Height Of fish tank scarying my discus?????

[noobF1]

Hi people! so i just have a quick question about tank height. Whats the normal height a fish tank to be? Being said I'm 5 feet 6 inches tall. Above neck level? chest level? thanx for reading and hopefully with some good feedback.

[milton]

i'd aim around/ just below shoulder height myself

[Eddie]

Is it a show tank?

[Kingdom Come Discus]

For me I like to consider what I am sitting in, or will they be enjoyed while in bed. I like my show tanks slightly higher than my direct line of sight. I would consider how you are comfortable viewing tv.

[noobF1]

yes it is a show tank. seems like every time i feed them i would have to do it slowly or else the will swim fast left to right (freaked out). is my tank to low? i can see over tank by a lot.

[Kingdom Come Discus]

There are many things which could cause your fish to freak out when approaching the tank. Remember these ideas may not be your problem.
1. Do you approach your tank often? When conditioning show fish for their temperament
getting the fish used to activity close to the tank is important. Once your fish stop freaking out run your hands over the front glass, working up to lightly taping on the glass. Stronger than normal lighting is used by some later in the conditioning process too. Try a food which they love and hold in the water with your hands at the first feeding of the day until they start to eat out of your hand.
2. Is the tank's background dark? I found a light colored back ground reduced my fish from exewrcising their natural flight instinct built in by nature. Some believe the fish try to blend into the darker backgrounds trying to camouflage themselves. As I said before when I switched all my tanks over to a very light blue background color the difference was huge. They almost never spook now.
3. Are you sure your water quality is what it should be? Check all parameters often until you get good readings everytime. Make sure the temperature doesn't fluctuate any throughout the day especially during water changes. Same goes for pH durring water changes.
4. Often the fish will be jumpy if there is some bullying going on in the tank. Any stress on the fish could cause uneasiness.

[discus_novice]

due to the body pattern of discus they move more vertically than horizontally.hence,many people suggest to make its height of 2 feet at least.
but i am sure that the experts here will give you more better answer than this.

[wendy9722]

Cool, I didnt know any of that...

[Apistomaster]

Discus like to be high enough off the floor so they can look down and around the room. The height of the top of their tank which has always worked well for me is about 56 inches for 23" tall, 72" long 125 gallons. My 75 gal which is a 20 inch tall, 48 inches long is 62 inches from floor to top of the tank.
It is easy to see the fish from across the room and they rush to the front whenever I come close expecting to be fed. Another reason I like my show tanks at least as high as these is to leave enough room under the tanks for large sumps for the wet/dry filter systems I built.
Even for someone as tall as myself, 6'-2", I find a short, folding step ladder to be handy when working on the bottom of my display tanks.

A standard manufactured aquarium stand is usually only about 32 to 34 inches tall which I think places the large display tanks for Discus too low but that depends on how busy the room is. Discus are more easily spooked the lower the aquarium is off the floor. I prefer a Discus tank to be 18 to 24 inches tall but I have bred many pairs in 20 gal High style tanks only 16 inches tall.
I made my stands out of 20 X 18 inch chimney Concrete Masonry Units(CMU Blocks) and some 8 inch square CMU block. The platforms are wood.
The 75 gal has 2 X 4 frame with 5/8" plywood screwed on. For the 125 gal I used 2- 4 X 4's lengthwise and 2 X 4's at the ends and only 1/2" plywood screwed down on the top.
Commercially built all glass tanks are designed to bear their loads along the perimeter edges so the platforms do not need any extra braces inside the edges. The Chimney CMU make nice looking stands if you paint them but they suck up a lot of paint. I painted the CMU blocks silver and painted the wood black and they look pretty nice yet are very simple and strong stands to build.
When I have built my own all glass tanks they had no plastic frames and the platforms had to have extra stringers to prevent any deflection in the middle of the supporting platform because those tanks have the load distributed across their entire bottom.
I have built tanks up to 60" long but no higher than 16" and 18" wide out of only 1/4" thick glass. This is about a 75 gal tank. It made a good discus tank because it was deep enough but had a very large surface area for it's volume. It could hold about as many adult discus as commercial 100 gal tanks. I built it's stand so the top of the tank was 60" off the floor.

[noobF1]

Wow kingdom thanx man!!!!!

[dpt8]

The higher the better :9) My 90's, 65's and pentagon are 25" high My fish don't freak out but like the height and use the whole tank. I agree to check water quality.. Is tank cycled ??

[inmisawa]

I was looking at a 42" stand for the aquarium I just bought. I really liked it because I can walk by it and can see the fish really well. I thought about it though, and getting a tank that high would create a challenge with the cleaning. I have another tall tank that's almost the same height I am and it's a total pain to clean the bottom. I think the best thing is to think about where you will be viewing it from and decide how high you want it, keeping maintenance in mind. Good luck.