first Discus tank :) help ?

[Ryan_Welch]

hello .... my name is Ryan and im 14 and allready havea 2ft and a 4ft tank i love cichlids :) ... and i think Discus are the fish for me :)


in a few months when my brother moves out i will have a 6ft x 2ft x 2ft tank :p :p :balloon: :balloon: :balloon: :bandana: :bandana: :bandana: I CAN'T WAIT :)

i am thinking of a planted tank :) it wil have two fluval 304's on and two 200w heaters :)

i'm looking at getting around 100 watts ATLEAST on this with a mixture of t8's and t5 PC's :)

i have recently moved so in my new house am on a water meter :rant: ... i can do a water change once every two weeks from my house and as my brother is moving out i will Scab water of him :lol: :P ... never tested my water parameters of the tap water but i wil and f it isn't good enough will buy an RO meter to instal at brothers :lol: :P

this should bring my water change to about 3 x's a months. which i think should be sufficent as it will house adult discus :) maybe grow some juvies in a 2ft ? would this be okay to do ?

Filters wil be cleaned out with tank water one every month this should keep them efficent i beleive :)


any hints and tips or anything ? does my plan sound good ? is the w/c's sufficent ?

oh and in my 2ft i have a fluval 4 filter which will be moved onto my 4ft with another fluval 4. any ideas what filter to add to the 2ft ? ( it will be used to rasie 3-4 inches to around 5-6 ?



thanks for any replies and help in advance :) ...


Ryan

[Jeckel]

Hi Ryan,

I don't want to discourage you from keeping discus, but I think most of us do water changes far more often than three times a month. A lot of people change a good part of the water every day or so. This is especially the case with juvies, since clean water results in better growth. And of course all discus are senstive to nitrates, dissolved organics, etc.

Maybe in an established planted tank, the plants will remove a lot of bad stuff from the water so you could get by with fewer water changes. Since I haven't tried a planted discus tank yet, I don't know. I'm sure some folks here with more experience will give you some definitive advice.

I hope you find a way to keep discus, and that you will have good luck with them.

[White Worm]

Welcome to simply ryan!

I want you to first understand that we would love for you to be able to keep some discus and be a great addition to this hobby.

You sound very excited and seem to have some experience with aquariums.

Many people have just jumped in to the discus hobby without having the proper information and have lost many of these beautiful animals. (I did it myself)

The first thing you need to do is understand that discus are very particular tropical fish. Their environment (water) has to be very clean and stable. Some of us do 80%-100% water changes daily especially for breeding and keeping a tank full of juveniles. They create lots of waste and they WILL get sick and die if you do not keep their water very clean. Discus fall prey to alot of diseases also which ends up very pricey to buy all of the medications you may need. We've come a long way from a gold fish in a bowl.

You need to do your research for about 2 months on this web site before you purchase any discus. I also think that you will be dissappointed if you start out by purchasing your discus from any local fish store. If you want to start out the right way, you need to save your money and buy from a good breeder and there are many around the world. You will be surprised to find that it is better money spent that way and the fish come from someone that knows what they are doing.

There is a huge amount of information on this site and you will find every parameter required for the discus. The most important things for you right now would be research and patience. This is not something to rush into. If you rush into this without doing those things, you may end up losing your interest and some discus will end up losing more. JMO

I have been doing aquariums for about 20 years and discus over a year now and I still am asking advice and learning. If you do your research and then purchase the correct number and quality of discus, you should do fine in the world of discus keeping, good luck, Mike

[Ryan_Welch]

my dad's friend brreds al sorts of Fishes (not discus) so i wil ask him if he knows of any local breeders so that sorted :) ...


about the water changes : i did say that i epon't be keeping juvies .. and that if i did it would be in a 2ft ( that way i change the water every day :) ... if needs be) only adults will be in the 6ft :)

i got about 3-4 months i rekon before i will have the tank so that leaves me time to save money and stuff :)

[AADiscus]

Welcome to SIMPLY Ryan!!!!! :D

You have found the right spot to get all the information you will need for your discus. There is ALOT of information so start reading. ;)

I would suggest more than 3 water changes per month even on adults. I have never had a planted discus tank but even on one that wasn't planted 3 is not enough. IMO Discus are alot different than cichlids you are used to having or have been around. They need alot of TLC.

Good luck though!!! It's nice to see a young person interested in them.:D

[cobaltblue]

Hi Ryan, and welcome to Simply. You seem to have a good head for aquariums and your lucky to be getting the 6ft tank so young. I remember
when i was 14 and was so happy to finally get that 20 g tank, upgrade from my 10g.....anyway.

I have a 90g planted and i do water changed of 50% every second day. I was doing it once a week, and my fish were getting sick. I lost one. Spent alot of meds to keep the others alive. Adult fish is definatley the right way to go so that you dont need as many wc, but even with adults i would say at least twice a week minimum. imo.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask the many awesome people on this site. There is a alot of things to consider for your set up, and it makes it way easier to do it right the first time. Check out the planted tank section, it has a lot of good stuff.

cheers

[Dood Lee]

If you are going to keep a planted discus tank, go over and register at the www.plantedtank.net forums. The people there are more knowledgeable with regards to keeping planted tanks. Both Shalu and myself post there from time to time, but since you are just starting out, I suggest learning to keep a planted tank first before you start out getting your discus.

I am a first time discus owner myself, but i didn't want to compromise and go barebottom. So I took about half a year to learn the ins and outs of keeping a well maintained planted tank.

Water changes 3x a month is doable, but your tank has to be well balanced for you to actually pull it off.

[hexed]

Hi Ryan,
Welcome to Simply Discus!
Dood Lee is correct. You must first master a planted tank before putting any discus in it. I wanted to do a planted tank myself, but it must be established before any fish are added and that's why I always keep putting it off, that and my tanks keep filling up with discus LOL!
Most people here keep bare bottom tanks for discus because they are the easiest, where planted tanks are the hardest. If your discus gets sick it is easier to give meds in a bare bottom then a planted. If you take the time to look through the threads you will see the different ways people use bare bottom tanks. Some paint the sides, some paint "sand" on the bottom, some do both. I have just seem one that actually painted all the sides and placed a thin layer of sand (not a lot) to cover the bottom. They add driftwood and some potted plants and the tanks look really nice. But if you are determined for a planted tank then I would suggest what Dood has suggested.
I have had a graveled (sand) only tank and yes I did once a week water change and had no problems and my discus DID grow out very nicely but it takes hard work to get them to do that. I had to completely clean everything to do with the tank, paying most attention to cleaning the substrate. It took my about 3 hours to completely clean it. I had to get every inch vacuumed out and there was 50 plus pounds (3-4 inches) of sand in that 55 gallon LOL! Take apart the filters, wipe the entire inside of it out, etc. I now have all my tanks bare bottom (BB) because it is so little time to clean now. You said you have about 4 months to decide, so I would suggest to look around here at all the pictures and always ask questions as we are here to help. I would also suggest that you join the forum Dood says to learn about planted tanks as well and ask questions there too!
Frank

[AFTICA]

Gotta agree 100% with Dood and Hexed - if a planted discus tank is your eventual goal - then register at plantedtank.net (http://www.plantedtank.net)and start reading - get your planted tank up and running first - then eventually add the discus.

I just went this route... been keeping aquariums for over 20 years but a lots changed since then lol... anyway I started at the plantedtank.net (http://www.plantedtank.net)and read everything... figured out who where the most knowledgeable and then read everything they said twice ;)

once I decided where I was going - I spent 3 months gathering up the equipment I needed for the type of planted tank I wanted. (High tech CO2 high light etc..) - and as 98% of it was not available locally... I had to spend time online reviewing product and vendors and ordering etc..

Got the tank set up - ordered in plants, plus got some local (We have a store selling Tropica brand plants!) - and waited for the eventual algae... (Never took long).. More reading... anyway the algae gos away and stays in check much easier once the tank and substrate gets well established... in my case that was about 4-5 months if I remember correctly.

Anyway the road for me was to add Discus... and I added them 13 months later. (Patience Grasshopper) - and yes the slow road was worth it... time to get the planted tank established.. time to ensure the fish I specially selected to be kept with the Discus were healthy (they spent 8 months in that tank being monitored etc. before the Discus arrived).. time to read this forum for Discus information as well as plantedtank.net... But I am very pleased with the results. (OH! And yes don't go LFS - definatly find a breader who is totally willing to work with you and answer questions etc.. you won't be sorry on that! If they are local - even better!)

As for the Water Changes - would love to be able to tell you that what your suggesting is going to be enough....BUT I don't think so.. I myself am a little skimpy on the Water Change myself... and I am still doing it 2x a week about 50%..

May want to read up on the "Estimative Index" method of planted tanks by Tom Barr... good reading... and there is 2 articles over at the Tropica website (http://www.tropica.com) called "Success with planted Discus aquaria parts 1 & 2" - written by George and Karla Booth - some of the pioneers of planted Discus Aquaria on the internet.

Hope that helps a bit - and good luck!

[Ryan_Welch]

thanks for the replies :) ... have ben thinking and am now very much ready for my planted tank :) ...

stil trying to find a breeder though :( ... 13 months is fine for me ... az i don't really want to spend loads of money on discus then them all die :( ... tthat wouldn't be fair on the discus or my dad's wallet :P


wil check that site out :) ... can i add ?Co2 at a later date ??? ....

and can i add other fish to the tank before the discus as i can't be looking at an empty tank :P :lol:

[Y0uH0]

Hey Guys,

I did a water test for my planted tank just yesterday and i would like to know if the tank condition is suitable enough for discus..here are the various information regarding my tank.

Tank size: 5ft X 2ft X 1.5ft
KH reading :2 dkh
Nitrate reading : 12.6mg/l
PH level : 6.6
Water tamperature: 28.5 degrees celcius

THKs:)

[discus2010]

Ryan as long as you keep the other fish in the tank for a long time (a month) at least before you get the discus So that you know there arent any disease you should be fine
Unfortunately i must tell you that the amount of water changes your planning on doing wont be enough I am currently doing 55% water changes on my tank and sometimes i think that isn't enough. So i would see if you could find a way too do at least weekly or twice weekly water changes or if you cant the only thing i can recommend for you would be to cut the amount of fish in half or so so that you can have less ammonia in the water.

Good Luck with everything