Tank Setup Questionaire

[RogueDiscus]

I stand by my statement. Any pressurized tap water will contain CO2. The test strips shouldn't be the issue. What surface water are you talking about?

[bluelagoon]

It can rise or lower depending on how many and what other elements that are present in the water in this case calcium. Also temperature, aeration, ph and pressure play a roll. As carbonic acid comes in under pressure and mixes with the surface, changes to CO2 which airs off, in most cases where PH is around 7 it will drop. But if you look at the municipal water Ca 2.2 and 8.5 ph. The CO2 is being removed but the calcium brings it back up. The aeration is not removing calcium. So, it all depends on your water and what's in it.

[LizStreithorst]

My understanding is that if the calcium is in the form of calcium carbonate it will raise the ph. There is another form of calcium (can't remember what it's called) that raises general hardness but leaves carbonate hardness alone. Water chemistry is very complex. I wish I understood it better.

[captainandy]

Calcium carbonate is fairly insolvable in neutral to alkaline water.
It contributes little to pH

In reefing, most corals require high calcium levels to build skeletons.
You actually have to make saturated calcium chloride solution - by bubbling CO2 and slowly drip it into the sump (kalcreactor)

[bluelagoon]

I have calcium chloride that I use in one of my tanks. Lime stone is probably in his area which contains calcium and carbonate ions. Which will raise both GH and KH. In any case if it were me I'd age the water if changing large amounts at a time. Better to do the gas exchange outside the tank rather than have fish swimming in soda water.

[bluelagoon]

Soda water was just a joke. But if you let soda pop set it does the same gas exchange and goes flat.

[franktx]

I have calcium chloride that I use in one of my tanks. Lime stone is probably in his area which contains calcium and carbonate ions. Which will raise both GH and KH. In any case if it were me I'd age the water if changing large amounts at a time. Better to do the gas exchange outside the tank rather than have fish swimming in soda water.

You are spot on I live in Central Texas south of Dallas/Fort Worth area and when I dig in yard for fence posts I have to rent a jackhammer to get thru the limestone !!!

I aged some water 24 hours PH went to 8.3 I let that water age to 48 hours it is now at 8.07 using PH meter

[DiscusJoe34]

1) Hello, my name is Joe and I’ve been keeping fish off and on the last 20 years or so. Started in my teenage years with some mini puffers then graduated to 30 gallon community tank, then a 40 breeder with a couple of angles and some tetras. Newest tank is a 75 gallon I’ve built for discus from the beginning. Has Black Neons, albino pleco, so stirbai Cory and rummy nose in it, has been up and running for the last 6 months.

2) Have been doing research and learning about discus for the last year or so learning from this forum, YouTube, local fish stores, even a few people I know that have kept discus.

3) Tank the discus will be in is a 75 gallon community with a primary focus on discus. Everything in the tank has been chosen to match up with them.

4) Tank has a thin layer of substrates for they Cory’s to work in with some spider wood. There is currently one Anubias in the tank and I’m wanting to add at least one more just to help with a little filtration of nitrates and give some color to everything. Nothing more than that as far as plants though.

5) Water changes are currently once a week around 30-40% of RO remineralized with seachem equilibrium. After remineralization GH is around 7-8. I plan on doing twice a week changes the first month or two once we have the discus in place and Dailey testing to keep track of things.

6) Tank has a single Fx6 using seachem Matrix in all 3 media trays as well as some purigan. I am currently using their spray bar for the outlet with keeps the surface agitated pretty well but makes sure the flow in the middle and bottom of the tank is nice and peaceful. Have one heater right now but will have a back up as well as a secondary temp sensor by the time the discus are in a month or two from now.

7) If the tank is already setup and running, include the water parameters;

- temp __83-84___

- tank ph __7.4-7.6___

- Ph of the water straight out of your tap ___over 8 out of the tap, after RO down to 6.4__

- ammonia reading _0___

- nitrite reading __0__

- nitrate reading __last reading was <10__

- well water ____

- municipal water ____


8) Currently have 6 black neons, 8 rummy nose, 8 dwarf neon rainbow, 1 albino bristlenose, 8 corydora (4 stirbai, 3 violet, 1 panda). I plan to add 6 discus around 3” and grow them out. Currently trying to narrow my list down to 2 or 3 breeders so when the time comes here in a couple of months I can have an easier time selecting.

9) Currently feeding twice a day but plan to increase to 4 times a day with discus as I want to get 3” and grow them out

10) This hobby is strictly for enjoyment and family fun. I have two younger daughters who absolutely love our current tanks and I’ve found a lot of enjoyment in taking care of them over the last couple of years.

[Iminit]

Nice setup! Look at Pingco’s discus. Just put up his new delivery. Good looking discus from a great seller.

[Greg-Florida]

This questionnaire may be used to either help you to describe your new tank setup for discus or
be a “food for thought” checklist while you consider what your goals are with your new discus tank setup.

.....

8) Describe your current or planned stocking levels; number/size of discus and number/type of dither fish. Where did you get your discus from or do you have a proposed source for getting your discus?

9) Describe your planned or existing feeding regimen. Include what and how often you are feeding on a daily basis.

10) What are your goals in this hobby? For example are you looking to keep discus in a planted community tank, or do you hope to become a hobby breeder of Discus? Do you want to raise Discus with the hopes of competing in shows?

Thanks, this is an excellent post and all great information!

[MichiganDiscusEnthusiast]

This questionnaire may be used to either help you to describe your new tank setup for discus or
be a “food for thought” checklist while you consider what your goals are with your new discus tank setup.

1) Please Introduce your self and tell us what your experience is with fishkeeping, give us as much information as possible as to how long in the hobby, what you have kept in the past and what you currently are working with.
My name is Kyle and as far as fishkeeping experience goes I have little to none. My step-daughter wanted a tank and convinced us to get her one. After taking care of it for almost a year we decided to get our own. We went with glo-fish from the LPS and some cory catfish for a while but noticed the tank was lacking the pizazz. Then we found discus. After some research and some time to adjust the temperature of the tank to their warmer climate we added four 3.5 inch discus to our tank. After some trial and error and a deathly encounter with a heater failing we ended up with 4 discus and the corys alone. Two of the discus took a liking to each other so I set up a breeding tank.
2) If you have no previous experience with keeping discus, have you done any research to properly prepare yourself, e.g. have you read any Stickies in this section of SimplyDiscus, or other material?
I've been caring for the discus for a little over 8 months now and with the research ive accumulated from this forum as well as youtube has guided me to a more stable condition for all of my discus.
3) Describe your tank, its size and dimensions, breeding or display. Include how long it has been setup or if it is still being cycled.
For now lets focus on the community tank. Its currently a 46 gallon display tank that has been cycling for 11 months total
4) Describe the décor for the tank; type of substrate or bare bottom (BB), whether the tank will be planted or a biotope.
Its a gravel substrate that is lightly planted but I am planning on upgrading to a 75 gallon tank.
5) Describe your water changes planned or practiced, percentage and how often. Include if you age your water and use of tap/RO or mix.
Water changed 1 time every week, with the occasion 2 time a week to keep nitrates under control. It is a mix of both tap water and reverse osmosis.
6) Describe the type of filtration planned/used for the tank; sponge, HOB and/or sump. Also include the other equipment you are, or will be, using in your tank, e.g. heater, lighting, etc.
The current tank is a HOB but i plan on moving to a canister filter when I get the 75 gallon. I am running 2 airstones and a 300 watt heater with white and blue lights.
7) If the tank is already setup and running, include the water parameters;

- temp 85.5 degrees Fahrenheit

- tank ph 7.5

- Ph of the water straight out of your tap 7.8

- ammonia reading 0

- nitrite reading 0

- nitrate reading 0-5ppm

- well water No

- municipal water Yes


8) Describe your current or planned stocking levels; number/size of discus and number/type of dither fish. Where did you get your discus from or do you have a proposed source for getting your discus?
Currently in the tank I have 4 discus, 2 angelfish and 2 cory catfish. I plan on putting the current 6 discus, 2 angelfish and 2 cory catfish I have scattered in 2 tanks into the one 75 gallon tank. This will free up my community tank to raise single generations of fry when my discus start potentially pairing off. (I'm hoping)
9) Describe your planned or existing feeding regimen. Include what and how often you are feeding on a daily basis.
I feed the community tank twice a day: Flakes, vibrabites and dried blood worms in the morning, frozen bloodworms and beefheart in the evening.
10) What are your goals in this hobby? For example are you looking to keep discus in a planted community tank, or do you hope to become a hobby breeder of Discus? Do you want to raise Discus with the hopes of competing in shows?

What a question. For right now I live in an apartment, so I have to keep my newfound aspirations at bay. Lets just say for now I would like to give these guys an upgrade in community space. Im looking at buying a used 75 gallon tank and painting the back of it black to add some depth. The substrate I know I want sand but am unsure as to what color. I was thinking on the neutral side. This tank I want to look good and heavily planted though. I want it to be so you only see the fish, substrate and greenery: No cords, wires and tubes. Ive seen this accomplished with some sort of plastic piece that looks like wood with holes so the water can freely pass through to easily be heated, treated and aerated. Im looking for any helpful suggestions on what plants to put in the tank. I almost want the plants to be in an elongated horseshoe shape so that there are gorgeous and tall plants in either back corner trailing to the front center of the tank in an arch of shorter and smaller plants, almost leaving a stage in the center for the fish to be able to swim without obstruction. So essentially my questions are:
- What plants work well with these discus? I know the anubias fare well but are there truly that many different kinds?
-What color sand should I use with the black background I'm planning for this 75 gallon?
-I know corys like to hide in caves but I'm thinking of the most natural look I can get, would rocks from Lake Huron work if I put them close together in the middle?
-Where do I acquire one of those plastic looking hollow tree stumps that hide the heater, filter and air stones? Or am I better off making something somehow?
-How much sand should I end up with in the bottom of the tank? I've heard that you need to have at least an inch per gallon but that is way too much IMO.
Any advice on setting up the tank itself would be appreciated as well. I plan on using media from the current community tank to kickstart the 75 gallons as well as adding a pinch of fish food every once and again while I let 'er marinate for a month.

Thanks again for the opportunity to get my questions out to a community of such a niche hobby.

[brewmaster15]

Hi Kyle,
A few notes here..

You mentioned wanting to get a used 75 gal tank. Though thats always possible you may do better at Petco.com since you are new to fish keeping you may find it interesting to learn that Petco runs special tank sales all the time.. you can get great deals when they do.

You can get your accessories for the tank there as well.

How much sand should I end up with in the bottom of the tank? I've heard that you need to have at least an inch per gallon but that is way too much IMO.

I would suggest less than an 1/2 " sand depth unless you are doing a planted tank. You may want to use drift wood with tied on plants.. or use potted plants.

Check.out this vid...
https://youtu.be/XKxp57kr9Eg

Roland is a member here and has a really great potted tank.

would rocks from Lake Huron work

I would not use them.. Rocks can affect the pH, GH and KH of the tank..if you do.. thoroughly look into the geology of the rocks there. I visited Lake Huron shores before.. very nice but the rocks looks like a mix of glacial till.. which could affect pH and GH.
Al

[ravvlet]

1) Please Introduce your self and tell us what your experience is with fishkeeping, give us as much information as possible as to how long in the hobby, what you have kept in the past and what you currently are working with.

Hey! I’ve been keeping fish on and off since I was a kid.I am 37 now and have a heavily planted high tech 20g L with neocaridina and a fancy goldfish (we are letting him grow out whilst deciding if we will just get him a bigger tank or build a pond). I chose the 20L because shorter tank meant more PAR for plants, but same length as a 29 so he has room to swim. He’s a short finned black moor. I also have a 5.5 that’s planted and is currently a holding tank for spare plant cuttings but will eventually be a pea puffer tank. Also going to be starting a daphina colony. Oh, and I have a nano aquaponics set up that’s fully planted out with a betta and ghost shrimp.

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2) If you have no previous experience with keeping discus, have you done any research to properly prepare yourself, e.g. have you read any Stickies in this section of SimplyDiscus, or other material?

I’m in the process of reading everything here! I sort of started backwards and used the search function to answer my questions, so now I’m going back to read the stickies.

3) Describe your tank, its size and dimensions, breeding or display. Include how long it has been setup or if it is still being cycled.

I have a fresh 55g I am in the process of planting out and then cycling. I have Fritz 7zyme and Fritz fishless cycle (ammonia). I’m probably going to stock it with amano shrimp and let it mature for a bit. I have pennywort, a bucket full of java fern, swords, dwarf hair grass, hornwort and ludwigia repens to go in it (doing the scraping this weekend actually) as well as some jungle Val I’m picking up today.

I guess that makes it a display tank, haha, sorry.

4) Describe the décor for the tank; type of substrate or bare bottom (BB), whether the tank will be planted or a biotope.

Planted tank, playsand with root tabs for substrate along with some rocks and driftwood.

5) Describe your water changes planned or practiced, percentage and how often. Include if you age your water and use of tap/RO or mix.

Our tap is very soft (1 KH, 2-3 GH 0 TDS) and PH is 7.4 so I usually use tap. For my planted tanks I do 20% WC weekly because I fertilize heavily and ferts/evaporation tends to raise my TDS. I am going to be testing the water frequently whilst the plants are growing out to decide how often to do WC but I’m assuming it will be at least a few times a week; I won’t lie, I’d love to avoid daily. I have a python for WC but I’ve read aged water is better - where do y’all store 20+ gallons of water to age it? 😅 that’s my main hang up regarding WC - if I can just run the python in for refills I don’t mind daily, but if I’ve got to have pre prepped water that’s a whole nother bucket of worms - we live in a narrow townhouse where storage is limited.

6) Describe the type of filtration planned/used for the tank; sponge, HOB and/or sump. Also include the other equipment you are, or will be, using in your tank, e.g. heater, lighting, etc.

I have two aquarium co-op 100W heaters going in on both ends of the tank. It’s a used tank so it came with a topfin silent stream power filter rated at 400gph; I know the brand is crap but I’m using coarse sponge instead of the standard filter media as well as a sponge on the intake. On the opposite end of the tank I have a large sponge filter with a battery backed up air pump. I have a 70W hygger plant light as well.

7) If the tank is already setup and running, include the water parameters;

N/a

8) Describe your current or planned stocking levels; number/size of discus and number/type of dither fish. Where did you get your discus from or do you have a proposed source for getting your discus?

I’d like to have 5-6 discus. I don’t plan to keep anything else in the tank besides snails and shrimp. I am deciding on size to acquire now. My biggest pickle is that it seems like what matters is the age of the fish to determine if they’re stunted or not, and I’m not sure if my LFS will have that info. I’m in Seattle, and I know Aquarium Co-Op and Aquarium Zen both stock discus - I’m going to ask where they source them. I’ve also read that Myrtle Beach Discus is a good seller.

9) Describe your planned or existing feeding regimen. Include what and how often you are feeding on a daily basis.

I’m working on this. I’m going to raise live daphina for our future pea puffer and I stock a lot of frozen foods for our goldfish and betta. I keep reading conflicting information about beef heart. The LFS reccomends Hikari branded pellets for discus (I feed Hikari Saki and Repashy BioGold to our goldfish, and the shrimp and snails like it too, although they have their own species specific foods). As I don’t have any discus and don’t plan on getting them anytime soon, I’m still in the research phase on food!

10) What are your goals in this hobby? For example are you looking to keep discus in a planted community tank, or do you hope to become a hobby breeder of Discus? Do you want to raise Discus with the hopes of competing in shows?

I won’t lie, discus showing sounds really cool, but I’m a mom of two kids and I also keep parrots, so my hands are sort of full. I think, as much as I’d like to answer “I’m going to be the Ash Ketchum of discus!” that the reality is that I’d like some healthy, happy, long lived weird big frisbee fish to enjoy in our home.

[brewmaster15]

Hi! Welcome to SimplyDiscus! Have to tell you your planted 20g looks awesome!

As west coast.. check out Golden State Discus. You want to avoid most petshops for discus unless you can pick them out in person and learn what to look for.

Do you know what your pH is in aged water vs out of tap.. you may not need to age at all.

I know you want a planted 55 gal.. if so consider a few Adults... 5-6 is really tight.. I would suggest 3-4 adults .. same gender if the 55 gal is going to be planted heavy. I would also suggest buying all at once.

You have come to the right place if you want to be a Pokemon/ I mean discus trainer... and Discus are way cooler than Magikarp

[ravvlet]

Hi! Welcome to SimplyDiscus! Have to tell you your planted 20g looks awesome!

As west coast.. check out Golden State Discus. You want to avoid most petshops for discus unless you can pick them out in person and learn what to look for.

Do you know what your pH is in aged water vs out of tap.. you may not need to age at all.

I know you want a planted 55 gal.. if so consider a few Adults... 5-6 is really tight.. I would suggest 3-4 adults .. same gender if the 55 gal is going to be planted heavy. I would also suggest buying all at once.

You have come to the right place if you want to be a Pokemon/ I mean discus trainer... and Discus are way cooler than Magikarp

Thanks so much! I nicknamed my 20 “the jungle” because I bought a lot of those plants half melted on discount at PETCO, and with shrimp and CO2 they exploded. I was naughty and didn’t properly cycle, just threw a ton of plants and shrimp at it to see what happened - I solemnly swear I’ve been much more careful since then, haha. I was worried when we added the goldfish but the plants are so abundant the nitrates are always zero unless I add ferts. (Am/Ni obviously always zero too!) I do WC to keep the TDS down.


Thanks for the stocking info - 5-6 did seem like a lot for such a narrow tank. Sadly we just don’t have room for a deeper tank.

I have never purposefully tested aged water, but my tank pH reads the same as tap - I keep tabs on it because the shrimp were finicky (they’ve taken off since, got a lot of little babies in there now!).

Yeah, the pros for the LFS was that I could see the fish I am picking, whereas if I order online I get what they send me. Spooky for adult size fish as they’re so costly! I spoke to them and both my LFS get theirs from The Wet Spot in Portland. The discus at the one I was able to see (the other one only orders them when requested) look mostly ok - $100 for 4.5in or so ones and $50 for the 3in ones - that’s a guess, I didn’t have a tape measure. Not a whole lot of color selection though!

Was going to scape the tank today but after going out to talk to the shops about who they source from and what species of inverts can handle 84 degree temps I was too tired to rinse the sand, haha. It’s on my to do tomorrow! They said instead of amanos I could do Sulawesi (a cardina species) that likes high temps and soft water.