Impatient Newbie

[Philosoraptor]

Hi everyone, I'm thinking of starting a discus tank in the next year, and I had some questions about the best way to set it up. I have experience keeping cichlids in planted tanks in the past, but I really want a big tank full of a diversity of fish and plants. Discus sound perfect. I am also an impatient creature and want my tank planted and with discus in short order.

I have heard that you can put 4-5" discus into a planted tank immediately, so I thought that by purchasing a small school of large discus I could cut through the bare bottom experience. I'm currently planning on buying from Han's Discus.

My plans thus far are to set up a 90g tank. In terms of filtration, I'm not really sure what to go with - I have several HOB filters and canister filters that I could rig up, but I'd almost like to create my own wet/dry filter for the experience.

Stocking list I suppose would be 5 discus (should I purchase 7 to be sure I get the number I want?), 8 corydoras, 20 rummynose tetra and maybe 4-6 ram cichlids. I plan to go low tech and avoid CO2 or extraordinarily bright lights, and want to only use plants like anubias and java fern. I'd like a carpet plant of some sort, but I'm not really sure what would grow. I'm also not terribly knowledgeable about clean up crews in freshwater aquaria. I was thinking a trio of farlowella and some amano shrimp might be enough?

I'm planning on at least a 10% water change every other day, so I hope that this sounds like a realistic plan! Thanks everyone for any advice.

[Poco]

Welcome to SD!

You can always have a planted tank but there are some points that you have to consider. 4-5" discus still need to grow (that is if you want them to) in a planted tank with substrate and with just 10% water change every other day it aint going to happen. For them to grow you need to feed fair amount of food and keep water in good condition, with your 10% can't do large feedings even with normal feeding your water will not be clean enough for them to thrive. JMO.

[Philosoraptor]

Welcome to SD!

You can always have a planted tank but there are some points that you have to consider. 4-5" discus still need to grow (that is if you want them to) in a planted tank with substrate and with just 10% water change every other day it aint going to happen. For them to grow you need to feed fair amount of food and keep water in good condition, with your 10% can't do large feedings even with normal feeding your water will not be clean enough for them to thrive. JMO.

Urgh, that's what I thought. What sort of time frame would I be looking at keeping them in a bare bottom setup, if I were to say, take the health of the fish as my prime interest rather than a 'now, now, now' mentality? Yknow, hypothetically.

Would it be worthwhile to set up my display tank simultaneously and feed it some CO2, while fish are absent? Is there a disadvantage to feeding your plants CO2 and then removing the CO2 pump thingy?

[DiscusDrew]

Your jumping the gun, and you will not like the results. Ill type more when I have the time,.\\

[Jeff O]

I always start mine out in a bare buttom no matter the size. I think that since you are new to the fish by doing a bare buttom and feeding them the same you would in the planted tank, it will give you a good idea of how much waste your going to be dealing with and how much water will need to be changed. I do water changes daily in all my discus tanks (including planted). A 4-5' fish still has room to grow. The bare buttom will give you the fastest growth rate. To answer your question, I would keep them bare buttom for atleast 2 months IMO. Also, you can run the risk of stunting the growth of the fish by putting them directly into the planted (even though they are already 5' fish) Good luck!

[pastry]

It all depends on your goal for thier size. I like to set the bar low and try to exceed it but trust me, listen to these guys and gals and do the BB. 2 months like Jeff said is good and it'll fly by. Discus are a sight to see... big discus are even more awesome to see. Get yourself a normal sized tank (well, meaning something common that you can re-sell easily if you don't need it afterwards) off craigslist for the BB (if you don't already have a seperate tank) and have fun seeing watching them sprout while you perfect the showtank. Once you put them in the show tank then continue with the WCs... they'll continue to still have growth in a planted tank... just not as fast or big most likely.

Also, you're already ahead of the game by ordering from one of the sponsors.

[Philosoraptor]

I always start mine out in a bare buttom no matter the size. I think that since you are new to the fish by doing a bare buttom and feeding them the same you would in the planted tank, it will give you a good idea of how much waste your going to be dealing with and how much water will need to be changed. I do water changes daily in all my discus tanks (including planted). A 4-5' fish still has room to grow. The bare buttom will give you the fastest growth rate. To answer your question, I would keep them bare buttom for atleast 2 months IMO. Also, you can run the risk of stunting the growth of the fish by putting them directly into the planted (even though they are already 5' fish) Good luck!

Thank you for the advice - I desperately don't want to stunt the growth of my discus. Two months does not sound like a rough time at all! In terms of daily water changes, should I still be doing 50% WC on the 4" fish, or can I be a bit more neglectful? With some of these tanks, that means moving 45 gallons around. Would it be worthwhile for me to invest in an automatic water changer of some sort? Is that possible? I've got a year to plan, so I don't mind investing in the tank a bit to make it less of a headache.


It all depends on your goal for thier size. I like to set the bar low and try to exceed it but trust me, listen to these guys and gals and do the BB. 2 months like Jeff said is good and it'll fly by. Discus are a sight to see... big discus are even more awesome to see. Get yourself a normal sized tank (well, meaning something common that you can re-sell easily if you don't need it afterwards) off craigslist for the BB (if you don't already have a seperate tank) and have fun seeing watching them sprout while you perfect the showtank. Once you put them in the show tank then continue with the WCs... they'll continue to still have growth in a planted tank... just not as fast or big most likely.

Also, you're already ahead of the game by ordering from one of the sponsors.

Yeah, I will definitely take y'alls advice; it sounds like you guys have read many threads where a newb has said "Ah it's probably not a problem!" I could easily set up a spare 55 gallon or two elsewhere in the house. From reading the threads on here, it seems like a quarantine tank is pretty important, so I should probably set up one of those as well. Is there a disadvantage to adding the other fish to the show-tank before the discus?

[Philosoraptor]

duplicate post, whoops!

[Philosoraptor]

wow

[Jeff O]

What I do with my bigger discus in BB is il do 40% daily changes (maybe 50 if i feel up too it) and on friday il do a good 75%. As far as the size of the BB 55 gal would be fine. I agree with Elliot, watching a discus grow from 4' to a monster is a wonderful thing to see. And its even more amazing when you move them from the BB into your show tank. I personaly dont think its a disadvantage to add the other fish before the discus, just make sure you keep the water nice and clean and the first 24 hours you move them into the show tank the lights are off. It gives them a better chance to adjust to their new enviornment.

[Jeff O]

Oops, I didnt see your WC question, An automatic wc system is not cheap. Most of us here like to use Pythons they seem to work best! and no 5 gallon bucket is needed!