Setting up: first time. Tank parameter questions.

[Somerschool]

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.

Hi. My name is Marcia. I’ve been keeping fish for over 50 years. Have kept marine and freshwater, corals and community tanks. Most recently, a planted tank with rainbowfish that lasted about 4 years. I just tore it down and am now considering keeping discus.

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?

Yes. This post is a result of my research to date~

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.

I have a 120 (60 x 18 x 26). Currently it’s empty; I have about 10 fish left from my rainbow fish tank that I plan to use to cycle the tank using my remaining rainbowfish once I’ve repositioned it in my home. Currently no lights: am wanting advice on lighting. (And I wondered: if I need to divide the tank anyways to make young discus feel secure, can I keep those rainbowfish in the other half of the tank until the discus need more room?)

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

I plan a bare bottom tank with some driftwood that’s well seasoned from my old tank to start. IF I use plants in the future, they will be potted, or growing on driftwood.

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.

Am thinking of a continuous drip water change system; it would replace 50% of water daily, and be very stable. It would be my tap water, described below.

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.

Currently running two Eheim Pro 4+ canister filters. Open to changing that, but they’ve worked really well for me so far. Plan to vacuum the floor of the tank as needed with discus. I am planning to drill my tank for the continuous drip water change system, so I *could* have a sump... also open to Hamburg Matt filtration, but not familiar with it at all.

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

NOT set up, but here are my tap water parameters, which are the reason for this post: we are on spring water (not well water). CAN I DO DISCUS WITH THESE TAP WATER PARAMETERS?

PH: 7.0 out of the tap

K/Gh: <200 ppm (9/10 drops respectively during the test)

Nitrates out of the tap: 5 ppm

Plan is to keep the water at 86 degrees using two heavy duty heaters (redundancy)


Are these parameters okay for discus?


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?

I hope to have at least 10 discus, and then corys and a school of tetras.

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

I know nothing about feeding yet. I need to make sure my water parameters will work first.

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?

No plans to get serious. Just want to enjoy looking at beautiful, healthy fish.

[Willie]

Your water parameters look fine to me, in fact, better than average. Keeping your tank clean is more important than perfect water conditions. I presume you have a system in place to detoxify chlorine and chloramine? Until you add plants, lighting is strictly optional. In a bare bottom tank, lights are for the discus keeper rather than the discus.

Also, depending on where you live, the tap water would need to be de-aerated in the winter. So you would need it to go into a conditioning tank before going into the tank.

I strongly recommend you buy discus from the Simply Discus sponsors. They'll be cheaper than a local fish store and much higher quality. You'll also have recourse if the fish turns out to be low quality or not healthy.

Good luck, Willie

[Somerschool]

[QUOTE =Willie;1340579]Your water parameters look fine to me, in fact, better than average. Keeping your tank clean is more important than perfect water conditions. I presume you have a system in place to detoxify chlorine and chloramine? Until you add plants, lighting is strictly optional. In a bare bottom tank, lights are for the discus keeper rather than the discus. [/QUOTE]

I am on spring water, with an all-house water softener. No chlorine; rather so-called “solar salt” added to the system periodically.

[QUOTE =Willie;1340579] Also, depending on where you live, the tap water would need to be de-aerated in the winter. So you would need it to go into a conditioning tank before going into the tank.

I strongly recommend you buy discus from the Simply Discus sponsors. They'll be cheaper than a local fish store and much higher quality. You'll also have recourse if the fish turns out to be low quality or not healthy.

Good luck, Willie[/QUOTE]

Still need conditioning tank if spring water per above? If so could I use a sump for that?

ALSO: What do we think of two oversized Eheim canister filters?

Definitely going with highest quality fish I can find. Thanks for good advice.

[Willie]

It's great that you have spring water which requires no dechlorination. The conditioning question pertains to how cold are the winters where you are. Here in Minnesota, water comes into the house at 34F so it has very high levels of dissolved gases. Even when heated, the gases remain dissolved and can cause something akin to bends during water changes. So I aerate my water for 24 hours before using it for W/C's. Obviously people south of the Mason/Dixon don't have this problem.

Canister filters work fine. Just remember that with large levels of water change, there won't be a lot of solids to filter out. Most of us will also siphon out crud on the bottom of the tank in addition to water changes. The key to canister filters is regular cleaning. Otherwise, the stuff you filter is just moved out of sight, but remains in the water column. I use sponge filters primarily because they're so easy to clean, but every filtration system works with regular maintenance.

Willie

[BrendanJ23]

+1 for Willie’s comments.

Re canister filters-I use 2x FX6’s and I just have a recurring reminder in my phone calendar to ‘clean’ them every 6 weeks. I do reminders for all the equipment, such as cleaning hoses, aging barrels etc. One of the most important things is to have a sponge or filter sock over the inlet to stop food and poo entering the canister. These socks get changed daily in my tank.

Hope that helps.