My new Discus...3-4 inches from LFS

[CichlidMomma]

I'm new to simplydiscus but not entirely new to discus in general. I previously had a 29 gallon setup with small cichlids, the petstore had no idea what they were selling me and I didn't know any better either. Among the bunch was a tourquoise discus which turned out to be my favorite fish. After a year I had to give him to a family member with a larger tank but I was hooked on discus.

I recently setup a 55 gallon planted discus tank. The pics are not ideal, cheap camera phone... After searching for my future babies I almost purchased from a very disreputable dealer because the prices were low and pictures were nice! After reading reviews on them here and the BBB site, I decided I was better off with the local fish store. They weren't exactly the types I wanted but they were healthy and vibrant and I just had to take them all. =)

55gallon tank using an undergravel filter with two powerheads pumping a total of 600+gph (had to add a spraybar and bubbles to calm the current a little bit)
200watt heater set at around 84-86F
Usual cheap plastic hood w Fluorescent lights
Plants are a couple of Amazon Swords and a Rose Sword or two... not sure if the wrinkling is a bad sign but it looks cool... yes the fish eat em but that's ok w me
Community:
4 Discus - 1 Red Melon, 1 Yellow Melon, 1 Tourquoise and 1 ? Pigeon Blood? I'm not sure what he is... I call him Scribble
4 garden variety Angelfish (Me and Steve at the pet shop had many many discussions on why I can't have them together but after some initial tense moments, all is well...)
4 Tetras... probably bloodfin tetras but they have a stripe like penquins
2 Roseline sharks.. they are cool .. they're bigger but school with the tetras (being tetras themselves?)
1 Albino Bistlenose Catfish
1 yellow snail (Gary)
1 Blue Crayfish


...still working on the background, i got the tank from a friend and it had a mirror added to the back and after that got black spots, they added another mirror to the inside back pane... ofc now that one has black spots too... I used aquarium safe silicon to put a nice background on the inside .. that worked until I had to face my powerhead outlet at the back corner to reduce the havoc it was wreaking with a strong current. It pretty much blew the silicone sealed background off the back pane and I had to pull it out =-( I'm working on my next brilliant idea (figuring out that 55g tanks are pretty inexpensive new)

.... uhhh.... how do i post pics... sorry, I'm a noob... standby if you're interested lol

http://s1367.photobucket.com/user/kelly_clark1/media/Gang_zps1a7e0055.jpg.html?sort=3&o=4
http://s1367.photobucket.com/user/kelly_clark1/media/BlueandSol1_zps699473d1.jpg.html?sort=3&o=8
http://s1367.photobucket.com/user/kelly_clark1/media/ScribbleandSol_zpsfa7965cf.jpg.html?sort=3&o=9
http://s1367.photobucket.com/user/kelly_clark1/media/Ruby_zps6b28acf5.jpg.html?sort=3&o=10
http://s1367.photobucket.com/user/kelly_clark1/media/Scribble1_zps6c8552bf.jpg.html?sort=3&o=14
http://s1367.photobucket.com/user/kelly_clark1/media/Creighton_zpsc04137f8.jpg.html?sort=3&o=17
http://s1367.photobucket.com/user/kelly_clark1/media/Spartacus_zps61f2d063.jpg.html?sort=3&o=19
http://s1367.photobucket.com/user/kelly_clark1/media/Sol1_zps1acc58cb.jpg.html?sort=3&o=20

[CichlidMomma]

http://i1367.photobucket.com/albums/r796/kelly_clark1/Discus_zps8e808582.jpg (http://s1367.photobucket.com/user/kelly_clark1/media/Discus_zps8e808582.jpg.html)

[BigWave]

I'm not sure which thread to reply to, looks like most of the pictures are in the other one, but I guess I will start here.

I would have SWORN there was more than 4 discus in there, until you mentioned the mirror, now it all makes sense!

Have fun with them. Discus are neat fish.

[CichlidMomma]

Thanks, I did feel compelled to mention the mirror. It looks nice but at the top and bottom the reflective silver is peeling away and it looks terrible... not sure what I'm going to do for a background.. its a work in progress