Future tank build 180G planted display...Need Advice before then.

[Anchorboy99]

Hey everyone,
good to be on a site that we can chat about fish and our other half's cant understand why we love fish so much.
Lets get down to questions and answers.

I plan on setting up a nice 180 gallon planted tank with a sump with a 75 gallon being the sump.
I plan on keeping 6 discus in this setup with a dozen or so cardinal tetras.

My questions
1. Quarantine tank is 75G to big for 6 to 8 discus at the time being when there are still juveniles?
2. Water change schedule 50% daily or 30% daily?
3. Feeding..what do you feed?
4. Lighting should I do just a floor lamp beside the tank?
5. I plan on setting this up is a make shift fish room fuel for thoughts on how to get the discus use to people?

I will admit I use to keep some discus back when I was 19 but that didnt go well they kept hidding in the corner behind the spondge filter one slight movement or sound and they went nuts. Did 25% water change daily fed them well. There were 6 in a 29G tank at the time only about 2.5 inches big. Sadly, I said I cant handle this anymore and gave them to a buddy who keeps them now and they seem to be giving him fits even though he had his first ever discus live for 10 plus years.

If you can give me any advice and help me clear my mind on things. I have been keeping fish since I was knee high with 10 years plus in maintaining my own aquariums.

Thank you,
Nathan

[neontetra777]

Hey Nathan.

I too am a beginner of the hobby, so not in the position of giving advice. But I do caution you, there will be a lot of people warning you against raising discus in a planted tank for various valid reasons. Think it through before setting it up.

[rickztahone]

Hey everyone,
good to be on a site that we can chat about fish and our other half's cant understand why we love fish so much.
Lets get down to questions and answers.

I plan on setting up a nice 180 gallon planted tank with a sump with a 75 gallon being the sump.
I plan on keeping 6 discus in this setup with a dozen or so cardinal tetras.

My questions
1. Quarantine tank is 75G to big for 6 to 8 discus at the time being when there are still juveniles? 75g is perfect for juveniles and growing out.
2. Water change schedule 50% daily or 30% daily? the more the better, so 50% in this case if that is all you can wing.
3. Feeding..what do you feed? a well rounded diet is a good choice. I will share what i feed and you can get an idea. I feed BH (Beef Heart) 2 times a day. I will also feed, Al's FDBW(freeze dried black worms), Forrests DH4 Pellets, Bill's Beef Heart flakes and I have some other pellets coming in from Al as well. I do not feed ALL of these in one day, but I vary their diet and typically only get fed about 3/4 times a day with a water change at the end of the day after the last feeding of BH.
4. Lighting should I do just a floor lamp beside the tank? Lighting isn't that important if you do not plan on doing a planted tank. No plants, no particular need actually. You can do without the lights all together if you'd like. Up to you.
5. I plan on setting this up is a make shift fish room fuel for thoughts on how to get the discus use to people? The best way for discus to get use to people is to not tip toe around them. It takes a while but they will come around eventually.

I will admit I use to keep some discus back when I was 19 but that didnt go well they kept hidding in the corner behind the spondge filter one slight movement or sound and they went nuts. Did 25% water change daily fed them well. There were 6 in a 29G tank at the time only about 2.5 inches big. Sadly, I said I cant handle this anymore and gave them to a buddy who keeps them now and they seem to be giving him fits even though he had his first ever discus live for 10 plus years.

If you can give me any advice and help me clear my mind on things. I have been keeping fish since I was knee high with 10 years plus in maintaining my own aquariums.

Thank you,
Nathan

See my answers in red. One of the main problems you were having before is that you had 6 discus in a 29g. That is just too small for a group of discus. 55g should be minimum for grow outs and 75g for an adult group.