the pro/con - still not totally clear to me (trade offs) but it explains why it is self cleaning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9ovPRxMWk8

For your sump, look at the first section for good, easy cleaning mechanical filtration, followed by lots of biological filtration. I can recommend MBBR filters with K1 media. They do not build up filth like other biofilters and its worth checking out.

[cooper666]

MBBR - moving bed bio reactor. Basically you fill a container (part of your sump) with K1 media and aerate it. The constant movement of the bio media discourages baddies and detritus from building up, which they will in any static bio-filter, bio-balls or other. Its a zero maintenance bio-filter, state of the art for commercial aquaculture and aquariums alike, also its easy to set up but does require heavy aeration. The only downside is that it is noisy, but that can be dealt with by adding $ LOL. The video has a massive external MBBR, Think smaller and in the sump.

Also, IMO LOL get the 8x2 and make it 2 foot tall aswell, more is more - get the biggest glass box that you can, again, its only $

My tank is continuous flow. I don't siphon water at all, but its bare bottom and stays clean. If there is substrate, it needs cleaning.

Anyway, I hate the look of an inch of substrate against the front pane of glass, BB forever LOL

They say adult discus are fine in planted, substrate tanks. They cost big $ but they are pretty tough. IMHO I would not even try. You are right! If you like angels and plants more than discus than its a better option and there's no shame in that. Its just sensible.

[jake37]

Ok I have to think about it. Do you use mechanical filtration (floss) after the mbr to collect debris that comes off the k1?

Fyi: I'd have closer to 3 1/2 to 4 inch of substrate to support large plants - at least in the back. I've found that 2 1/2 inch in the 120 doesn't work well - so i put 3+ in my 29 as experiments.

[cooper666]

I believe it can be done - discus and planted tanks. But more experience sorrow instead of joy when trying. 3 inches of substrate = massive detritus trap and breeding ground for billions of protozoans and other stuff, but again apparently it can be done

I filter the water before it enters the MBBR, I have a sock full of floss and clean it daily. Any crud that make it through the MBBR cycles back through the display No reason why you couldn't filter the outlet but one filter to clean is plenty for me.

[JamesW]

It can be done. I wouldn't give up.

Take a look at my tank journal: http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...ed-discus-tank I haven't updated it for quite some time but the basic setup is what you are considering.

Planted display tank with juvenile discus. I love the fish I have and wouldn't swap them for the world but here is what I would've done differently:

Sacrificed ~12 months with large frequent WC and a BB tank to get the best growth out my discus. Discus live for a long time (>5 years easy) so the tradeoff is short term.

Bought a larger number of fewer strains and sold/traded in those that were clearly not up to quality. eg. bought 10 each of flachen and blue turqs with the aim to end up with 10 total.

If you go with continuous exchange or large WC you need to find a way to make them easy. My journal has a few pictures of how I do it. My WC requires me to turn a couple valves and that is it. No running hoses or temporary couplings.