Newbie will this work?

[afireinside]

Ok me and my wife currently have a 55 gallon standard african tank, 29 gallon central american tank and 2 pitbulls! Our tanks have been together for about 2 years and we discovered Discus recently. We bought a 55 gallon hex the stand is being re-finished right now, we want to plant it, bought some nice tall gangly drift wood yesterday, but what substrate can we use? we got some pea gravel (fairly large) should I do a 50/50 pea/sand? or just do sand? We bought 5 nice german blue rams for $20.00 at a LFS yesterday in a QT tank currently awaiting set up of the hex. We are local to the owner of Great Lake Discus so we want to get 5 from him when ready, along with 4-5 cories and maybe a few apistogamas to go with the rams.

Filter is a eheim 2217, heat 250 watt stealth heater (use in all our tanks) Not sure on lighting, maybe t-5 w/ 10,000k and atanic or t-5 w/ 10,000k and 6,700k, we have the 10,000k and atanic in our african and love it.

Dose this set up sound good? I think 6 weeks till discus. thanks for the help!

[gg5190]

Welcome to the wonderful world of discus. From the plant aspect i would go with the 10,000K and the 6,700k. I dont think that plants have much use for the atanic spectrum. Plants also like smaller gravel because its easier for their roots to move through. Smaller gravle might be harder to clean with discus. They really really like a clean everything. I think that youll be alright just dont rush into it.

[Polar_Bear]

If it were me, I would put the Africans in the hex, and use your old tank for the discus. The reason being, discus need lots of Oxygen so a large water surface area, the rectangular tank will be better for this.

[Darren's Discus]

If it were me, I would put the Africans in the hex, and use your old tank for the discus. The reason being, discus need lots of Oxygen so a large water surface area, the rectangular tank will be better for this.

Roger That.


cheers

[RyanH]

Hi there,

Welcome to Simply. :)

I agree with the others. A hex tank is not a good idea.

I would spend a little bit of time perusing the beginner section. There are some very good articles stickied at the top that you will find useful. Start with the beginners information index. Scroll down to "how to start my first Discus tank" and go from there.

Post as questions arise. :)

-Ryan

[RickMay1]

I've used a 55 hex, and didn’t have any problems until the fish started getting larger, in fact for small fish (up to 2.5") I prefer the hex. it also works great as a breeder tank. I don’t recommend it for larger fish, their just isn’t anyplace to get away from a bully.

One recommendation, get the fish full grown in a bare bottom tank before you put them in a planted/decorated tank. You won’t be able to get big fish without a huge amount of work.

[Harriett]

I agree with using the hex for the Africans, that would be great, and the 55 to start your discus in--the advice you will see over and over and over here is to learn how to take care of discus FIRST and then put them in a planted or biotope setting. Cary at GLD is a fantastic place to get your discus from and he's a great mentor if you run into problems--as are many learned folks on Simply.
Please do start at the beginning and read read read before you put good money down on some discus. This site offers an invaluable education in the beginners section. Make it a success from the start and know what you are doing.
Welcome to Simply and good luck with the discus!
Harriett