Please help, planning a new discus tank.

[RoseGardener]

The last time I had discus was decades ago, I have other tanks since, from arowana, severum, African cichlids, planted tank with small dishes, just haven't touch discus in those decades. This is what I am planning to do, please feel free to critique and pick my plans apart, the objective is to enjoy the fishes, not to spawn them:


1. My water company use chlorine, water are not overly hard with ph around 7.6-7.8
2. I want a planted tank of 120g (72" x 20" x 24"), glass.
3. Filtration by two foam filter driven by air pumps.
4. A continuous drip with inline chorine filter. Will use 2g/hour irrigation emitter, with timer at 6 hours per day. @12g per day, according this calculator, at the end of the week, 41 gal of original water still in the tank, with 59% new water. 12g/day is 84g per week. I will, however, pipe the discharged water to a plastic drum and use to water the garden.
5. Tank will have small black gravel as substrate, I like thick substate, so how about 6"?
6. I have no decided on lighting, but have decided on using CO2.
7. Tank decor: driftwood, and biggish rocks.
8. Plants: not decided yet. any suggestions?
9. Heating, in summer, my house will keep at a constant 78F, winter about 70F, I like to keep the tank at 78-80F.
10. Discus, ideally about 4 to 6 of them, max 8 but probably 6.
11. Tankmates: 8 cory, 4 SAE, 4-6 ottos,
12. Dithers, quite undecided, love to use zebra danio but can they handle 80F? I think platy will have the same problem?

OK, I am assuming discus do not handle changes in water parameter well, folks do daily water change instead of week to avoid a big sudden changes? I am hoping to use a daily drip of 12 gallons of fresh water to keep the water parameter fairly constant. Although I would prefer to do just 8g per day or 56g/week, roughly 50% of that 120g.

Any help is appreciated.

[bluelagoon]

1. Are you aging or using a conditioner to rid the water of chlorine? Your ph looks good.
2. When discus reach about 4.5-5 inches they should do better in a planted tank. Difficult to keep water pristine during grow out period with plants and substrate. But can be doable with lots more maintenance.
3.With planted and substrate and the bio-load you plan, you might need more than just sponges. I had a FX6 on the tank I had that size and it worked great for mechanical and bio filtration. Sponges are great but the can only do so much mechanically on larger tanks.
4.Not sure how you figured it out on how much water will need to be changed though automatic WC. Seems to me when doing automatic WC's you'll go though a lot more water because some of the water just put in some of it is going right back out again with a mix of new and old water.
5.Thick substrate will increase the likely hood of some nasty parasites and bacteria. But them again can be done with lots of regular cleaning. Black substrate and most pigeon blood discus will pepper and even the other discus can turn dark.
6.CO2 shouldn't be used unless you have the light and nutrients for fast growth. You need all 3 for this to work well. The atmospheric air pressure should do most plants just fine.
7.Ok there.
8.Lots of plants that do ok at 82f or so.
9.You should have an 82F for discus. Up to 86f when growing out for better results on eating and activity. This increases their metabolism and faster growth.
10.six-8 is great but if you buy a few more, one or two of the lesser fish can be culled later on.
11.Those fish should be ok but get corys that will take the warm water.
12. I would try some sort of tetra.
This is my opinion others will be different.
Are you getting grown out discus?
It would also be better to grow young discus out in a smaller bare bottom tank.

[RoseGardener]

Hi Bluelagoon,

1. I am planning to use an inline chlorine filter.
2. Totally agree, therefore I am unsure if I will go for it for do something else like an Angel fish tank?
3. Totally open to additional or different filters.
4. I use this calculator: https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/...aterChange.php
5. Didn't know that color change, thanks for info.
6. Noted.
9. 82F does narrow down some on what other fishes to cohabit the tank.
10. noted
11. noted
12. Any recommendations of tetra?

I am hoping to buy say 3-4" discus??

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi RoseGardener, check out this older article on water changes http://www.simplydiscus.com/library/..._formula.shtml