Reviving an old man's heart

[reefdreams]

Hi guys,

I'd like to say that this looks like a very good community for fish keepers in general and that I really like the forum so far.

That being said, let me introduce myself, I've been keeping freshwater fishes for over 5 years now, mainly tropheus in a 150g tank, and more recently a mix of lake tanganyika in a 75g tank.

I can say that I have the african cichlids pretty much in control. I also have a 20" cube being set up for saltwater (wich will hold mainly corals)... Anyways, all this to say that I love marine life in general.

What brings me to simply discus is specific though. The father of my girlfriend has cancer, it's been going downhill for quite a while and he is also a fish lover. It breaks my heart to say this, but he can't keep fishes anymore because he has no energy to take care of them. Lately he has been trying to keep some but was unsuccessfull. I also learned that his favorite fish was the Dicus...

Here I come with my plan, I want to set him a discus tank with the simplest way possible so he can enjoy having beautifull fish once again. I never did anything to help him with his other tanks (by respect) but did ask him to start a tank that I would manage at his house.

So far I'm thinking about going this route :

-75g ish
-lightly planted with a light sand bed
-no water additives (what I get from my tap is what my fish will get)
-automatic water change system (via overflow and driping or pumping)

Would you have any recommendation for this to work out well ? Ideally I'd like to have an environement where the fishes can actually reproduce, is it possible ?

What kind of filtration would you put on a 75g, on my african community I have 2 fluval 404 and it works out well.

Would you recommend putting driftwood or perhaps some peat to lower the ph or the water changes will pretty much tone down the effects ?

Thanks in advance for your help

[akumastew]

Welcome to the forums.

I am sorry to hear of your GF's father being Ill.

Now to your set up.

Depending on what your water conditions are out of the tap, you may not need to add peat.

There have been lots of posts on here that detail, rather than needing acidic conditions, what discus benefit mostly from is a consistant pH. This is also true for such factors as kH and gH.

It is also important consider whether the pH of your tap water changes after you age it for 24 hours. If it doesn't you can use straight tap water mixed with such a product as Prime, to take care of the chlorine/chloramines.

Have you given thought to how often you would like to change water? I change 25% per day, but some folks change 100% per day.

Alot of people here, go for Barebottom tanks with simple sponge filtration/aeration. This is the most simple set up.

I find I like to have gravel, driftwood, fake plants and more filtration. In my case, that is a Eheim Pro 3 2180 on my 125 gallon.

If you plan on breeding, I hear there is a higher fertility rate, if you have lower kH/gH values.

With a 75 gallon tank, you could start out with 7 adult Discus based on the 10 gallon per Discus rule. Unless you buy a mated pair, you will want to start of with a group of 6 or more.

I highly recommend looking at the Discus our sponsors have here, as you local pet store may not have such high quality and will most likely charge you more than the sponsors do here.

- Stew