Hello Everyone

[Hugh]

I just wanted to say hello and give Kudos to the creators of this Message Board.
I spent about 7 hours yesterday afternoon reading threads. Everything from planted tanks Vs. BB, Who to buy Discus from, waterchanges, the works.

After reading the threads i must admit i am now thoroughly confused on how to keep a tank set up for Discus ??? . I am not new to fish keeping they have been my only pet of choice since i was about 18yrs old and have had tanks as large as 150gal. set up in my home for comunity and South American cichlids.

I have atemped only one other time to keep Discus since now, and i admit it was not a happy ending for the fish. I decided not to try it again because of the cost of the fish in my area (about 85 dollars for a fish of 3 inches). Recently i found a Fish store that had a nice selection of Pigeon Bloods and Turqs. He also had great prices (15 dollars a fish at 1.5-3inch).

I took this oppertunity to check his fish out for the last 3 weeks. All were healthy and eating regularly. I snuck in my PH test kit and took a sample of the water the discus were in and it was at 6.8. The fish seemed content. I picked out 5 that i liked varying in size ( I picked the ones that came to the top of the tank as i mimicked a feeding).

This sorta leads me into my next question. I dont have my large tanks set up right now because my apartment does not allow me the room needed. I do have a 35gal Tall tank. In it i have at the moment 4 Blue Rams (1 mated pair soon to be getting their own place), and i also have 12 Neons and 3 Cory's. Is this going to be an ok Community?

I noticed most of the posts here lead me to believe that you all are hard-core Discus owners and keep them in tanks with only other discus. Everything i have read in books online or in Magz says this will work out fine. I would just like to get some info from a person who has had the experience of keeping discus with other fish.

I also have a question about water changes. I read here most of you do daily changes of 10% on the low side to 50% from one gentleman being the highest. How do you control your bacteria and you chlorine/nitrite/nitrate/PH levels with such frequent water changes?

With my other tanks i had filtration set-ups like the fluval 304 , emporror double bio wheel, and some undergrounds with powerhead units. With my current tanks i opted to buy the eclipse all in one hood with lighting and filter. Makes it easier when you only have 2 whires comming out of your tank instead of 5. Do you all use wet-dry systems?

I seen alot of refferences to RO does this stand for Reverse Osmosis?

Thanks for taking the time to read my long thread, I had alot of thoughts running around in my head for the last 48 hours and wanted to get them down before i forgot them. Well Met one and all.

- Hugh -

[Ralph]

Hi Hugh,
I'm going to give this a try, there is a lot of questions in your post though, let me know if I miss any.

There is way too much to read here, I can't keep up with new posts, much less read all the old ones, no wonder you got a little confused.

Community tanks: most here are discus-only people but there are a few of the community people here too. The rams and cories should be fine, your neons will be fine for one day (they'll most likely be eaten by the discus on the first night). People have kept the two together by starting with young discus and raising them together. Generally you would be better off with cardinals or rummynose (my favorite).

The best way to do WCs is with a water treatment tank. Keep the WC water in a tank with a heater and airstone to get it to match the conditions (temp, pH, etc) in the discus tank before you add it. There are posts with more detail in the water quality section.

You will find all kinds of water filters here on the forum, many wet-dry, but Aquaclear power filters are the most popular. I have a canister on one of my tanks and I like it.

RO is Reverse Osmosis, it is lacking completely in hardness so it is easy to manipulate the pH. Don't use RO only though. More info in Water Quality.

It sounds like you found some good fish. Keep posting questions.

[jim_shedden]

High..welcome to Simply

[Ryan]

Hi Hugh,

Welcome to the board.

You will also want to quarantine your fish if you have an extra tank. This is very important. You do not want your new fish to spread some kind of disease to your current fish, and vice versa.

I have found that rams work very well with discus, as do cory cats, but your tank is a little on the small side for 5 discus, even at this size. You may want to think about firing up a bigger tank, say 55 gallons or so, if you have the room and money to do so.

Ralph is right, the best thing to do is age your water before you change it. This will allow you to heat it and give the pH time to settle so that it doesn't upset your fish. Also, if you have city water that is treated with chlorine/chloramine, you can treat it while it's being "aged" for you next water change. Use a product like Amquel or Prime. You can "age" water in another tank, or in a Rubbermaid container. I use a Rubbermaid trash can with an airstone and a heater. I let the water age overnight before I use it.

RO does stand for Reverse Osmosis, but if your rams and cories are doing okay without RO water, your discus will most likely do okay too.

Ryan

[Carol_Roberts]

A 35 gallon planted tank probably contains less than 30 gallons of water. 5 small discus are fine in 30 gallons with daily water changes. They may outgrow your tank in a few months.

You're right, most of the lovely photos in books show brightly colored adults in planted tank. Here is the reasoning behind the bare bottom tanks for grow outs. . . . .

For some of us the focus is on the discus themselves rather than their surroundings. We want to grow out the biggest, healthiest discus we can. Discus do most of their growing in the first 9 months of life. We want to optimize their growth during that time period.

We think of the tank as a large glass feeding trough. We put in lots of meaty live and frozen foods. To maintain water quality we need to vacuum up every speck - so no gravel or decorations for food and feces to hide in. Most of us have prefilter sponges on the water intake to keep food and feces out of the filter too.

Because of all the disolved proteins in the water from the feeding (and pooping) we do massive daily water changes. Water changes and bare tanks are not as crucial for adults as they are done growing.

Discus are different that other tropical fish. They need very clean water to stay healthy and grow fast.

[Hugh]

Thanks
You all answered my questions excellently, thanks for the tip on water changes.
I was actually looking for some room today to set up my 55gal. long tank. The same shop where i bought my Fish has a great price on Stands and canopies for that size.

Later this week I am going to invest in a WC rubbermade tub. I read here that you all feed your discus BH and some other forms of food in their diet. Right now I have my fish eating Redworms/FD brineshrimp(although the discus ignore it, the rest of my community love them)/ Beef Heart. My question pertians to the BH. I have a store bought brand by San Fransisco Pet food or something to that extent they are local to me in the S.F. Bay area. My discus are ignoring it all together. Although i have only had them home for 3 days now. They are swimming to the top and gettin the worms but they wont touch the frozen beef heart. Do you all just put the BH cubes Frozen in the tank or do you thaw it a little in warm water first ?

I understand the theory about large tanks + fewer fish = Larger fish over all, But dont discus stress easily. I would think a place for them to get outa sight if they wanted to would be benificial to their over all health and well being, am i wrong in my assumption? I really want my fish to be the biggest and healthiest they can be. I set this tank up with the Discus in mind. If the rest of the fish need to find new homes i have friends who have community tanks that would make a great home for them.

You where right about the Neons im missing 2 :'(

Anyhow thanks for replying talk to you all later

- Hugh -

[Debbie]

Hi Hugh and welcome. If you are more interested in planted tanks you should check out the Show tanks and biotypes section. There are many people who can help you out. There is also a thread about tankmates for discus. Neons are a poor choice because they can't tolerate the high temps. that discus need and also when the discus are older your neons (or cardinals) may become lunch. I love planted tanks and won't have a sterile BB tank, but that doesn't mean they don't have their place. Planted tanks are a bit more work but in my opinion are worth it. Since you are starting out with discus you may want to go with the BB tank for a little while, then add plants, gravel to the tank. You could put in decorations and or live plants to give the tank a more natural look even with out a substrate. Planted tanks don't necessarily mean that your fish won't be large and healthy, it just means that it will be a little more work to get there, so what ever your decision is there are people to help.