Tank set up

[marktheshark]

Hello everyone,

I have an empty tank at the moment which I closed down from being a marine tank a while ago.

It's 260 litres (I think thats 68 US gallons).


By the way I have a discus book by Bernd ????? which is really useful and i've read so much info on Discus online so i'm quite confident in keeping them healthy)

Anyway I have a bit of a plan in place as I'm the sort of person who needs to write things down lol.
If you guys could correct any parts of it or recommend anything else etc. please let me know.

This is for an Amazon themed planted community Discus Aquarium:

-Use my RO unit to fill the tank
-Get my heater (horizontally placed) and my cannister filter hooked up and running with bioballs and sponges in.
-Add any powerheads if neccessary
-Add some liquid Amonnia I have to kick off the nitrogen cycle.
-keep testing PH and nitrates etc.

When cycled:
DAY 1.
-add Dennerle Deponit professsional mix (12Kg) (anything better than this? it looks good.)

- Add plants (I found this deal on ebay, any comments? ) http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/Last-Trading-Post__W0QQ_armrsZ1

-add silver sand.

-add mopani bogwood - http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/fish/decoration/natural_decoration/natural_roots/14566

-leave for a week (add ammonia still)

DAY 7:
-make sure ph and ammonia,nitrite and nitrate levels are okay.
-put 6-8 corys in (i like the adolfi ones any experience with these?)

DAY 14:
- add 15 cardinal tetras and 8 purple emporer tetras.

DAY 28:
- add 10 2"-3" discus of assorted strains.


How does this sound?
I don't intend on keeping more than 6 discus in the tank but obviously the fish are more comfortable in larger groups and hopefully I can get some breeding pairs out of the 10 juveniles before selling/trading the weaker ones.


I think most people tend to keep their juveniles in an empty tank for simplicity of cleaning etc.
Am i going about it the wrong way? should I maybe get a 2nd tank for the juveniles and cycle the 2nd tank when I cycle the display tank? this would let me buy the discus earlier, and also keep my display tank less heavily stocked.

I haven't mentioned water changes in my plan but i think that it goes without saying.

Any comments or suggestions are invited please!

Thanks

Mark

[fishorama]

I'm a discus newb but I had a very thin layer of sand when I got my 2 inch discus. I know everyone says bare bottom is best. They're right! I took mine out over a couple days & it's much, much easier & faster to clean.

Not that sand is difficult but your little discus will need several meals a day. There will be a lot of waste to remove daily, plus any uneaten food.

I hope to have plants & a few fish with my discus too after they grow & I feel more confident of their health & my care.

You tank seems like a good for juvies to grow in but 10 adults will need more room. I'm planning on a 6 ft tank or fewer fish.

I also want to stress the importance of quarantining new fish, I do at least a month. That & frequent water changes are my best advice in almost 30 years of keeping fish.

[David Rose]

Hi Mark,

You might want to check out Al's/"Brewmaster15" idea of using Miracle Grow rather than ammonia. Barb/"Disgrl" tested it and posted the results in the second link. It's definitely something to consider.

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?t=71625&highlight=miracle+grow

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?t=72506&highlight=miracle+grow

RO water is great to start with if you're breeding, but for growing out juvies they need more minerals (100 to 300 TDS IMO). Have you tested your tap water and if so, what are the parameters (PH, GH, KH etc)? It really depends on your quality of tap water then go from there.

I think the general rule of thumb is to avoid the use of chemical additives and if you're lucky maybe all you need to use is tap water, at least initially age your tap water 24hrs and do a before/after PH test to determine your local PH stability, add Prime if you have city water to remove the chlorine/chloramines. If straight tap water won't work, you can then consider a mix of RO/tap water to get your adjusted water parameters or the third option is to use Kent's RO Right and/or Discus Essentials to remineralize your RO water. Your process may vary depending on whether you have one tank or several, so you can minimize your time involved in WCs and the associated costs with additives.

Best of luck to ya!

[mmorris]

:

-Use my RO unit to fill the tank

-Add some liquid Amonnia I have to kick off the nitrogen cycle.

- add 10 2"-3" discus of assorted strains.
I don't intend on keeping more than 6 discus in the tank but obviously the fish are more comfortable in larger groups and hopefully I can get some breeding pairs out of the 10 juveniles before selling/trading the weaker ones.
I think most people tend to keep their juveniles in an empty tank for simplicity of cleaning etc.
Am i going about it the wrong way?
Thanks

Mark

I'm sure you know from your reading that planted tanks with substrate greatly reduce the discus's ability to achieve their maximum potential. Why are you planning on using RO? You might be able to contact a sponsor and ask them to sell you a cycled sponge. I doubt you will have much luck growing out 10 discus in that tank to adult size. Sell/trade the weaker ones? Hmmmm. Buyer beware. 8 discus at that size is more than enough but I think your tank will only support 6 adults. Still, with only six it will have a high bio-load with the other fish. You might want to seriously re-think your approach.

[Jhhnn]

I'm sure you know from your reading that planted tanks with substrate greatly reduce the discus's ability to achieve their maximum potential. Why are you planning on using RO? You might be able to contact a sponsor and ask them to sell you a cycled sponge. I doubt you will have much luck growing out 10 discus in that tank to adult size. Sell/trade the weaker ones? Hmmmm. Buyer beware. 8 discus at that size is more than enough but I think your tank will only support 6 adults. Still, with only six it will have a high bio-load with the other fish. You might want to seriously re-think your approach.

Whew! I'm glad you posted that. I agree completely, although some would think me presumptuous to have said it first, given my level of recent experience...

I think that, with juvie discus, we just can't have it all- beautiful planted/substrate tanks and fish that grow out to their full potential size-wise. Well, certainly not w/o extremely advanced methods, equipment, and low population densities.

I can appreciate that some people really have an aesthetic problem w/ bare tanks, and think that the best way they can deal with juvie discus and that is to have a few potted plants and some floating plants, move up to the whole beautiful aquarama scenario once the fish are grown...