Tnias
04-11-2020, 10:27 PM
Hi everyone. I am new to this forum but have been keeping salt water fish tanks, corals, etc. for 10+ years with great success. At my office I have have a 225 gallon drop off tank with my reef setup. I have a smaller 30 gallon reef tank at home and decided to move those fish to the office and try discus for a change of pace. I have read the forums heavily and have some questions/comments.
I understand 30 gallons is on the smaller size but I have 75 gallon that is empty and if I needed to move things there later I could but my preference is to stick with the smaller tank for now. I will say my first impression from doing my research here is that the discus community might be less forgiving than the reefing community, even including the dreaded tang police, and it can make it hard to get a clear picture of how best to keep discus fish.
Let’s discuss the amount of discus first. I understand they are a schooling species and 5 is ideal for a successful school. I understand pecking order from my reef fish but if I only had a couple because I don’t want to overload my size tank does it not work because one will kill the other? Or is the concern more that in the wild they are in larger schools? I know I can get a mated pair but since this is my first time with discus I am not sure I want to spend the cost of a mated pair when I am not familiar with caring for the fish.
I want to review my equipment. I have a ghost overflow and sump below my tank. Because fresh water fish don’t like the flow like reef fish I have removed my MP10 and Tunze power heads. My reef didn’t need any filter media because the live rock did all the work. I have put a sponge, carbon, and the white discs things (can’t remember what they are called) in my tank for now. All of my equipment is controlled with my Apex so I can monitor a lot of the equipment remotely. Can I use the same live rock in the sump for the bacteria? I use only RO/DI water and I have seen mixed comments on whether you need to put additives back into the water. Can someone please clarify if I need to add nutrients back into the water? I have 3 dosing pumps that I can use to put additives back in if I need to do it more controlled. I was going to use a single heater but with the higher temperatures I will hook (2) heaters up to my apex for redundancy.
I am going with a simple setup in the display. Thin layer of white sand, driftwood (cooked and aged in water for 2 weeks), maybe some live plants but based on comments might forgo this for now. This tank was bare bottom with my reef and I hated the look.
Some people talk about lots of feedings and others don’t. I understand juveniles need more feeding to grow but once they are adults do you cut back on the feedings? Do you have to feed multiple times a day like Anthias in reef aquariums or can they do fine with once a day?
So here is my controversial question/comments. As a reefer, I completely understand the importance of water quality because my corals either thrive or not based on the water quality. As I was reading the forums, everyone insists on daily water changes in the +50%. I was telling myself they mean once a week right, not everyday. So with the daily water change comments it is always followed up with you want your discus fish to be as big, round, etc. as possible, which requires perfect water conditions. These comments suggest that If your goal is not to have the most perfect version of a discus fish you are not an acceptable discus keeper. So here is my question, which I am sure is going to start negative comments if I haven’t already irritated some. If you perform a 95% water change once a week is that unhealthy for the fish? A less than perfect discus fish is not unhealthy, in my opinion. If it’s nice and fat and acting normal that is healthy to me. It’s not that I am unwilling to perform more water changes but I work a lot of hours and need to be realistic because every day or every other day is not going to happen. I have also read that if you go on vacation it’s okay not to feed them weeks. If that is the case why not feed them every other day or every third day to reduce the water quality issues and make the water changes more manageable?
I am interested in everyone’s thoughts.
I understand 30 gallons is on the smaller size but I have 75 gallon that is empty and if I needed to move things there later I could but my preference is to stick with the smaller tank for now. I will say my first impression from doing my research here is that the discus community might be less forgiving than the reefing community, even including the dreaded tang police, and it can make it hard to get a clear picture of how best to keep discus fish.
Let’s discuss the amount of discus first. I understand they are a schooling species and 5 is ideal for a successful school. I understand pecking order from my reef fish but if I only had a couple because I don’t want to overload my size tank does it not work because one will kill the other? Or is the concern more that in the wild they are in larger schools? I know I can get a mated pair but since this is my first time with discus I am not sure I want to spend the cost of a mated pair when I am not familiar with caring for the fish.
I want to review my equipment. I have a ghost overflow and sump below my tank. Because fresh water fish don’t like the flow like reef fish I have removed my MP10 and Tunze power heads. My reef didn’t need any filter media because the live rock did all the work. I have put a sponge, carbon, and the white discs things (can’t remember what they are called) in my tank for now. All of my equipment is controlled with my Apex so I can monitor a lot of the equipment remotely. Can I use the same live rock in the sump for the bacteria? I use only RO/DI water and I have seen mixed comments on whether you need to put additives back into the water. Can someone please clarify if I need to add nutrients back into the water? I have 3 dosing pumps that I can use to put additives back in if I need to do it more controlled. I was going to use a single heater but with the higher temperatures I will hook (2) heaters up to my apex for redundancy.
I am going with a simple setup in the display. Thin layer of white sand, driftwood (cooked and aged in water for 2 weeks), maybe some live plants but based on comments might forgo this for now. This tank was bare bottom with my reef and I hated the look.
Some people talk about lots of feedings and others don’t. I understand juveniles need more feeding to grow but once they are adults do you cut back on the feedings? Do you have to feed multiple times a day like Anthias in reef aquariums or can they do fine with once a day?
So here is my controversial question/comments. As a reefer, I completely understand the importance of water quality because my corals either thrive or not based on the water quality. As I was reading the forums, everyone insists on daily water changes in the +50%. I was telling myself they mean once a week right, not everyday. So with the daily water change comments it is always followed up with you want your discus fish to be as big, round, etc. as possible, which requires perfect water conditions. These comments suggest that If your goal is not to have the most perfect version of a discus fish you are not an acceptable discus keeper. So here is my question, which I am sure is going to start negative comments if I haven’t already irritated some. If you perform a 95% water change once a week is that unhealthy for the fish? A less than perfect discus fish is not unhealthy, in my opinion. If it’s nice and fat and acting normal that is healthy to me. It’s not that I am unwilling to perform more water changes but I work a lot of hours and need to be realistic because every day or every other day is not going to happen. I have also read that if you go on vacation it’s okay not to feed them weeks. If that is the case why not feed them every other day or every third day to reduce the water quality issues and make the water changes more manageable?
I am interested in everyone’s thoughts.