125g water changes

[GOOBERFISH]

Hello, my name is Joel. I have a 125g aquarium at the moment which I want to make into a planted discus tank. I have no discus at the moment, but eventually I will. When I do decide to get my hand on some I want to get them at about 4 to 5 inches. So I was very interested in know how many water changes will I have to do and at what percentage to keep them happy, health and growing?

[SMB2]

You are going to get a lot of opinions, if folks decide to answer this question...it gets asked a lot.
From my admittedly limited experience you have a couple of choices. #1: Set up the 125, bare bottom to start and add the discus you want from one reputable source. Grow the Discus to full size with multiple feedings and daily 50-75% water changes being sure to get rid of all the old food. 6 months or so you should have good size fish and you can start to add your wood, plants etc. #2: Set up the 125 with substrate, wood, plants and dither fish. Get a second ~50gal tank and use it for a grow out tank bare bottom, daily WCs and when the discus are grown add one to the big tank to make sure all is well and then add the rest of the discus. The 50 gal tank can then be used for WC 2-3 times a week. #3: Set up as number two without the dither fish, after aging add FULL GROWN Discus. If you want dither fish add them once Discus are doing well and after quarantining the smaller fish. With full grown Discus, again WC 2-3 times a week, 50-75%.

So much depends on the room you have, how you will filter the display tank etc. For me, I would do the third option and get a 50 gal tank for the WCs, as a back up, hospital/ quarantine tank. If the cost of the full grown fish is an issue, you can add them in stages, maybe 6 at a time using the same source.

Welcome to SD!

[GOOBERFISH]

Thank you SMB2 for the help and the warm welcome. At the moment my aquarium is being filtered by a wet/dry. I guess I will have to go with #1 cause I can't keep more then one aquarium in my house. Wish I could do #2 because I already have most of the equipment for the planted tank.

Is it necessary to get the discus from the same source? I ask because I am very picky when buying fish and some of the discus I want not every one has all of them. There is actually one person I would not mind buying all my fish from which I found on YouTube, but I don't think he lives in the U.S.

[discuspaul]

Welcome to the forum.
As Stan has pointed out, this question could be answered in many different ways, dependent on the tank set-up conditions, size of fish, total bio-load, etc. - the list goes on.
But since you are planning on getting 4" to 5" fish, and if you keep your tank bare-bottom (or no more than very lightly aqua-scaped), and you keep your bio-load low (Example: no more than 8 to 10 discus in your 125 gal tank, or less than 8 for that matter) - you can get by with one or two large (more than 50%) wcs per week and have the fish do well.
If you want to have a well planted tank display tank, and you keep more than 10 discus of that size, then your wcs should be more frequent, perhaps daily.
Keep in mind, the larger the discus, i.e. adult, the more forgiving they might be if your water quality and conditions are not religiously and regularly attended to under these circumstances.
Hope this helps you.
No, it is not essential to get your discus from the same source - just make sure all of the sources supply healthy, good quality fish, and don't neglect doing a suitable quarantine on each occasion you get fish from another source.

[rickztahone]

I won't tell you how you should do it, but I will tell you how I would.

First, I would start my planted tank. This includes adding the substrate, DW and plants. Get your fertz routine going and dial in your photo period. Once you have had the planted tank up and running for close to a year (yes a year), I would be confident enough that the planted tank is fully stable and I would add a huge discus load in at once. In a 125 I would easily keep 8 discus in a fully planted tank. I would purchase these discus from one of our sponsors at no less than 5.5".

If I went the grow out way, I would purchase a 75 or even a 90g to grow out the juvies in WHILE the planted tank is maturing.

A planted tank is a delicate thing, much more immersive than discus, IME (YMMV), so time is essential to the success of this pairing.

Again, this is how I would do it. I have done Hi-tech planted tanks, and I have grown out discus as well as kept bare bottom, so I am talking with experience.

[GOOBERFISH]

Thanks for the Help as well discuspaul. I don't think I'll be able to have a quarantine tank do to the fact that I live with my parent at the moment and they won't allow me to have more then one tank in the house. I was lucky enough to be able to get a 125g with out them trying to kill me. I'm already gonna have to keep it a secret from them that I will doing such a large water change daily meaning I will have to do it when they are not home even though they'll eventually find out once the see the water bill.

[GOOBERFISH]

Thanks for the advise rickztahone I will take into consideration. Before I had the 125 I had a 50g and a 40g but I sold them. I had the 50 running for about 6 month and and the 40 for about 3 months. I took my bio-media from both the filters and added it to my wet/dry and I took the water from my 40g and added it to the 125g to build up the good bacteria quicker. I have been runny the 125 for about 2 months. At the moment I have some tetras, corys, loaches and south american cichlids. I had more south americans then what I have now, but I sold them. I will be getting rid of the rest of the south americans cichlids and the loaches so that I can get the Discus. even though I took those steps to build up good bacteria to get a quicker stable aquarium, do I still have to wait a year with the planted tank running before I add the discus?

[rickztahone]

Thanks for the advise rickztahone I will take into consideration. Before I had the 125 I had a 50g and a 40g but I sold them. I had the 50 running for about 6 month and and the 40 for about 3 months. I took my bio-media from both the filters and added it to my wet/dry and I took the water from my 40g and added it to the 125g to build up the good bacteria quicker. I have been runny the 125 for about 2 months. At the moment I have some tetras, corys, loaches and south american cichlids. I had more south americans then what I have now, but I sold them. I will be getting rid of the rest of the south americans cichlids and the loaches so that I can get the Discus. even though I took those steps to build up good bacteria to get a quicker stable aquarium, do I still have to wait a year with the planted tank running before I add the discus?

No, you do not. Remember, I said that is how I would do it. You can stick all your discus in a planted tank no problem, but it is a delicate balance that you should be experienced in to do it.

Also, keep in mind that the BB (beneficial bacteria) that you currently have in your 125 is supporting your current bio load only. Once you add the discus, you will have a huge bio load, but no BB to eat it all. That means you have to rely heavily on WC's for quite a while to build up that filter to keep up with the bio load.

[GOOBERFISH]

Got it. Thanks for the quick reply rickztahone.

[discuspaul]

Thanks for the Help as well discuspaul. I don't think I'll be able to have a quarantine tank do to the fact that I live with my parent at the moment and they won't allow me to have more then one tank in the house. I was lucky enough to be able to get a 125g with out them trying to kill me. I'm already gonna have to keep it a secret from them that I will doing such a large water change daily meaning I will have to do it when they are not home even though they'll eventually find out once the see the water bill.

Well, if you can't have a QT tank, then you shouldn't get discus from different sources. Even if you get them from the same source, if the discus are not of the same stock as your original group of fish, then you are still taking a risk without QT.

[GOOBERFISH]

What size tank would be good as quarantine tank?

[discuspaul]

Depends on how many fish you get at one time, and what size they are.
Many discus-keepers will have a 20 gal tank for QT, and assuming they're quarantining only a few fish at a time (e.g. 3 to 5, say up to around 4"), that size of tank will be satisfactory. If they're smaller discus, under say 3", then 6 to 8 fish would be fine. Another example is if they're getting 4 to 6 adult-sized fish at once, a larger tank would be in order - perhaps 30 to 40 gals. Got the general idea ?

[GOOBERFISH]

Thanks for answering that for me discuspaul.

Does any one know at whats size is a discus considered an adult? Just incase I do end up buying adult size discus.

[rickztahone]

You can have 2-3" adults if stunted, but typically, when discus are pushing close to 5.5-6" they are adults.

[GOOBERFISH]

Thanks rickztahone