If you build it, they will come - Jims Discus Journal

[fishy_jim]

Officially starting my tank journal and I'm super excited to start. I come from keeping tropical fish since I was 10 and have always had a tank of some sort since. Ive done fish only tropical, 110g planted, Reef tank (still have) and now a smaller planted community tank. I had the desire to start something totally new and I have always had a special spot in my heart for discus but too scared to try and also knew nothing at all how to best keep them. So jump forward to today, I have purchased an x80 gallon from Waterbox aquarium, and I am expecting my delivery hopefully next week. My wife has agreed to place this in our living room currently where we have our TV, and the TV will be wall mounted elsewhere. This way we can sit and enjoy it as much as we want. That is a little about my background. In this journal I want to document the entire process from the very beginning in hopes to help people also starting out as well as a place for me to reach out for help when the time comes. I have learned so much on SimplyDiscus and thank you for Al for creating this awesome platform !! My initial ideas of what I wanted to do with the tank and what I have come to do with the tank have changed 180 degrees all due to what I have learned here. I've also learned that what my LFS (that I thought knew EVERYTHING in reality are so far off when it comes to discus keeping. I originally wanted to do a planted tank with discus but after my research I have decided to go bare bottom. I will have a hunk of drift wood with some mountain rock and attach a few plants to those. This will allow me if I need to remove things extremely easily and clean as well as make the maintenance easy. Keeping things as easy as possible I believe is VERY important to keep the water quality as perfect as I can to give the fish the best environment I can. This tank will be 100% all about the discus. I would like to add a shoal of dither fish and some cory but that will be later and definitely will be added after a quarantine period. I don't plant to add the dither fish for at least 6 months to a year after I get the hang of things and learn my discus. So , there is my background and startup goal I have for this. I hope you enjoy following along on my journal !!

[brewmaster15]

Jim sounds like you are off to a great start! Glad the forum has helped you here! Looking forward to watching your journey into this awesome hobby!

Welcome to the Discus Hobby!

Al

[Willie]

...I believe is VERY important to keep the water quality as perfect as I can to give the fish the best environment I can. This tank will be 100% all about the discus...

Good to see that you understand the requirement for keeping water quality as perfect as you can. Just understand that large, frequent water changes will be necessary. Despite the beauty of these fish, most of us do not keep them in the living room for this reason.

[fishy_jim]

Just understand that large, frequent water changes will be necessary. Despite the beauty of these fish, most of us do not keep them in the living room for this reason.

Yeah - I know. The placement of the tank won't be in an obstructive view of the TV so I won't disturb my wife watching the game .. LOL. We wanted it in there as we can enjoy watching them while we relax . (After water changes of course

[fishy_jim]

Tank update !! Just got notification the tank and other essentials will be delivered Tuesday (in 2 days) !! My hope is to be able to assemble the stand this week and then place the tank Friday evening. I will have all day Saturday to myself so I want to get everything hooked up and running and start the cycle. I will not be seeding with filter material from my other tanks but will be doing a fishless cycle from scratch on this one.

Here is my equipment/tank specs:

Tank - X80 Waterbox Aquarium with low iron ultra clear glass. (47.2" × 19.7" × 22.8") length/width/height
Light - 80 watt Aqua Illumination Blade Freshwater
Filtration - (2) Sicce Eko 300 Canister filters with 3 media trays - also going to put pre-filter sponges and the intakes. Haven't decided what media to run yet.
Heaters - (2) Cobalt Aquatics Neo-Glass Aquarium Heaters 250w. Planning to run the tank at 84 degrees.
Temperature Controller - Inkbird ITC-306A WiFi
Water Aging Station - 44 gallon Brute trash can. I'm using 2 - 75 watt heaters I had laying around to heat the water with a circulation pump running in the Brute can. Aged water test settled in to 7.78 PH, KH of 42 ppm (2.3 degrees) Soft water in my region !

I will be doing my water changes and vacuuming with a Hygger water changer (Python equivalent but half the price). I will them pump the clean water into the tank from the aging station being housed in the garage and then I will refill the Brute also using the Hygger. No hauling buckets around and should be easy to do. I haven't decided on my water change schedule yet so I will post that when I figure out what works best for the discus and for me. At the minimum I will be doing 2 - 50% water changes per week or maybe 3 - 30% changes per week. Not sure yet what are your thoughts on that? I'm now doing juvenile discus and plan to get 3.5" - 4.5" size range discus. I want to get 8 but possibly may knock that back to 6 -also not decided as of yet. The aquascape will be minimal and basic. Planning to do BB (bare bottom) with a nice piece of driftwood and attach plants to it. If I need to I can then easily yank it out all in one swoop and give it a rinse or clean it. Also will have a few mountain rocks in the tank and possibly a plant or 2 attached it them. Would a super thin sand layer approx 1/8 - to 1/4" deep cause any major issue or should I just do the bare bottom? For the discus I will be doing a mix of strains and have been eyeballing Jack Wattley, Hans, Exotic Discus, and Pingco's but have not decided where I want to get my discus from yet.

Thats where I am at now with this build. I will post some pics once the tank arrives as well as initial setup pics.

[Discus Fever]

Sounds like fun keep us posted with plenty of pics along the way

[fishy_jim]

Update on my discus tank build. On Tuesday after waiting for a month, my new tank arrived !! It is an 80 gallon tank from Waterbox Aquariums. After assembling the cabinet this week and then moving the tank in its spot last night, today I filled it with water to do a leak test. Test passed ... LOL My light for it was on backorder (AI Freshwater) but they got new inventory in and FedEx'd out to me and is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow !!. So far so good and I am very pleased with the quality of the tank. Here are some pics of what's happened so far.

Del_Truck.jpg

Skid.jpg

Tank.jpg

[Discus Fever]

Glad to see things are coming together, keep us posted with plenty of pictures!!!

[Adamski77]

Congratulations! Xmas came early… love the spirit of the update… including the truck arrival!
Awesome ��

[fishy_jim]

Welp - my new AI Blade light that was first backordered did arrive and I set it up and played around with programming it and played around with the other settings the other night. I turned it off and went to work the next morning only to come home with one of the 4 segments on the light on !! It was glowing a weird reddish color and no matter what it would not turn off. Didn't even last 1 day !! Well, I called Aquaillumination the next morning and they have a new one being sent which I should receive this Saturday. Any ways, I plann tomorrow night to get the sand in the tank, and I have decided to only put down a dusting of sand, enough to eliminate any reflection on the bottom. I have a super nice piece of driftwood Im putting in and also ordered some java moss, a few anubias (3 types) and a few java fern that I will be attaching to the wood. Not sure when the plants will arrive but by Saturday I will have the cycle process started at least and the filter fired up and running as well as setting up my inkbird temperature controller. I will post pics after I get all that setup.

Which layout do you all like best? I like #2

Option 1
Option 1.jpeg

Option 2
Option 2.jpeg

[pastry]

I'm really liking Jim's style... keep posting updates as it's developed, Jim!

[AquaticNerd]

I like option 1 better. How stable is it in that configuration? Does it rock around or get knocked over easily?

[fishy_jim]

I like option 1 better. How stable is it in that configuration? Does it rock around or get knocked over easily?

It is very stable and won't move around at all.

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi Jim, however you decide to position your wood I suggest you point the end with the most branches toward a corner of the tank. Sometimes if/when discus spook they can hurt themselves of the tips of branches. Nice point of wood BTW
Pat

[Iminit]

Tank looks great. Is the bottom painted? And the back? Another option for the wood may be to cut the long one and have it stand up on the roots. Looks like enough height for the discus to swim under. Shame about the light!