Discus Tank Help Please...!

[Bathi]

Hi to all; I'm new to this forum and this is my very first post on simply discus. I'm new to discus but not new to the hobby. I have had all types of fish for 40 years, including salt. I recently turned my community tank (getting ride of all fish except for Cory's and pleco's) into discus only and I am so happy I did. My tank is a 150 gallon Xtra high. Dimensions are 48"x24"x31" and I added a 40 gallon breeder approx. 30 gallons of water in it for a sump and man it wasn't easy adding that to a full 150 because I had to take the tank apart and rebuild it inside of the 150gal cabinet stand..so my point is I find it so easy for me to maintain this tank and sump. As for the discus I see no aggressive behavior at all other then when they were establishing their pecking order..I to was limited as to how long of a fish tank I could have in my newly finished basement and the wife didn't want a long tank so this tank fit perfectly where the wife wanted it...I say go for a tall tank and make it work for the space that you have...thats just my opinion..good luck and hope this helped..

Wow..Thanks for the reply.. can you post the picture of your tank. tall tanks are like high quality tv.

[Bathi]

Python sells a 30" siphon, makes maintenance in my 31" tall aquarium so easy..best thing ever for tall aquariums..

Thank you very much for the reply. looks like everyone has the 30" tall tanks.

[andy77]

Hi Again Bathi,

There are a lot of variables in fish/discus keeping. The simplest and most proven way is a lower tank with a bare bottom, sponge filter and careful water changes (no jumps in parameters or concentrations of dissolved gases.) The other end of the spectrum might be a heavily planted giant tank with CO2 and high tech. Both ways can achieve great success. If you do your research and keep up with your maintenance, you will develop a feel and do well. Watch your Nitrates, 0-5 is golden.

However, sometimes, some of us are pulled away by work, family or just nice weather outside. This is where a high maintenance tank suffers. Personally, my water changes are a bit of work right now and I look forward to a completed fish room with time saving plumbing.


It is raining and Spring has sprung. The geese are feeding at my back door maybe even giving a little stink eye in my direction. I could be evicted soon, hee hee.
Andy

[Bigdave]

Hi Again Bathi,

There are a lot of variables in fish/discus keeping. The simplest and most proven way is a lower tank with a bare bottom, sponge filter and careful water changes (no jumps in parameters or concentrations of dissolved gases.) The other end of the spectrum might be a heavily planted giant tank with CO2 and high tech. Both ways can achieve great success. If you do your research and keep up with your maintenance, you will develop a feel and do well. Watch your Nitrates, 0-5 is golden.

However, sometimes, some of us are pulled away by work, family or just nice weather outside. This is where a high maintenance tank suffers. Personally, my water changes are a bit of work right now and I look forward to a completed fish room with time saving plumbing.


It is raining and Spring has sprung. The geese are feeding at my back door maybe even giving a little stink eye in my direction. I could be evicted soon, hee hee.
Andy

i agree, plenty of maintenance is definitely key. my discus are doing great and I also bought them at 2.5" and did many water changes and siphoning...jpeg.jpg jpeg2.jpg

[Bigdave]

Thank you very much for the reply. looks like everyone has the 30" tall tanks.

your welcome...my discus are loving the height of the tank..

[peewee1]

Hi Bathi,

A rule of thumb is ten gallons/discus. I saw one post where the writer suggested 15 gallons/wildcaught discus. According to the posts here growing juveniles are often grown with less than 10 gallons/fish then moved to a larger tank as needed.

Aggression seems to be influenced by a number of factors eg. number of fish present, amount of cover, type of discus, square footage, food, maybe even water quality. The magic number for stocking seems to be at least between 6 and 10 fish per tank. In your case with a high tank aggression may be greater than in the same volume with more "floor space".

Hope this helps a little. There are MANY, MANY good threads here.

Enjoy and good luck,
Andy

I agree with the 24 inch height but I do well with 1 fish per 7 gallons and water change so the one per 10 gallons is very safe.

[Bathi]

Hi Again Bathi,

There are a lot of variables in fish/discus keeping. The simplest and most proven way is a lower tank with a bare bottom, sponge filter and careful water changes (no jumps in parameters or concentrations of dissolved gases.) The other end of the spectrum might be a heavily planted giant tank with CO2 and high tech. Both ways can achieve great success. If you do your research and keep up with your maintenance, you will develop a feel and do well. Watch your Nitrates, 0-5 is golden.

However, sometimes, some of us are pulled away by work, family or just nice weather outside. This is where a high maintenance tank suffers. Personally, my water changes are a bit of work right now and I look forward to a completed fish room with time saving plumbing.


It is raining and Spring has sprung. The geese are feeding at my back door maybe even giving a little stink eye in my direction. I could be evicted soon, hee hee.
Andy

Thanks andy for the reply.. Yes i'm planning discus tank with weekly water changes. So i'll try to go to the big water capacity and good filtration system. So i'm planning to external sump. Also i'm not the fan of bare bottom. So definitely go for the planted tank with anubias or java fern.

[Bathi]

i agree, plenty of maintenance is definitely key. my discus are doing great and I also bought them at 2.5" and did many water changes and siphoning...jpeg.jpg jpeg2.jpg

Very nice tank. Discus looks happy too in tall tanks.

[Bathi]

I agree with the 24 inch height but I do well with 1 fish per 7 gallons and water change so the one per 10 gallons is very safe.

After reading these comments, i can easily touch the bottom if tank is 24 inch height. Im planning weekly water changes, So i'll go for i fish per 1o gallon. Thank you for share your experiences.

[Iminit]

What size discus are you getting? If still going for the 100+g I’d suggest doing at least 2 weekly 50% water changes if you get 5+” fish and daily for the first month. Just to get them adjusted to your water. Planted tanks and tank with substrate take more time and need more water changes.

[Bigdave]

Very nice tank. Discus looks happy too in tall tanks.

Thank you, I'm definitely enjoying the tank as much as the discus...discus fever in full effect..

[Bathi]

What size discus are you getting? If still going for the 100+g I’d suggest doing at least 2 weekly 50% water changes if you get 5+” fish and daily for the first month. Just to get them adjusted to your water. Planted tanks and tank with substrate take more time and need more water changes.

Already 8cm, 12 discus in my 70gal tank. I raised them from 3cm to 4cm. Yes. i know its overstocked now. Every 2 days or 3days i'll do the water change. Sometimes plans are not working as what we expected. . IMG_20210102_210208__01.jpgimg_20210131_175531__01 (1).jpg

[Iminit]

Nice looking tank and discus!!

[Vinni Smith]

Python sells a 30" siphon, makes maintenance in my 31" tall aquarium so easy..best thing ever for tall aquariums..

I so have one of these and I love it. Never get my elbows wet.
However, it is not the gravel maintenance that is the issue. It is wiping the algae off the glass above the substrate.
Especially the green, hard to get off algae.
Really tough with an acrylic tank when you cannot use a razor blade tool.

[Bigdave]

I so have one of these and I love it. Never get my elbows wet.
However, it is not the gravel maintenance that is the issue. It is wiping the algae off the glass above the substrate.
Especially the green, hard to get off algae.
Really tough with an acrylic tank when you cannot use a razor blade tool.

20210321_110105.jpg

This will solve that problem, magnetic algae glass cleaner..no reason to not ever have one of these, especially when owning a tall tank..makes cleaning aquarium glass so easy...they also have for acrylic