Adam Discus Tank

[Adamski77]

Welcome everybody! This thread will be documenting progress on my discus tank.

First a little bit of a catch up... as I've been having this for 3 months by now. My set-up is quite primitive comparing to what I can see around but I think it's doing fairly well considering conditions, time constraints and other circumstances.
Tank is tailor made as it's in my office so I had the space that I had. 180cmx60cmx40cm (width of 40cm was all I had). So roughly 400+ liters. Running two filters... canister (2400L/hour) + one much smaller hang on filter with activated carbon inside. Idea was to make the water circulate the way I wanted so outflows from the filters working towards two opposite sides of the tank. Light 2 LED lamps (100W each) running currently at 55%. I'm still in the process of fully balancing the tank so this is not necessarily final value. Two heaters (300+200W).
I'm not giving you details about the brands as I'm Polish guy living in China so brands would mean nothing to you ;)... but all in all the stuff functions well and it's reliable. Here are some photos from the time I was setting it up.

tbc...

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[Adamski77]

Obviously at the beginning things were looking spectacular :)... all in, filters activated, water crystal clear but obviously drift wood started to work... after couple of weeks here is where I got to

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[Adamski77]

The approach I took was step by step... first "dead" elements... substrate, wood and stones... wanted to make sure wood doesn't float around.
Second step was to add the plants... after reading a lot decided on vallisneria, anubias (some type... and please don't ask me what exactly it is as I bought it in Chinese market), java fern (on the wood) and some type of amazon swords. Please chime in with advise if you can recognize the plants better... so I will learn for the future. The small problem was that I decided to plant them in hand-made "pond baskets" made out of plastic net. I wanted to give them aquarium soil so they can grow better. Was a couple day fight but finally managed to get them to where I wanted.

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[Adamski77]

Set up was done... time for fish. Also step by step approach... first "cleaning crew" as wood started to have brown algae on it... generally algae was a little bit of an initial hick-up as I was running my lamps at 75%-100%. Got 8 corys (either trilineatus or leopardus) and 11 otocinclus... though till today can only count between 7-9... depending on the day. On the top bought 25 cardinal neons... so discus have some background ;)

After another couple of weeks discus have arrived. 8 of them from mass breeder that I got to know here in Shanghai. Not sure exactly what type but wanted them to look close to the wild discus... got what I got... though will never regret the choice.

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[Adamski77]

Finally, here it is today after morning water change... forgot to mention... I'm changing twice a week around 25-30%.
Also have one pair already wanting to have babies... just laid eggs second time within last month (good they picked far right side of the tank). Not hoping for anything as I need to learn much more but probably a sign the fish feel good and water has decent parameters.

So far so good... will be coming with more...

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[brewmaster15]

Awesome write up on your tank Adam! Like I said elsewhere it looks great. What I really like is your choice of discus. You mentioned wanting to go with ones as close to wild looking as you could find and I do believe you succeeded. The tank and fish choice do have a "wild " feel to them.

Al

[Iminit]

Great looking tank and discus! Good luck with it!! One thing I noticed is it looks like you planted the anubias into the gravel. The rhizomes need to be above the gravel or they will rot. Noticed some of the leaves are rotting on the ends. This may be the reason.

[Adamski77]

Thank you... so much learning here. First needed to check what is "rhizomes" ;) ... but now I know.
Regarding my anubias is one of the mistakes I made (out of many). The problem is that I planted it in the area that I designed for feeding the fish... so every time I feed them the food would drop over the leaves and obviously create little bit of a stuff to clean, which I cannot do every day. Brine shrimps, krill and blood worms are ok but when it comes down to beef heart it's not great really. I wish I would plant it in different place but what's done is done.
Regarding planting itself I actually did not put my plants into gravel... I tailor made baskets for them from the net (picture below)... for every anubias I made 5cm deep, 7cm diameter round "pond baskets" and filled them in with aquarium soil (picture attached). Later I put them in the tank and covered with gravel so it kind of looks good. I attached some further pictures so you can see how it is done plus you can also see the edge of the basket. You can also gauge if rhizomes are in/out of soil... and please let me know. I was trying to keep only the roots in the "ground" but obviously tough with aquarium plants. Planting was actually the toughest part of my set up so far ;)

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[Iminit]

Well I’ve got no clue what the benefits are of those cages? This is the rhizome on anubias136449 the long 1/2” thick thing looks like a branch. Yes those are roots coming off of it. On the bottom it’s attached to a rock.136450 on this one it’s attached to driftwood with a tyrap. This is the way anubias grow. Your way that rhizome will rot.
Now here’s my big question. Have you ever done a planted tank? We know you’re new to discus but if also new to planted tanks you will have problems. Both types of tanks (planted and discus) are tough to keep tanks. Both together require lots of time (think about 6 hrs a week) to keep clean and healthy. Aquarium soil does tend to leach ammonia into the tank for a good while. Most plant keeper won’t add fish for a few months after using aquasoil. Now discus need very clean tanks. So at every water change (every 3 days) you need to also vacuum the substrate. All your waste will be in the substrate and it needs to be removed. That’s why most discus keepers go bare bottom. Much easier to remove waste. Discus =big fish = big waste. Yes these pictures of discus in planted tanks all over the net look great. Many are just set up for the picture and discus returned to their tanks. Those that keep discus in planted tanks do a lot of work or keep very few discus in large tanks. Like 2 in a 125.

[Adamski77]

Thank you... purpose of the cages is to have plants in the aquarium soil (as opposed to just gravel with no nutrients) and I couldn't find out design for my tank that would have planted area with soil and just gravel area... so decided to do it this way. Probably wrong but having soil in these cages also enables me to vacuum quite deeply all around the plants without disturbing them too much.
I used to have aquariums for number of years when I was much younger... than went on the road and couldn't have one due to the number of moves I've made. But all my aquariums were planted and were doing very well... though we are talking long time ago with much different availability of stuff and much different budget. I feel it's so much easier now.
I know planted tank + discus = a lot of work (or problems) ... and you're right that weekly time commitment has to be bigger. Plus as fish keeps growing... things are probably going to get harder.

Edit: my rhizomes are well above the ground... thank you for pictures with examples...

[brewmaster15]

I see . So basically your cages are plant pots.. I can understant the rationale there. I used to use a peat cups for planting vegetables. I would plant Amazon swords in the a peat and sand mix..and wrap that with a nylon stocking and bury it in laterite or sand. It worked well. Add an iron tab and calcium tab under the root ball and you were good to go for months. The swords grew massive

Al

[Adamski77]

:)... yes... simply put these are pots...

your idea with nylon stocking got me thinking though... I really struggled with that part of the tank set up...

[Iminit]

:). Ok putting plants in pots or cages is a great start if you’d like to add plants to a bare bottom tank. But being you’ve got gravel it doesn’t make sense. Plus anubias get most of their nutrients through their leaves. So surrounding the roots in soil will just produce rot.
Amazon swords I’m also thinking grow great just in gravel with a couple of root tab. Their roots travel 20+” under the gravel and do great if kept with mts. The snails eat any dead roots. Would think the nylon would have caused a root ball. Amazon swords are a lot harder to grow now than 10yrs ago. Them like many other plants are now grown emersed not submerged. So when you introduce it to your tank the leaves die off. Over time new long thinner leaves will grow but it take months and most believe the plant died and pull out the roots and throw them away.

[Adamski77]

Weekly update... will treat is as my journal here... have my notes on paper... but you never know with paper ;)

Journey continues in positive spirit. Fish seems to be happy and growing nicely. Have this one that is actually focused solely on eating... looking actually quite funny when all other fish are fighting and chasing each other, and he/she just doesn't budge... this one grows much faster than others.
Plants are doing fine as well. I think I'm getting into right light conditions finally... though based on all indications that I read this seems so little. I have only around 110W for 80G tank so kind of 1.5W/gallon where indications are 2-5W/gallon.

Couple of "issues" as we moved through this week:
- snails... not too many but showed up. First of all smashing them manually against the walls, secondly cut on food little bit (feel like fish barely eating anything), thirdly implemented third substrate vacuuming. Also purchased assassin snails... they are on the way and will put them for now in my quarantine tank... but planning to use if necessary
- nitrates... on Wednesday morning got some smudge of pink on my test... indicates value <5 so nothing major but they did show up. Read a lot and seems to be "natural" for planted tank so will just keep my routine going and see how this develops. Obviously immediately tested for ammonia... this is zero.

Current schedule:
- Tuesday night... water change (25-30%) + vacuuming + cleaning up the front glass (~1.5h)
- Thursday night... vacuuming (15-20 mins)
- Saturday morning... water change (25-30%) + vacuuming + cleaning up all glasses (~1.5h)
- Feeding twice a day (morning/evening) with selection of brine shrimps, krill, blood worms, white worms and beef heart (this one they are getting only Friday night before Saturday morning water changes as beef heart quite messy).

Within this week changed filtering floss in my activated carbon filter... doing this once a month and changing activated carbon every couple of months.

And few photos with my pupils ;)

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[brewmaster15]

Adam,
The fish look great!


Tom,


Amazon swords I’m also thinking grow great just in gravel with a couple of root tab. Their roots travel 20+” under the gravel and do great if kept with mts. The snails eat any dead roots. Would think the nylon would have caused a root ball. Amazon swords are a lot harder to grow now than 10yrs ago. they didnt make root balls. Roots travel in search of nutrients.. if you provide adequate nutrients they tend not to travel. Cant tell you how many huge amazon swords I have grown in claypots. I will did up some older pics.

[bluelagoon]

You mentioned activated carbon. Most folks don't use that with discus on a regular basis. I think you'd be better off using more media in it's place. Some do use it to get meds., tannins and odors out of the water.

[Iminit]

Yes carbon is not needed. Its purpose is to remove smell or meds in a tank and also to a minor point it can clear water for a short amount of time. Many suspect it has something to do with hith.

Great looking discus! But if you’re not seeing them eating that could be a problem. Assassin snails can also be nuisance snails and over populate a tank. They are also the laziest snails. All they do is eat other snails they don’t eat algae or any thing else.

Al I don’t know I’m no pro. But my swords always grew great and had huge roots. Even in pots. There I would have root balls that pushed the gravel out of the pots over time. I do feed ferts now but nothing like I use to in planted tanks. All swords got tabs when the growth would slow down. I’ve been having a very hard time growing swords lately. Again just not putting enough time into the plants I have. Too much time with discus! Also with the shops all selling emersed plants it’s harder to get these sword growing correct. I recently got 4 very small swords I’ve planted in pots with aquasoil on the bottom(using like root tabs) and these so far are looking good.

[brewmaster15]

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?140153-For-Tom

:)

[Adamski77]

Thank you all for words of encouragement and words of wisdom.
- Carbon is an extra thing I used to use 20+ years ago… seems now I understand what it does/doesn’t… appreciate this… space for adjustment
- on food… I might have not been clear enough… they are eating like sharks… attached some photos taken just before morning feeding. Babies were very patient today as I was doing weekly “bigger” cleaning so they had to wait longer
- assassin snails noted… all I need them to do is to eat little snails… rest is done by otonicluses… 7 in main tank and just got extra 7 currently in quarantine tank. My idea was to put assassin snails in quarantine tank and move only one in main tank… let him ravish. I think they need at least 2 (male/female) to reproduce so if I put one there is no risk… but that might be not enough

And some mandatory photos… I wish my photo taking skills would get better… don’t do even half of a justice to how pristine all of this looks

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[Adamski77]

I love these evenings when house is getting quiet and lights in the tank slowly go down... I can stretch myself on my little sofa and just watch... beautiful...

... I know I know... I said only weekly updates... ;)

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[brewmaster15]

Nice View! Adam is that stand custom made?
Al

[Adamski77]

Nice View! Adam is that stand custom made?
Al

It’s actually not… was there when we moved in couple of years ago… and I immediately felt something was missing :) (I guess it was just display before). Had to reinforce it with some 4x4s to hold 1000lbs but works nicely. The only downside was I had to tailor the size of the tank and was limited to 40cm (16 inches) width. Wanted to go really big with my tank but space was what it was. The upside is that it’s in my office so very limited traffic during the day… I actually leave the door open when I go to work and some people can pass by the door so the fish don’t freak out seeing human… plus I can enjoy the view when working sometimes longer evenings… or take a nap on my sofa ;)

[Adamski77]

Short and delayed update on my tank as we went with my wife for a little trip… Maldives… kind of watching different fish currently. Have friend watching my tank and feeding the fish… will lose Tuesday water change and Tue/Thu substrate vacuuming but hope my prior care and time put in keeping the tank clean will pay back. The only issue so far is nitrates that went up to maybe 10 (thought it’s going to be much worse)… but fish are holding prefect colors and eating like tigers. Had to dial-in feeding regime as my friend is not a hobbyist but so far so good. Back on Saturday morning… just in time for routine water change… so will lose only one WC out of my regular cycle. It is what it is.

First obviously few photos from paradise

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Temperature check

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Water check

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Babies check

[brewmaster15]

Wow.. thats beautiful scenery Adam!

Would love to more pics since its doubtful I will ever visit there!
We have a vacay thread here..

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?139809-The-Vacay-Thread

[Adamski77]

Ok... we are "back from Paradise" :) ... into reality. Tank/fish did quite well during my week of absence... but I did have my fears before leaving and during the trip. All in all everything went well and all babies are doing very well. Couple of lessons learnt:
- there are no shortcuts... I missed water change on Tuesday and substrate vacuuming on Tue/Thu... guess what... Saturday morning took me two hours (double normal) to restore order... so if you think you can save time... stop thinking
- there is solution for everything... patience and persistence is the key. Finally found a way to vacuum my substrate during water change. As I mentioned somewhere before my set-up is quite primitive and includes using hoses/cables for water change (which works for me) but vacuuming substrate was a problem for many reasons (will skip the details). Finally got it right this Saturday morning so now it's all cool.

... obviously few mandatory photos... and question: I read quite a lot about stress/emotion bars and they seem to be quite natural... the way the fish 'talk'... my question is how much is too much? Have one fella (second photo) that seems to have it more/more often and much darker. It's kind of smallest in the tank so would indicate higher level of stress... everybody is chasing somebody else... but he has nobody to chase. His brothers/sisters have much less (third photo) but I'm pretty sure they're from the same batch of fry. So when it's too much? Any wisdom?

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[Adamski77]

Little bit of an update on my tank… snail problem seems to be contained to big extent… little bit picking them out, little bit of assassin snails… I think I’m getting the positive traction on this topic. Problem of the week started to be algae… and I suspected this is going to be one. I’m still working full time and leaving home very early (6am normally) so had to set up the light for very long… so I can feed discus before I go and after I come back. 16.5 hours total with 3 warm up and 3 hours cool down… I knew it’s way too long but tried. Heavy algae obviously… changes needed. Now have it for 3 hours in the morning and 7 hours in the afternoon/evening… total 10 but 2 hours total is warm up and cool down so effectively have 8 hours full light. Also changed intensity to 30% at max. Algae started to be much “slimmer”… feel like 30% is too little but will give it a week or two to see where this is going to go. Other than that all cool.

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[Adamski77]

Nobody really reads this posts but I’ll try anyway. This week has been good however I had to go for business trip again. Friend of mine taking care of the tank and have to say he’s doing pretty good… just changes water today.
Discus are all cool just funny enough… affairs of him. I thought for the fish the “body” is the body but seems they can feel who is feeding them. Good girls/boys ;)
This week no additional problems except one dead Cory fish… really not sure why… but it is what it is.

Few photos:

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[brewmaster15]

Nobody really reads this posts but I’ll try anyway. This week has been good however I had to go for business trip again. Friend of mine taking care of the tank and have to say he’s doing pretty good… just changes water today.
Discus are all cool just funny enough… affairs of him. I thought for the fish the “body” is the body but seems they can feel who is feeding them. Good girls/boys ;)
This week no additional problems except one dead Cory fish… really not sure why… but it is what it is.




Adam, its not that people don't read the posts, they do, but for some mysterious reason, acknowledging the time and effort you put into posting is just not as common as it used to be. I don't personally get it, but I assure you the posts are read.:sorry:


I wanted to comment on two fish in that tank...Though they are all a nice group of Discus, ... I am particularly drawn to these...


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al

[Iminit]

Im reading Adam :)!. Ok your tank and discus look great! Think your problem with lighting may be those huge reflectors! They are magnifying the light. My lights mostly just sit on top of the tanks. I’m using hygger 957 led lights. Made in China :). Thing is they are cheap and fully adjustable. So you can leave these things on all day at 30%. The intensity is so low algae doesn’t grow as much. Or you can put them on at higher intensities at different times of the day. Also turn them off at different times of the day. Before these adjustable lights I used to put my lights on timers. Plant pros had explained to me that algae grows by the constant light but if you left the lights on for 4 hrs the plant used the light but it wasn’t enough time for the algae to grow. So I used to set my timers for 4on 4off 4on. Worked wonders on algae and lights were on when I left for work and when I got home :).

[Adamski77]

Thank you Tom! I did change my lights recently… and seems the problem got smaller… frustrating that I’m traveling so much recently and can’t see my fish every day and check/control what’s going on. Really appreciate your comments… simple acknowledgment from somebody very experienced means tones to me as I walked into this discus journey… and I really care for them to be healthy and happy. The light are now at 30% and seems plants still grow well… the only thing I spotted is that leaves on anubias are smaller comparing to the ones that plant had when I bought it… probably combination of shortage of CO2 and fertilizer that I don’t provide. But it’s just my guess.

And thanks Al for your comments… good day, bad day… yesterday was the latter… weekend on and I’m is some hotel on the way to another place. Wish I could sit in front of my tank. :)

[Iminit]

Anubias looks great! Nice mother plant and from your pics it’s growing nicely. Thing is anubias are slow growers and the leaves may take weeks to reach full size.

[brewmaster15]

Adam do you use uv?

With all.the traveling You do maybe you should set up a video cam on the tank for a live stream... almost as good as being there!

[Adamski77]

Tom… thanks for advice… patience might be a simple answer.

Al… I don’t use UV… just simple LED lamp. It’s for aquariums but nothing special I think.

And webcam clearly a great idea… will get something set up once back in Shanghai.

[Adamski77]

Crap... I didn't realize it's already has been one month since last update. Even though really busy with work these days I do maintain iron discipline around the tank. Everything per schedule and some progress in certain areas.
- algae continue to be a problem but after knocking down the light to 30% intensity I think I'm on the way to somewhere. Problem seems to be smaller though still exists
- one of the reasons for algae growth was filter with activated carbon... at least from my assessment. What lead me to think this way was that algae growth was only happening on one side of the tank... the other side had some but very minor. The only differences between two sides was (1) feeding on one side and (2) outflow for filter with activated carbon. Yes, I know and remember... you told me to kill this filter long time ago but really forgot I have it in all the recent racing in work. So I changed this filter to regular with ceramics promoting bacteria... still feeding where I used to and problem seems to be dramatically smaller. Hence my conclusion
- assassin snails are gift from God ;). I put only 4-5 in my 80G tank and had to wait 2-3 weeks but they ate absolutely every one of pest snails I had in this tank. There is ZERO (and I mean zero) of them in the tank right now and funny enough assassin snails themselves maintain population of around 10 with weaker ones/smaller ones just being eaten.

Other than that discus are growing... one of them much faster... probably crossed 5 inches at this stage... than I have middle of the pack with 5 of them approaching 5 inches and couple that are probably half an inch behind. But all good, happy and most importantly healthy (knock the wood).

Some phots attached though I still didn't learn how to do justice to my fish and tank. Something to learn...

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[Iminit]

Looking great! Keep up the good work!!

[fishy_jim]

AWESOME tank Adam !! I love reading these journals people post. I soon will be posting picks and what on my journal I stared. My tank is being delivered tomorrow and I feel like a kid at Christmas time. :) Keep up the good work - your fish look awesome.

[Adamski77]

thank you... I saw your thread as well... looking forward to seeing your set-up. It does feel like X-mas ;)

[Discus Fever]

Keep up the great work Adam, everything looks great I have to agree with AL every time I see your tank my eyes go to the reddish color discus.

[Red Eye.]

great post...New from the UK.....looking for tefe greens.

[ravvlet]

I love those stones in there! What are they?

[Adamski77]

I love those stones in there! What are they?

Honestly... no idea. I live in China... a lot of things I'm buying it's more a matter of look and feel... these just matched the look I wanted to get for my tank. They seem to be some form of basalt... most importantly don't impact water parameters, which I had to test as well as I was setting this up. There is tones of great stuff you can get here... but a lot of purchasing comes to hit one/miss few.

[Adamski77]

Keep up the great work Adam, everything looks great I have to agree with AL every time I see your tank my eyes go to the reddish color discus.

These red two are shaping much better... much less "beaky". Funny enough I pulled all of them from the same tank and in hatchery all of them did look so much alike. Look at it now! :confused:

[Red Eye.]

Welcome everybody! This thread will be documenting progress on my discus tank.

First a little bit of a catch up... as I've been having this for 3 months by now. My set-up is quite primitive comparing to what I can see around but I think it's doing fairly well considering conditions, time constraints and other circumstances.
Tank is tailor made as it's in my office so I had the space that I had. 180cmx60cmx40cm (width of 40cm was all I had). So roughly 400+ liters. Running two filters... canister (2400L/hour) + one much smaller hang on filter with activated carbon inside. Idea was to make the water circulate the way I wanted so outflows from the filters working towards two opposite sides of the tank. Light 2 LED lamps (100W each) running currently at 55%. I'm still in the process of fully balancing the tank so this is not necessarily final value. Two heaters (300+200W).
I'm not giving you details about the brands as I'm Polish guy living in China so brands would mean nothing to you ;)... but all in all the stuff functions well and it's reliable. Here are some photos from the time I was setting it up.

tbc...

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Weekly update... will treat is as my journal here... have my notes on paper... but you never know with paper ;)

Journey continues in positive spirit. Fish seems to be happy and growing nicely. Have this one that is actually focused solely on eating... looking actually quite funny when all other fish are fighting and chasing each other, and he/she just doesn't budge... this one grows much faster than others.
Plants are doing fine as well. I think I'm getting into right light conditions finally... though based on all indications that I read this seems so little. I have only around 110W for 80G tank so kind of 1.5W/gallon where indications are 2-5W/gallon.

Couple of "issues" as we moved through this week:
- snails... not too many but showed up. First of all smashing them manually against the walls, secondly cut on food little bit (feel like fish barely eating anything), thirdly implemented third substrate vacuuming. Also purchased assassin snails... they are on the way and will put them for now in my quarantine tank... but planning to use if necessary
- nitrates... on Wednesday morning got some smudge of pink on my test... indicates value <5 so nothing major but they did show up. Read a lot and seems to be "natural" for planted tank so will just keep my routine going and see how this develops. Obviously immediately tested for ammonia... this is zero.

Current schedule:
- Tuesday night... water change (25-30%) + vacuuming + cleaning up the front glass (~1.5h)
- Thursday night... vacuuming (15-20 mins)
- Saturday morning... water change (25-30%) + vacuuming + cleaning up all glasses (~1.5h)
- Feeding twice a day (morning/evening) with selection of brine shrimps, krill, blood worms, white worms and beef heart (this one they are getting only Friday night before Saturday morning water changes as beef heart quite messy).

Within this week changed filtering floss in my activated carbon filter... doing this once a month and changing activated carbon every couple of months.

And few photos with my pupils ;)

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Well I’ve got no clue what the benefits are of those cages? This is the rhizome on anubias136449 the long 1/2” thick thing looks like a branch. Yes those are roots coming off of it. On the bottom it’s attached to a rock.136450 on this one it’s attached to driftwood with a tyrap. This is the way anubias grow. Your way that rhizome will rot.
Now here’s my big question. Have you ever done a planted tank? We know you’re new to discus but if also new to planted tanks you will have problems. Both types of tanks (planted and discus) are tough to keep tanks. Both together require lots of time (think about 6 hrs a week) to keep clean and healthy. Aquarium soil does tend to leach ammonia into the tank for a good while. Most plant keeper won’t add fish for a few months after using aquasoil. Now discus need very clean tanks. So at every water change (every 3 days) you need to also vacuum the substrate. All your waste will be in the substrate and it needs to be removed. That’s why most discus keepers go bare bottom. Much easier to remove waste. Discus =big fish = big waste. Yes these pictures of discus in planted tanks all over the net look great. Many are just set up for the picture and discus returned to their tanks. Those that keep discus in planted tanks do a lot of work or keep very few discus in large tanks. Like 2 in a 125.

Top advice Tom..... I have made the mistake of discus in a big planted tank....will not go down this road again.....as much as I like planted tanks....as a family man with a manual job I just couldn,t do it all...

[Adamski77]

Things are rolling slowly forward… no major events… well, except for one fish that decided to go on a diet… rest is working fine. Feel my tank is really fully cycled now… took actually quite a long time… but as it happened all things balanced out. Algae is almost no problem anymore (knock the wood)… water continue to look super clear and fish are growing though different individuals at quite different rates. Had the biggest one I mentioned before… he kind of slowed down now but another one is catching up quickly. Very interesting to watch them grow. I also think they are becoming less and less “beaky” (obviously we all think about our fish better than they are). Few pictures from Friday.

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[brewmaster15]

Adam,
All looks great. Looking at your fish I see alot of males.. not sure i have seen females.. do you have any you think are female or have your seen any spawning behavior?

[Adamski77]

Al… thanks for pointing it out. For sure there are two females… I think these are the reds that attracted your attention earlier… they are laying eggs every couple of weeks… funny enough with smallest males :) . Remaining 6 I think are males… not a great pick in the shop :drummer:

[Adamski77]

It’s been a while… and I see so many people having often updates but for me not too much… I’m changing water, fish are growing… no particular issues. Some developments… there was a pair with this good looking red female and small boy that was terrorizing whole tank… these times are gone… boy spent time on running after girls instead of eating the food so now the lady dumped him and started to make a lot of moves in front of the biggest boy in the tank. Previous bully fell down the food chain to very very end (I’m actually worried about him).. but the biggest boy doesn’t yet seem to understand her dance. They are all immature… probably 8-9 months or so… so giving them time.
Intersting story… from hero to zero…

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[fishy_jim]

They look great !! Looks like they are getting bigger for sure. Dang teenagers .....:D

[Discus Fever]

Everything is looking fantastic in the tank, keep up the great work.

[Iminit]

Discus look great! Keep up the good work! May want to pull the old bully out and put by itself. Give it a chance to get back to health. Yes this does happen with young discus. If you don’t pull it chances are it will end up the weakest.

[brewmaster15]

That alenquer red is an incredibly beautiful fish Adam! Its really stellar!
Al

[Adamski77]

Thank you all for comments... so much appreciated...

Al... on this particular fish... thanks for words of appreciation... means a lot from somebody with your level of experience. Wish would be more like this in my tank... but this time is yet to come.
Btw... I think my little friend shares your perspective ;)


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[brewmaster15]

Thank you all for comments... so much appreciated...

Al... on this particular fish... thanks for words of appreciation... means a lot from somebody with your level of experience. Wish would be more like this in my tank... but this time is yet to come.
Btw... I think my little friend shares your perspective ;)


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Love that shot!