Another newbie looking for advice

[Stark]

Hello Everybody,

With just a little trepidation, I’ve decided to throw my hat into the discus arena. I’ve been keeping reef tanks for about five years, and I feel I’ve developed the husbandry skills and habits that (hopefully) will allow me to succeed here.

I’ve set up a planted 55 gal. (swords, gravel, driftwood), and I’m using an Emperor 400 for filtration. After scanning these boards, I picked up a 350 watt Pro-Heat II titanium heater. I’ve got six rasboras, six otos, six bleeding heart tetras, and four corys already stocked.

Tap Ph is 7.2, I don’t want to make the numerous water changes more difficult by continually fighting for more acidic water, so I’m hoping I can drip acclimate the fish and they’ll thrive under the current conditions.

I’d like to order four or five brilliant blues (are they a hardy breed?) to complete the set-up. What I’d like is an honest critique of my approach.

                     Thanks,
                     Jeff

[paulmat]

Welcome Jeff

Sounds like a good set up except for the gravel,and the other fish :P

Just rasboran ya.

Sometimes those tetras can be a little trouble with nipping fins. as far as brillant blues being hardy,discus in general are hardy fish as long as you take the extra steps to keep them healthy.One of those steps would be reg. water changes, gravel can be OK but you should vacume it reg.
Choose the tankmates wisely.Your Ph is OK as long as it stays constant,your better off without fluctuations.Stability is the key and lots of W/C's,thats how you'll keep those discus thriving.
You can learn a lot off this site if you look thru it and keep a open mind.Everybody's allways willing to help and give advise ;D

Paul :guitarist:

[jim_shedden]

Welcome Jeff : I strongly recommend that you visit the section : Show Tanks & Biotypes". It goes into detail about planted tanks. My own opinion is this : I do not like putting young discus into a planted tank. Every time that I have done so the fish end up with problems. Therefore I have a bare bottom tank. However, if the fish are adults I don't have a problem. I feel that they are big enough to handle it. There is nothing prettier than a planted tank with driftwood that has big discus.

jim

[Willie]

Hi Jeff;

Welcome to Simply.

Remember that you'll have to unlearn most of the things you do for reefs to be successful with discus. Reef tanks are ecological systems. Discus tanks are ultra clean feeding troughs. Reef tanks are an exercise in restraint. Discus tanks are just the opposite. You feed and you change water, then you start again. If you're going to raise young discus, forget about the plants and the gravel. Go barebottom and get ready for water changes.

Good luck, Willie

[Debo]

Welcome Jeff! I wish I would have listened to the great people on Simply. I started the addiction with a 125 planted tank. I lost 2 beautiful Discus to what I believe was Hex and bacteria and 1 to over medicating. :'(and I have 1 that never looks healthy, evan after 2 weeks in QT tank. At this point 1 1/2 years. I don't want to take everything out and start over. My remaining Discus are right around 51/2 inches. When I get more Discus I will have a nice grow out tank for them to go in! So if you buy young go Bare bottom.I change 10% every day and vacume with a 350 Magnuim every 2 days ;D
Deb

[Stark]

Thanks for all the replies. Not exactly what I was hoping to hear, of course. I donated the tetras to my sister. It’s not the first time she’s benefited from my stocking mistakes. I’m still stuck, however, with a planted tank and a desire to keep discus.

Let me start by saying that I’m all too aware of the luxuries I enjoy with my reef tank. Live rock and sand are wonderful things. I started in saltwater with a fish-only over crushed coral, and I still have the trusty python I used to routinely vacuum that substrate. I was hoping a similar regimen would keep the water quality up to standard in a discus tank.

Now I don’t want to waste time and fish trying to pound a square peg into a round hole. I visited the Show Tanks & Biotypes section and found strong opinions on both sides of the planted tank debate. I seem to be hearing that success can be had if the fish aren’t too young. How big should the fish be?

I’m not someone who continues to ask a question until I hear an answer that suites me, I just want to be sure discus would be a mistake in my set-up before giving up on the idea. If I must, I’ll take the aquarium in a different direction, secretly resenting all of you for the rest of my days ;D.

               Thanks again,
               Jeff

Jeff... Welcome to the Simply Family.... :wave:

Alot of great advise here! I too think an investment in another tank (bb) for top notch babies would be the best. Raise them yourself and with Simply's help you will have what you desire. Don't give up your dream of a planted Discus tank, as it will just take patience and research. I can certainly see by your posts that you have the the beginnings of the Discus passion as the rest of us have experienced.... Give it a try. ;) You will succeed... :thumbsup:

Julz :)

[Ralph]

Your set-up sounds like a description of one of my tanks.

Your water is within the limits of the discus range (what is your hardness?) for pH, which will make life easier. The larger tetras can be too aggresive for discus especially at feeding time.

Patience is a virtue (that I don't have), but if you are new to discus and new possibly to planted tanks and also freshwater, best to bite the bullet and put them in a 30 gal grow-out tank for eight months or so. Feed them a lot and do your water changes and you will end up with large, healthy fish in a beautiful planted tank.

[Willie]

Jeff;

Its great to meet a newbie who actually believes what other people tell him. Most of us will tell you that adult discus will do fine in a planted tank, while young ones will not grow very much. You'll actually find large discus all over the place. A lot of us will grow up a batch of fish and get a few to pair off. Once they do, we're on to the next strain so there's adults left over. Check the For Sale section and you'll find lots.

Willie

[Stark]

Well, I’ve talked it over with my wife, and assured her that our youngest White’s tree frogs are big enough to join the general population without being mistaken for food. That makes their 29 gal. available as a bare bottom grow-out tank. I want to thank everyone for their help so far as I’m sure I’ll be leaning on you more in the future.

Now, could anyone direct me to a reputable breeder as close to S.E. Connecticut as possible?

                        Jeff

[WrxAnt]

Stark,

I myself am new to the Simply Discus forums but have been keeping a pair of discus for 18months now.

And guess what my tank is a 65 Gal Planted community tank.

I bought my pair discus as babies and they now quite large. I've only ever fed them on granules and I rarely do weekly water changes.
More like monthly water changes :o

And I do a straight tap water change, no aging, no declorination, and I use hot water from my hot water service to match the tempature Al big no no as I've found out :o

And I don't add water additives.

I clean my filters about once every 3 months.

1 run an Eheim 2224 and a fluval 204 on the tank.

And only have a single 40W globe.

Currently they are swiming around with glowlights and my every breeding silvertip tetras they started numbering 6 and now number 50+

People cringe when they hear all the above yet I have 2 very social bright growing well discus they are always up the front of the tank!


I'm sure many people on the forums can tell you all about Discus disasters and also a lot of successes.

So when it comes to Discus tanks its more a case of YMMV.

Maybe I've just go the two most tolerant Discus on the planet?

I'm currently in the process of migrating all the tetras to another tank for have a discus only tank and curb my evil ways ;)

Cheers
Antony

[Carol_Roberts]

Conneticutt? Let me see, who do we know in Conneticutt?

Why don't you try this link for Conneticutt Discus (Al Sabata - AKA Brewmaster15)
http://www.ctdiscus.com/

Carol :heart1:

[Ralph]

Hi Anthony,
You have an unusual approach to discus keeping as I'm sure you know.
My impression though of discus keeping is that it is still developing and a lot of the rules that you read about really fall under the heading of "things that have worked for me." I think the discus bible has yet to be written. Statistically, those rules will increase the rate of success, but that doesn't necessarliy mean other methods can't work. I'm sure it helped to have a light fish load, many of us have too many fish per gal. I have to admit that I've never heard of someone using chlorinated water for their discus, that is definately a new one for me.
There is a thread in the Hobbyist Section where the Australians get together, you might want to check it out.
Anyways, welcome to Simply.

[WrxAnt]

Ralph,

My approach in the past has nothing more than dismmal to be honest!!!

I don't use chlorinated water we are just lucky where I live that they don't use such high levels of chlorination. Our water is also very soft and has a very neutral pH around 7.0!!!

If anything, what I've done in the past is a big example of what NOT to do as a discus keeper!!!

But it just goes to show that discus are not as fragile as most claim they are!

I've had 3 broods of eggs in the last 3 months... why they chose to lay them on my 300W heater vs the slate I really do wonder....

I basically just wanted Jeff to see yes one can do everthing totally wrong and get results! And not to be scared off by people going oh no planted tank is bad and that you need 50% water changes per day!

The fact I have Discus breeding and my silver tip tetras have just punched out there 6th brood shows that discus really aren't that fragile...

But imagine what will happen when I put in the extra effort ;)

Cheers
Antony

[Liz_Streithorst]

Ralph,

I'm another one who has not done as told with excellent results.

My first discus were all between 2 and 3 inches. I plopped them right in a planted 125 with a beta, some cardinals and a bunch of multiplying platys. I have always done a 50% water change daily (changed more when I had the automatic drip hooked up) but only vaccumed every week or 2. All my fish have grown fine. I made some stupid newbie blunders and they always survived without any sign of stress related illness. I have 2 pairs that have been spawning every 6 days for months now. I am starting to suspect that the fish may have worms and plan to do a Prazi treatment soon, but hey...people with BB tanks get worms, too.

Good luck with whatever you decide. And to be honest, if I were you I'd do as everyone else suggests ;D

Liz

[DarkDiscus]

Jeff,

You live in SE Connecticut? Cool. Another one of us! I live in Bethel, which is just south of Danbury. Al lives just north of New Haven.

He has some nice young fish that he would definitely be willing to sell you. His Snakeskin x Wild Green cross is very pretty and have been raised in water just like yours! He also is a very generous host and has a lot of very cool fish.

Welcome to the board, by the way!

John