First Discus Tank - 75 Gallon

[gotwins86]

Pretty excited to finally get some discus. Been wanting to for a long time. Wanted to start a thread to ask questions and keep track of things.

Using a 75 gallon tank. Going bare bottom for now. Might add sand and driftwood down the line(6 months to a year.)

Here is a pic of the tank getting set up. Been cycling for a week now, added some bacteria helper, hoping the ammonia drops soon.

Plan is to order 6-8 3" Stendker discus from Hans here once the tank is cycled.

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[Mando]

Can't wait to see the update of when the fish arrive. Do you have in mind what kind of discus?

[gotwins86]

Question. Right now i have 2 canister filters with spray bars pointed up to break the water surface. Should I consider adding an air stone too? Or is it not needed?

Finished building and painting the door to the stand. I will post a pic of that later.

Tank is cycled. Ammonia dropped to 0ppm. Added more ammonia and it was back to zero this morning when I tested. Nitrites jumped up and down too. Should be good to go.

Just placed an order with Hans.
1 - Brillant Turquoise
1 - Checkerboard
1 - Dark Angel
1 - Flachen Snakeskin
1 - German Wonder
1 - Leopard SnakeSkin
1 - Marlboro Red
1 - Blue Pigeon Blood

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi Zac, congrats on your almost new discus. Be ready for a mini-cycle after you add the fish for the first week. Basically you are adding more bio-load then beneficial bacteria can handle. It will catch up with the new bio-load in about a week. Large daily water changes will be your friend. :D
Pat

[Pices]

Looks just like my 75 gal set up. My discus did very well with daily wc’s and are in a 125 gal now. When do you get your fish? Can’t wait to see them!
Do you have pre filter sponges for the canister filter? I read about them here when I started and was glad I got them. Also learned this trick to help keep canisters clean: Turn filters off-SET TIMER for 10-15 min. Feed fish. When timer goes off plug filters back in, then (and only then) turn off timer alarm. Forgetting to turn filters back on would be the downside to this method and why I leave alarm ringing till filters are plugged in. Just passing on a couple pearls I picked up when I started. Your set up looks perfect. Is that an ink bird sensor I see on the right hand side? Another good investment that I made. Lucky fish-lucky you! Are you excited yet?
Patty

[Mando]

Looks just like my 75 gal set up. My discus did very well with daily wc’s and are in a 125 gal now. When do you get your fish? Can’t wait to see them!
Do you have pre filter sponges for the canister filter? I read about them here when I started and was glad I got them. Also learned this trick to help keep canisters clean: Turn filters off-SET TIMER for 10-15 min. Feed fish. When timer goes off plug filters back in, then (and only then) turn off timer alarm. Forgetting to turn filters back on would be the downside to this method and why I leave alarm ringing till filters are plugged in. Just passing on a couple pearls I picked up when I started. Your set up looks perfect. Is that an ink bird sensor I see on the right hand side? Another good investment that I made. Lucky fish-lucky you! Are you excited yet?
Patty

OMG, the discus on your profile pic is beautiful. How would you install the pre-filter sponges on canisters?


Question. Right now i have 2 canister filters with spray bars pointed up to break the water surface. Should I consider adding an air stone too? Or is it not needed?

Finished building and painting the door to the stand. I will post a pic of that later.

Tank is cycled. Ammonia dropped to 0ppm. Added more ammonia and it was back to zero this morning when I tested. Nitrites jumped up and down too. Should be good to go.

Just placed an order with Hans.
1 - Brillant Turquoise
1 - Checkerboard
1 - Dark Angel
1 - Flachen Snakeskin
1 - German Wonder
1 - Leopard SnakeSkin
1 - Marlboro Red
1 - Blue Pigeon Blood

Marlboro are my all-time favorite and it's the discus that led me to want a discus tank. I have two juvies at the moment. Let's just say that I never had discus before, let alone, juvies, therefore, I kinda lost my first batch. Flachen, german wonder, and Leopards follow closely! great selection.

Not sure if breaking the surface with the two canisters enough. Discus do like warm water, and perhaps a stone would be more beneficial.

[Paul Sabucchi]

Hi, looks like you are on the right track and doing everything by the book.what is your tapwater like? Have you considered how to make water changes less cumbersome, particularly if you are getting fish with a fair bit of growing left to go you will be changing a lot of water

[gotwins86]

Tap water is fairly hard, about 325 TDS out of the tap. PH is about 7.6 out of tap and after aging, but I still have a 44g brute trash can for aging water. Was planning on 50% water changes every other day. But might up that to everyday for the first few weeks to avoid mini cycle and get everything established.

Water change plan... Have a syphon and 5 gallon bucket. Filling 5 gallon to suck up all the debris. Then I have a pump to pump the rest of out of the tank and down a drain.
Brute can with aged tap water on wheels, roll it across the basement to stairs. Bought an oil free sump pump and food safe hose to pump fresh water up and into tank.

Did a test run last night. Took about 45 mins, but that was with some bumps in the road and trying a few different ideas. Also included refilling aging barrel. Defiantly a process, but pretty sure I can get it down to 30 mins or less with practice.
Would be way easier if tank was in basement, but I wanted the tank in our main living area. If everything goes well I will get a larger tank in the basement down the line.

[gotwins86]

No ink bird, but something i should look into. I have to 200W inline heaters. Have the tank set to 84.
I do have prefilters on the canister filters.
Here is a pic of the tank after the water change. It was dark out, I will try to get better pics this weekend what it is lighter.
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And a pic of the stand and door. I made it myself and my wife painted and white washed it for a aged look. Pics don't do it justice, looks way better in person.
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No idea why the pics are sideways...

I think that answers all the questions and comments... O yeah, fish will be here tomorrow!

[Mando]

Cabinet looks amazing!

[Pices]

[QUOTE=Mando;1301419]OMG, the discus on your profile pic is beautiful. How would you install the pre-filter sponges on canisters?
Hi Mando, I bought mine and just snap them on the end of intake filter. I have Eihem canisters. Here’s a pic. Others here use sponges they simply cut to fit over their intake that will catch debris but still allow good flow of water. They pull them off, rinse and put back on during wc’s.
Here’s a pic of mine, sponge sits inside so I pull off, clean sponge and snap back on. 119110

[Pices]

No ink bird, but something i should look into. I have to 200W inline heaters. Have the tank set to 84.
I do have prefilters on the canister filters.
Here is a pic of the tank after the water change. It was dark out, I will try to get better pics this weekend what it is lighter.
119105
And a pic of the stand and door. I made it myself and my wife painted and white washed it for a aged look. Pics don't do it justice, looks way better in person.
119106

No idea why the pics are sideways...

I think that answers all the questions and comments... O yeah, fish will be here tomorrow!

Very impressed that you made this stand yourself! Also very cool that your wife is into this too. Have you looked into a python for wc’s? They make quick work of it for us. They aren’t cheap, but worth it for time saved. I’m sure others here have great ideas to share-especially for a DYI guy like you. Can’t wait to see your beautiful fish. Good luck tomorrow with shipping. You’ve got everything else covered imo.
Patty

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi Zac, crop your pictures just a bit and see if they will load upright.
Pat

[slicksta]

Looks great... And will look even better with fish in it! ;-)
No need for an air stone at all with the current filter setup. If you did want to get one anyway, wait until you have your fish as over oxygenated water can raise your pH.
Follow Pat's advise on water changes after the fish arrive as your filters will struggle with the bioload at first.
I'm also a big fan of pre-filters. . .
Good luck!

[gotwins86]

Got the fish, doing great. Pretty shy and spook easy, but getting better. Will put up some pics soon. Have to take out my laptop to resize images. Any way I can do that from my phone. All pics I take are over 2mb in size.

They are eating a little, seem to be shy to eat, but getting some. Once they get used to this new tank, what is a good feeding amount? Will 8 x 3" discus eat a whole cube of black worms? Or should I feed half each time? Also have colbalt discus flakes. Do I need to get beefheart? Only place in town would be Petco/PetSmart. Not sure if I want to pay to ship and order online. Any other food I should consider?

Any meds I should preemptively stock up on? Just in case.

[Mando]

Got the fish, doing great. Pretty shy and spook easy, but getting better. Will put up some pics soon. Have to take out my laptop to resize images. Any way I can do that from my phone. All pics I take are over 2mb in size.

They are eating a little, seem to be shy to eat, but getting some. Once they get used to this new tank, what is a good feeding amount? Will 8 x 3" discus eat a whole cube of black worms? Or should I feed half each time? Also have colbalt discus flakes. Do I need to get beefheart? Only place in town would be Petco/PetSmart. Not sure if I want to pay to ship and order online. Any other food I should consider?

Any meds I should preemptively stock up on? Just in case.

From my unfortunate experience, I always keep metronidazole, prazi quantel, ick, reg salt, epsom salt, malachite green, and formaldehyde handy. I also keep methylene blue for when they lay eggs.

I'm still learning feeding schedules. I am currently auto feeding pellets three times a day, and If I see somewhat of an empty belly, I manually feed in between the auto feeds (mostly for my 2" discus). I don't over feed the adults, they just get three times a day. First feed is set to an hour after lights turn on, 12noon, and an hour before lights out.

I stopped feeding live foods as my fish kept getting sick, and they completely rejected beef hearts.

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi Zac, this may sound corny but mail the pictures to yourself. Before you sent you might be queried as to the size of the photo.
Pat

[gotwins86]

Bad cell phone pics. I will work on getting some better ones tonight.
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[Mando]

Stunning! look like very healthy discus and colors are spot on.

[danotaylor]

lookin great mate!:thumbsup:

[gotwins86]

Hit the 1 week mark with the discus! So far so good. They are getting used to me now, don't really hide in the corners anymore. Water changes have been going good. Getting into a grove with them. Never saw a jump in ammonia or nitrite. The german wonder is defiantly the shy one. Usually hiding from the others. He does get picked on a little, but not more than anyone else. I see him eat, but not as much as the others. Anything to worry about? Or does he just need more time to adjust?

One thing I am not sure on is the blue background. Flachen Snakeskin and Brilliant Turquoise kind of blend in. I painted the back, not sure I can do much now. Thinking about a universal rocks background down the line.

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[gotwins86]

Week 2 with discus update. Everything going great. German wonder and leopard are still pretty shy, but getting better everyday. Leopard is my smallest guy, hopefully he will start catching up once he gets more used to things. Everyone else is taming up quite a bit. While doing water changes instead of hiding in a corner, they are more in the way. Almost annoyingly so, lol. Thinking I am feeding them. Bought a manzanita stump online this week. Should get it sometime next week. But don't plan on putting into the tank for another month or 2. Shooting for hopefully Jan.

Been feeding colbalt flakes and FDBW. 4 times a day. Bought some Hikari Bio-Gold pellets, but my discus don't seem to like em much.

Added some seachem matrix to my canister filters today. Just a little extra filtration.

A couple bad cell phone pics.
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[Pices]

They really look great. It’ll be fun watching these guys grow. I like your choices and your tank looks so clean. Great job!
Patty

[danotaylor]

Looking good mate. I read here on SD somewhere to feed new foods first in the morning when the fish are the hungriest. Leave them in the tank for a while and you can always suck them out again if the fish persist in not taking them. One of the guys in the grow out challenge Bryan leaves food in the tank for up to 2 hours...

[gotwins86]

I read here on SD somewhere to feed new foods first in the morning when the fish are the hungriest.

Thanks. I fed them pellets first thing this morning. Took a little bit, but after about 10 mins of ignoring them, they went over and ate em up.

[gotwins86]

I am a little worried about my leopard. He has always been shy. He does come out and swim in the open with the others, but also hides in the corner a lot. During feeding time, he usually hides most of the time. Never attacking the food like the others. I do see him eat here and there, but mostly after everyone is done. Kinda of pecking around looking for leftovers. He also hasn't really grow like the others.

Anything to worry about? I have only had em for 2 weeks. Does he still need time to adjust?

Edit, he is the guy in the middle of the pic a few posts above.

[danotaylor]

Thanks. I fed them pellets first thing this morning. Took a little bit, but after about 10 mins of ignoring them, they went over and ate em up.
Sweet mate, glad that worked for you!

[gotwins86]

Here is the manzanita stump I ordered. Very happy with it. Will probably have to soak it work a while before it sinks. Anything else I should do with it, as a precaution?

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