How many Discus?

[Jobu28]

I am hearing different things. How many adult discus could you comfortably put in a 150g tank?

[John_Nicholson]

It depends on the setup and water change routine. Most will tell you 10 gallons per adult discus but you are going to have to tell us a lot more about your setup first.

-john

[Melissa]

Bare Bottom 150g with 90% daily water changes.... ehhh... 40 Discus? LOL I'm kidding...

What John said.

Planted?
Bare Bottom?
What kind of Filtration?
Water Change schedule?

[Jobu28]

In the process of getting everything together now. Its a 36x36x26? tank I believe. Planning on an eheim 2262 will valve back if necessary. Was thinking driftwood, amazon swords, and not sure of substrate yet, still trying to figure out which I should use. Big weekly water changes. Was thinking 10-12 discus, couple cories, 8-10 rummynose, maybe pr of blue rams or similar.

[John_Nicholson]

You should be fine with your current plan if you are buying the discus as adults.

-john

[Elliots]

With adequate filtration, adult Discus and water change 50% 3X weekly most people on SD would say 10-15. I do not mind an over crowded tank so I would do more. If this is your first time keeping Discus I would say 8-10. I do not know what your finances are but Discus are expensive, if you start with 8-10 it is half the risk of 15! It is best to buy all your Discus at once from the same supplier. If you start with 8 a year later I would add as many as you want, one again buying them all at once from the same supplier as your original Discus. There are many excellent supplies who are sponsors on SD. I do not know where you live but I always suggest visiting the SD sponson and selecting your own fish. Hans and Kenny get the most mentions on SD but they are not necessarily the best although I doubt you can find better. The other sponsors are probably just as good. If you will order by mail do not worry, the fish will arrive in good shape. I think you should pick your supplier by the types of Discus you want to have. It usually a good idea to NOT buy from your LFS.

[Jobu28]

Thanks John, can you recommended a substrate. I was going with flourite, and someone local who has some nice planted tanks said to go with sand? I always thought sand rotted roots

[dkeef]

SAND!. check out why I changed from plant gravel to pool filter sand. so hard to keep clean water with gravel. BB still best...
sand does not rott roots. just use root tabs once a while. main thing is to decide which is priority...discus or plants. if discus then BB or sand...if plant then fluorite.

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?107975-Discus-collection-almost-there

[Jobu28]

I am in NY. I will look into Hans and Kenny unless another recommendation is local to me?

[dirtyplants]

I would recommend going to the plantedtank site and look at what has been used and the positives and the negatives with that substrate, then consider that you are going to be keeping a warm tank, with fish that get fairly large, and how you want those fish within that tank. You will receive mostly bb or sand recommendations from SD and that is fine providing you are just going to do a few plants, with little nutrient needs and minimal care. Fluorite, I have found people either hate it or love it. The type of substrate many people may want for plants will also require a demineralization period to help keep the nitrates down and will complicate your discus care.