London Discus

[nodder]

I’ve been slowly pulling this together in the hope that it might be useful for someone. Simply of course has lots of US members, but not all of your equipment is available across the pond, so sharing in case we have some UK or EU members on the search for setups.

The aquarium has only been running with livestock for about 8 weeks, and I’m still in that ‘nervous’ period, but the fish are active and eating and have plenty of attitude.

Tank & Lid

Tank is an AquaOne ReefSys 326 aquarium of dimension 120W x 55D x 53H cm, it’s a systemised (sump) aquarium geared towards the marine market. Rimless, braceless and built using 12mm low iron glass. The rear of the tank is black, with an acrylic overflow. Total volume c325 litres (a little over 86 US gallons).

The lid was a custom build from London Aquatic Design, who did an incredible job designing and building an acrylic lid that sits unobtrusively on the tank edges. It was specced with two removable inner honeycomb panels, a feeding hole, two cut outs (with lids) for Pothos and a couple of extra cut-outs for a backup thermometer and airline. It’s a very well-engineered piece. It wasn’t cheap, so I measured everything about 3 times before finalising! I reckon it’s cut down evaporation by about 65% and is very sturdy.

It all sits on the standard base unit which I found well engineered and went together well. The look is very ‘clean’.

The tank sits in the lounge and gets plenty of traffic coming past it through the day.

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Heating and Lighting

A pair of Aqua Illumination ‘Hydra 32 – Freshwater’ LED lamps sit upon two of their aluminium arms. These can run very bright, have very nice heatsinks built into the design and can be fully (colour/intensity) customised and scheduled through an accompanying app ‘MyAI’. That app has a bit of a learning curve associated with it, although you can download pre-built settings for a fast start. The lights have a built in fan which turns on very occasionally and isn’t too loud in use.

We run a gentle ramp up/down at the start and end of the day.

Heating is managed via a DD Titanium heater (350w) which is housed in the sump. That is in turn connected to a DD Dual Temp Controller and it holds temperature very nicely at 29.5c. The controller will run a cooling unit as well however that is not something that we’ve had a need for here in London so far!

I have a traditional heater available as a backup.


Sump & filtration

When speccing the tank I wanted to go for a sump – the first time I’ve used one – in the past always run my tanks using Eheim externals. Its taken a while to get my head around the sump, but all in all I’m pleased with the decision. The added water volume and size/flexibility of the sump means I can build the filter around exactly what I want.

The water journeys through:
1. Two fine filter socks (a bit of a pain and high on my upgrade list – will move to an auto fleece roller to reduce maintenance frequency).
2. 3 layers of sponge
3. A layer of fine filter floss
4. The largest chamber – biological – with a mixture of K1 and 4 ‘Bio’ blocks
5. Another layer of filter wool with Seachem Purigen sandwiched between

In addition, I’m running an Eheim UV (Reeflex 500) which has water pumped through at approx. 250-300 lph (slow enough to sterilise as well as clarify). The water is pumped through a small Eheim CompactOn 600 which has its flow turned right down.

Water is pushed back up using a TMC Reef Pump 4000 which seems rock solid and is currently running at about 50% capacity giving me a turnover of about 6x tank volume per hour.

The sump has a small (honestly too small) top up reservoir which is managed through a DD ATO sensor and pump.

For anyone that hasn’t used a sump before and is thinking about it – it has a lot of advantages over cannisters BUT I found it takes a while to learn its idiosyncrasies – so is a bit more hands on.

Décor and plants

This is (currently ) a 1 tank household, and being in the lounge, we wanted a tank with some décor. So knowing the extra challenges, décor comprises of a planted section with some plants that will tolerate the higher temperatures. The planted area covers approximately 35% of the tank footprint. I have 2 pots growing Pothos to further help with Nitrates and to give some further interest above and behind the tank.

I use 2hr Aquarist fertiliser which is a no/low nitrate feed and so far have had consistent growth with no algae issues to report.

Hardscaping is then rocks and wood, with the remainder of the footprint covered in a very thin layer of sand. The sand is vacuumed daily.

Maintenance regime

1. A (once or more) daily ‘fiddle’, removing uneaten food, vacuuming the sand, checking levels, glass wipe down and removal of snails!
2. A 50-65% water change every 4-5 days, conditioned but not aged tap water (more on this in the fish section below). Fresh water is within 5-10% of tank temperature.
3. Filter socks are cleaned every few days

Stock

• Sterbai Cory’s
• Otto’s
• Emperor Tetras
• Amano shrimp
• 8 German bred (Stendker) discus – purchased from a UK specialist

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The specialist I bought from makes and sells his own recipe of frozen food based on seafood and greens I believe – we took all 8 fish from the same tank from that same breeder and thought it made sense to continue to feed them what they are used to. In addition they take other frozen foods (bloodworm seems a hit) and will graze on pellets meant for the Cory’s and Otto’s.

I'll share how things progress!

[nodder]

Not sure why the photos have thumbnailed like that - will see if I can figure them out a bit better

[nodder]

Fixed the image size

[brewmaster15]

Got yourself a nice group of discus there Mark. Tank looks good too, but I think that image needs to be reloaded...I just see the thumbnail.

I appreciate all the info you gave there as well. We don't have too many active UK/EU members but we do have a few so hopefully this will be of interest too for them.

al

[nodder]

Thanks Al, if anyone has any hints, tips pointers I'd love to hear them

[Iminit]

Great looking tank and discus! Good info for our across the pond friends! Only thing I see and it could be the picture. Buttress third discus looks like its stomach is drawn in as in it may be starving.

[nodder]

Great looking tank and discus! Good info for our across the pond friends! Only thing I see and it could be the picture. Buttress third discus looks like its stomach is drawn in as in it may be starving.

Good morning Tom - thanks for taking the time to have a look and comment - much appreciated.

As I said right at the top of the original post I'm still in that 'nervous' stage, although I've kept cichlids for many many years, this is a return after a break of several, and my first Discus. I want to do this the right way, and so invested in what I believe to be some good equipment and husbandry from the start.

And so a few weeks in, and in the main all is well. But a little knowledge can be dangerous and all that...and I've made a couple of observations that are gnawing at me.

Most of the fish are active and are eating well, but one fish (number 5 in the images above) having been the most dominant for the first few days in the tank, has become subdued, spending 80% of it's time in a position to the side of the tank. I've not seen him eat for a few days (and I'm feeding the same food as the seller).

Then a couple of the fish will occasionally 'flash' their fins - I've seen that behaviour before in other cichlids, but I know it can be an indicator that something is aggravating them.

As a precaution, the tank was treated with eSHa -ndx (nematodes) and eSHa gdex (flukes). Last treatment of gdex was on Saturday with a 50% water change on Monday.

All fish have bright eyes, no clamped fins and all bar one are eating and active.

So herein lays my dilemma - do I:

1. Sit tight, let them settle and acclimatise - nothing to worry about - keep up the water changes and keep an eye on things?
2. Err on the side of caution, recognise that something is not quite right and try salt or similar?

It is important to me that the fish thrive, but I recognise that as this is a new tank and fish, and that I am in that ultra cautious phase. So I'm balancing being patient and letting things figure themselves out, vs catching something early and treating it gently. A post that JWCarlson made on my '3's the magic number' thread played into my thinking here.

Combined wisdom is appreciated!

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi Mark, first off, great fish and tank. You for sure put in alot of thought on putting your tank together. Since you have noticed one fish being "off" (isolating and not eating) and other fish flashing. You may need to consider a quarantine tank. Adding meds to a tank with substrate and plants does not seem to work. We have a great disease section on the forum if you wish to check that out.
Pat

[nodder]

Thanks Pat - I have a quarantine tank available - but am trying to figure out if I'm being overly cautious and just need to ride it out or whether with Discus you should jump at the first sign of anything?

[Bathi]

very nice tank.

[Second Hand Pat]

Thanks Pat - I have a quarantine tank available - but am trying to figure out if I'm being overly cautious and just need to ride it out or whether with Discus you should jump at the first sign of anything?

Hi Nodder, I am a huge fan of watching and observing. I never want to jump to a conclusion without due diligent. The fish that is isolating and not eating. I would suggest creating a thread in the disease section for the forum and fill out and post the disease questionnaire as part if that thread.

On the fish who are flashing etc, this could be a water issue such as not aging your water prior to a WC. Not changing enough water etc.

hths
Pat

[AquaticNerd]

The tank looks absolutely stunning and I love what you've done with the aquascape! I have to commend you on going with a non-barebottom setup, it's definitely more work to keep up especially with discus.

Gotta ask - with two of those AI Hydras how are you managing to keep it so free of algae? I swear even with my cheapo LED fixture I got off Amazon it would create an algae problem with only 4-5 hours of light time.

[nodder]

very nice tank.

Many thanks Bathi

[nodder]

Hi Nodder, I am a huge fan of watching and observing. I never want to jump to a conclusion without due diligent. The fish that is isolating and not eating. I would suggest creating a thread in the disease section for the forum and fill out and post the disease questionnaire as part if that thread.

On the fish who are flashing etc, this could be a water issue such as not aging your water prior to a WC. Not changing enough water etc.

hths
Pat

Thanks Pat - it does help - at this point I know I'm at risk of reading too much into the slightest detail - and recognise that adding meds, moving fish onto QT etc places additional stress onto them and may do more harm than good! So I'm trying to find that balance. I might give it another day or two and if no change, post a separate thread as you recommend.

[nodder]

The tank looks absolutely stunning and I love what you've done with the aquascape! I have to commend you on going with a non-barebottom setup, it's definitely more work to keep up especially with discus.

Gotta ask - with two of those AI Hydras how are you managing to keep it so free of algae? I swear even with my cheapo LED fixture I got off Amazon it would create an algae problem with only 4-5 hours of light time.

Hi Jake - thanks for your comments

The schedule runs from 0830 through 2230 with a ramp up/down covering 30 minutes. They are quite powerful lights, and I keep the intensity pretty low. Perhaps I've been lucky so far, but the plants are growing well, with good colour, coupled with the Pothos (which is just acclimatising now and throwing out new growth) and a low nitrate fertiliser I seem to have found a balance. The Ottos and shrimp are helping too. Also, I keep the blue channel very low as I've heard that can be a trigger.

Whatever combination of the above it is - so far so good!