How Important is a BB Tank?

[salman]

Well, the title says it all. In my 100 gallon which is currently cycling. I have sand, driftwood, rocks, and live plants. Is it okay to no use a BB tank for discus? I am thinking of buying 10 2inch discus and raise them to pair off and breed. I will be doing 15% water changes and ill vacuum the sand to get all the dirt, or most of it. Unlike gravel, the sand will be on the surface of the sand, it won't go under it, so it will be easy to clean.

This is a picture of my tank. I would have to throw away everything and all the hard work arranging everything.

27062

[mmorris]

You got several thoughts about this on your other thread. I think its safe to say that very, very few here will advise you to raise juvies in the setup that you have. It’s very difficult to raise them to their full potential. If you keep asking, however, you will most certainly find someone who will say that it is fine. Someone is bound to tell you its ok to build a nuclear power facility on a fault line. You already have to start out with LFS discus. I, too, started out with a planted discus tank when I was a beginner. Many others here have as well. I learned. Think seriously about what you want. I must say, it’s a really pretty tank. If that's what you want right now, I would advise getting another kind of fish. If you want discus, you can always put this back together in the future. Also, IMO 15% wc (I assume you mean daily) really isn't enough.
Martha

[salman]

I'll take everything out then. Can BB tanks have substrate like driftwood? or does it have to be completely empty?

Oh, and i am currently cycling my tank, is it okay to take out the sand?

I an only do 15% because my pH drops over time. So if i add more then 15% it might mess up everything. I can put water into buckets, but that would be like 30 gallons in a buckets?

[mmorris]

IMO driftwood is fine. I have some in my bb tank. I can just shove it out of the way when I clean. People put plants in pots as well. There are pictures here and there on this forum showing what others have done with their bb tanks. I would take out the sand, but check the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings before adding discus. Ammonia and nitrite should read 0 and nitrate should read something, but not more than 5 or 10. Its painful to take it apart, I know, but its temporary. When the discus have grown up and you have more experience with them, you can put it all back together again!
Martha

[mench]

I think your tank is beautiful...I would not change a thing...I have all bb tanks because I am way to lazy to keep a tank as nice as yours clean..an maybe because I have 18 tanks to care for.....If you ae comfortable with keeping your tank like that ...I say go for it.
I guess I would tend to disagree with the statememt about the discus not being able to grow to thier potential...look at all the planted tanks in Japan and Europe and thier fish seem to do just fine....Some day I am going to do one of my 125's like yours...
Good luck with your tank and please end out more pics.

Mench

[salman]

I think your tank is beautiful...I would not change a thing...I have all bb tanks because I am way to lazy to keep a tank as nice as yours clean..an maybe because I have 18 tanks to care for.....If you ae comfortable with keeping your tank like that ...I say go for it.
I guess I would tend to disagree with the statememt about the discus not being able to grow to thier potential...look at all the planted tanks in Japan and Europe and thier fish seem to do just fine....Some day I am going to do one of my 125's like yours...
Good luck with your tank and please end out more pics.

Mench

Wish you said that earlier. I already tore everything apart lol.

But, i think i get why people have BB tanks now.

I want my discus to be healthy and maybe when they grow up i'll put the sand and plants back in.

[phidelt85]

I went from this:
http://www.aquaria.info/modules/gallery/albums/phidelts-discus-tank/aay.sized.jpg

to this:
http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t78/cuervogold85/DSC02102.jpg

to finally this plus a painted bottom (recently):
http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t78/cuervogold85/discus%20tank%20July%202007/DSC02402.jpg

Notice the dates on the pics. I too wanted a planted discus tank, and a few months later I ended up BB. In that time, I have lost a total of 5 discus for one reason or another; four of those were juvies less than 3" in length. Planted tanks take a lot of time and energy to maintain. Discus take up equally a fair amount of time and effort to maintain. Add the two together and the lack of water changes your proposing to do plus you're starting with 2" juvies, and you've got a recipe for disaster.

I'm sure it's already been recommended to you, Pick up another tank that you can keep BB to raise out the juvies and when they get larger add them to your planted tank. You don't have to tear this one down; keep it going to grow out your plants and establish the tank. It can be done; I just would not start with juvies. I'm sure more experienced folks have already told you this as Martha has indicated, but I just went through what your proposing to do and it didn't work out all that well for me.

[salman]

I went from this:
http://www.aquaria.info/modules/gallery/albums/phidelts-discus-tank/aay.sized.jpg

to this:
http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t78/cuervogold85/DSC02102.jpg

to finally this plus a painted bottom (recently):
http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t78/cuervogold85/discus%20tank%20July%202007/DSC02402.jpg

Notice the dates on the pics. I too wanted a planted discus tank, and a few months later I ended up BB. In that time, I have lost a total of 5 discus for one reason or another; four of those were juvies less than 3" in length. Planted tanks take a lot of time and energy to maintain. Discus take up equally a fair amount of time and effort to maintain. Add the two together and the lack of water changes your proposing to do plus you're starting with 2" juvies, and you've got a recipe for disaster.

I'm sure it's already been recommended to you, Pick up another tank that you can keep BB to raise out the juvies and when they get larger add them to your planted tank. You don't have to tear this one down; keep it going to grow out your plants and establish the tank. It can be done; I just would not start with juvies. I'm sure more experienced folks have already told you this as Martha has indicated, but I just went through what your proposing to do and it didn't work out all that well for me.

I love your BB tank. I'm going to try my best to make it look like yours. This and the 44 gallon are the only tanks i can BB. I bought this 100 gallon just for discus. So i just now took off all the sand and water and everything in the tank. Refilling it with water right now, and then going to add my driftwood, and if i can find some potted plants later on, ill get those too.
Thank you for the inspiration.
I want to get small discus so i can raise them to pair off and hopefully breed them. I can try to find 3 inch ones, but can i still breed those, or will they be too old for them to choose their pairs?

[tbrat]

Awesome set up!!! Your discus will thrive as well...
I've tried raising my little ones in a planted tank as well...there was just no way to keep it clean enough to ensure health and a good grow rate. Needless to say I have a couple that are going to be stunted in size due to that but they are much happier in the a bb tank with a few plants and all but a couple, growing like weeds!!
Good Luck and Have Fun...its all a learning process!

[Don Trinko]

I have gravel in my discus tanks with fake plants. It is more work to keep clean and probably not possible to keep as clean as BB but it can be done. I don't like the apearance of BB. Some look nice but most look like you would expect to find at a breeders fish farm.
Just my opinion. I am probably in the minority on this. Don T.

[salman]

I'm all BB now. I only have 2 huge pieces of driftwood in there. And i don't hate it. I'm going to wait for everything to stabilize, i'll wait a week and see how things go, I'm going to put my neon tetra's in there for now so the bacteria has something to feed on. Actually ill wait 10 days and then get my discus because all fish stores here get new fish on Wednesday, i'll go on a tuesday because then i know the fish stayed alive for 6 days.

[AADiscus]

You will find with a bb tank with very pretty fish in there you look at the fish more than the plants, etc. If you want to raise smaller fish to adults and breed them then I suggest starting out bb. Once they start getting young adults/adults then you can gradually add things back into the tank. I would up your wc's also. Keep your temp around 84-86.

Jose.....your tank looks great! You have done great and come along way. Keep up the good work. (come see us soon!)

[phidelt85]

Big thanks, Angela!! Seee, I'm learning to listen a little more now huh! :D Maintenance is just sooooooooo much easier now, you'll learn to appreciate it more each day. Jenny, my wife, was kinda hesitant at first(going barebottom), but when she saw the finished product, she thought it looked awesome!!

Will do on the visit :thumbsup:

[SuAsati]

Bare bottom isn ot requir for discus. if you want
show tank, keep planted, sand is better so poop stays on top,
stock level need to be low, adding UV will help more.
Tanks look pretty more in substrat and plants than bare.
people they say barebottom only not no how raise discus.

[Kindredspirit]

Will do on the visit :thumbsup:


Yup! We'll be there:D


Jose your tank looks great:):)


Salman ~ I wish everyone was as easy to convince as you re BB! I think you will be just fine:) Remember, make sure your tank is completely cycled before adding your discus ~ I am not sure 6 days will cut it ~

[salman]

Yup! We'll be there:D


Jose your tank looks great:):)


Salman ~ I wish everyone was as easy to convince as you re BB! I think you will be just fine:) Remember, make sure your tank is completely cycled before adding your discus ~ I am not sure 6 days will cut it ~

I am easily convinced everyone tells me that in real life. If anyone convinces about something even if its bad, for example, i was in a store once wanting to just buy fish food. I ended up getting a filter, heater, another complete tank, more food, and a bunch of water conditioners lol
You know, i was going to go get the discus in a few hours, i think i might still.
I started a thread about if i can add the discus now. Most people think i can add them now. The tank hasn't completely cycled yet, but the levels are really low. The ammonia didn't pass .25
I will also be adding another canister filter which has tons of bacteria in it to even help lower the levels down too and speed up the process. I will also do 20% water changes daily to even lower the levels.
I think if i don't get them soon, i will loose interest because something has to make a BB tank look good lol. And + If i don't get them now i'll have to wait another 2 weeks because they will get new in a week, then i have to wait for them to acclimate in the LFS and maybe the symptoms will start if they were sick.

[Kindredspirit]

So it is you with the other thread? I thought I was losing it:p

You are going to try and get at least 6 discus, right? They are schooling fish and if they are really small, they may feel really lost and insecure in that 100gal....

[salman]

So it is you with the other thread? I thought I was losing it:p

You are going to try and get at least 6 discus, right? They are schooling fish and if they are really small, they may feel really lost and insecure in that 100gal....

I am going to get 10, between 2 to 3 inches.

But i may not like what i find when i go there, so there is a chance i will be waiting another 2 weeks. I memorized the what and what not to look for in a discus. I also have a cheat sheet lol.

Also, do you get what you pay for? I went to a fish store i had never been to, and i saw one 2 inch discus there. It looked good, but it was triple the price from any other LFS i've been to. But all the other fish were expensive too. They will be getting their new ones today.

[Kindredspirit]

Interesting....bring your camera:)

[mmorris]

I don't think you get what you pay for at an LFS !! Go for the gusto, Salman, you're off and running. :D
Martha

[Ed13]

Salman, if there is no other way but to get discus from your local LFS, then a good strategy for me is to get them before they realese them. Don't even allow them to touch any equipment, nets, water, not even the hands of the employee.
Inspect them as good as you can. There is a chance they have a disease that may pop up later, but their is a much greater chance they'll catch something from the LFS and it may even be nastier than what they may bring in and they may not get the best water, food and care while there stay at the LFS. Unless the store knows what they are doing this is my preffered method!

This may not work for some but it does for me, that is what quaranteen is for!