Diving into Discus

[moggyfish]

Tomorrow I will be picking up a new aquarium! Actually, it's a used uniquarium with cherrywood stand and cabinet and power compacts. It's in very good shape and only a few years old, and was until recently a planted discus tank!

The previous owners used lava rock as a bacterial medium--do you think I should do the same? It seemed to work with the discus the previous owners had. I was considering using bio-bale instead.

Also, I will be going the bare-bottom route, but I was wondering if I could use any floating plants. Any suggestions?

Thanks to any and all for their help. I will be posting pictures as soon as I can.

[Bainbridge Mike]

I think I know what a uniquarium is--there is a wet/dry filter built into the back, right? I would ditch the lava rock. It is difficult to clean and does not have anywhere near the bio-capacity of bio-balls or biobale. As I recall, the volume of the wet/dry compartment is on the smallish side too--so that definitely favors a new biomedium. I've never had much luck with floating plants. Have you considered plastic? Best of luck,

Mike

[Willie]

You can use floating plants, but I think you'll throw them away after a while. Floating plants don't do well if there's good filtration. Discus need good aeration to grow well, in my experience.

Remember to quarantine, Willie

[yogi]

I have found a floating plant that does good and is hard to kill. It's watersprite.

[traco]

The silk plants are great, I find. They are soft so won't scratch the fish, you can take them out while cleaning and can clean them easily. I found watersprite in my community tank eventually withered and died. And the temp in that tank was only 78, not the 84+ you need with discus.

Welcome to the discus world! And enjoy.:)

[moggyfish]

Thanks for all your responses, everyone.

I have heard it said before that uniquariums are underfiltered, but, like I said, the tank did hold discus before. I even saw two discus that were removed from the tank in the same store, and they seemed large and healthy enough. Still, I will measure the actual size of the chambers in the back and post it tomorrow.

I really don't like the look of plastic or silk plants, but I may consider them if the water sprite or other live, floating plants don't work out.

Any other suggestions for optimizing the limited filter space of a uniquarium would be appreciated!

Thanks again,

Dave

[ed8t]

What is the capacity of your uniquarium? Dimensions?

My watersprite thrived...they actually grew monsterous, must be the added minerals as I kept the tds/gh on the higher side. Kept the temps to 86*. Still a pain when you have to prune the dead/brown leaves.

[Bainbridge Mike]

Hey Dave:

I would definitely go with Bio-bale--it has a huge surface area for bacteria. Uniquariums typically have a mini-sump area in the back (in case you want to do saltwater) so you can add a skimmer. I found that I can stack two Azoo No.8 sponges in the skimmer sump. The other recomendation I have is to clean the mechanical filter/screen every other day (or even every day)--it really pays off to keep it super clean. Finally, the other thing I have done is to run an airstone to the bottom of the filter chamber (under neath the biomedia). The extra oxygen is great for growing bacteria. Just make sure to keep the airstone far away from the intake to the return pump.

Good luck,
Mike

[Moon]

The volume of boi media that you need depends on the volume of your tank. For a wet dry system the rule of thumb is 10% of tank volume. I have 15g of bio media in my 125g tank.
hth

[tpl*co]

What type of lighting are you going to put on your tank? I have the following plants in my tank and they are:

Anubias
Cryptocornye - several different types (I don't know how they're spelt but here goes:, I have retrospirilus, wenditii, tropica, and some others all doing great! The one that is called retrospirilus I got at my fish club's auction and looks suspiciously like a Val. - If it is, then vals would do well too.

Red Tiger lotus
Riccia
Moss and Java fern, and some kind of algae that I have to keep on top of (kind of grassy like, I wonder if it is an exploded moss ball stuff).

I don't use CO2 and I have a canister and biowheels on my tank, I have 180 watt power compact on my 50ish gallon bowfront. Plants are in pots that look like rocks or in home made pots that I cut from water bottles (clear so I could add gravel and you can barely see them. :). I also made an anubia wall that I have supported in back (I know, I know I still need to post a picture of it!) My tank temp is at 30 degrees C.

[moggyfish]

Thanks again, everyone, for your replies.

ed8t, The overall capacity of the aquarium is ninety gallons, but the filter system in the back takes up 20 gallons of space leaving 70 gallons of "fish" space. The filter system has 6 chambers--2 flowing down behind the overflow (one of these for a skimmer, maybe), 1 going up, 3 under a drip plate flowing down, and a return chamber with a pump.

Mike, Thanks for the advice about bio-bale--from what I've read, it's reasonably priced and effective. I think I'll be using as much of that as possible.

Moon, I'm not entirely sure if I have 10 percent of tank volume for bio-media--Is that 10 percent including the filter system which would be 90 gallons, or just the fish space of 70 gallons?

tpl*co, The aquarium came with power compacts--it was a planted tank. I was thinking of adding plants that don't need a substrate like free-floating watersprite and anubias attached to driftwood.

I will post photos as soon as I figure out how...

Thanks again,

Dave