Getting my tank set up for Discus...slowly...

[strawberryblonde]

Hi all,

Not sure if this is the correct forum for this, but oh well, live and learn, right?

Quick background so you know what I'm dealing with so far:

I was gifted with a 3.5g Eclipse tank for Christmas this year. It's so small that all I dared to stuff into it was a few wee Platies. And one of them promptly had babies. Only 10 fry, but even so, it was WAY too many fish for that itsy bitsy tank.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that I used to keep fish a couple of decades ago, so I'm not new to the idea of clean water, good filtration and not overstocking a tank.

Hubby verballized that he thought I needed a bigger tank, and I promptly (before he could rethink it) headed to craigslist and purchased a 44g pentagon/corner tank.

The tank is what I'd call in fair condition. The front glass is quite cloudy and nothing brings back the sparkle. Normally I wouldn't have purchased it, but it was danged cheap, came with stand, hood, etc and I live in a tiny town without many options for good used tanks.

So now I have a plan. <insert sly grin here>

I'm going to use this tank for the time being and will be adding Discus to it in the near future. Once hubby realizes how gorgeous they I'm positive I can talk him into letting me buy a brand new sparkly tank for them.

Somwhere down the road there's plans in my head for a reef tank too, but that can wait a year or two till I have my Discus tank just the way I want it.

So what I need is advice, opinions and suggestions for what's best for my tank.

I have the following:
44g Perfecto tank/stand/hood
1 Fl light that came with the hood and room for my second light which is -
Marineland Single Bright LED Lighting System w/timer
Marineland C220 Canister Filter
Elite Disc Bubbler w/timer
Heater/natural colored gravel and rocks

I'm planning to add a couple of live plants to the tank, but ONLY a couple. I want a natural look, but still want it to be easy to clean. The majority of the decor is going to be rocks and perhaps some driftwood.

The only fish I'm planning to add to the tank for now are the Discus, a school of tetra and a friendly catfish for cleanup duty. I already have the 4 young adult Platies in there and so long as they don't cause problems, they can stay.

Ohhhh, should mention that I'm planning to buy nearly full grown discus. I'd love to grow them out myself, but for now, with this tank, it's not practical and I don't want the fish to suffer.

So what am I missing or forgetting? Does everything sound ok? Is it a solid plan?

I'm on the fence as far as a sponge filter goes. I'll weigh that out when I see how the water quality holds up with my new canister filter. I already added a cheap Whisper in-tank filter a few weeks ago just to get the water cycled and it's done that for me. I'm leaving it in the tank for as long as it takes for the bio on the canister filter to get going.

I'm currently only doing 20% water changes every four days since the bio load is very small with those wee fish in there and they don't make much of a mess of the gravel. (little piggies)

I'll up the water changes once the rest of my fish go in the tank.

So far I'm loving the disk bubbler. I turn it off during the day so the fish don't hide, and turn it on at night. They don't seem at all freaked out by it. I purchased it because of the live plants I'm planning to add. It'll help balance out the release of CO2 at night....right?

Ok, can't think of anything else at the moment. I just want some expert advice to let me know what I'm forgetting and/or what I'm doing wrong.

SB

[moon_knight1971]

Try CLR to remove the white grime from the tank but be sure to rinse off the tank throughly afterwards. I'd keep the tank bare bottom if possible too.
You will also need to have a quarantine tank to leave the new fish in to ensure they are healthy. Not sure if Platys can handle the higher water temps that the Discus need? 82 is low for Discus and would ideally be about 86 depending on their age.

[strawberryblonde]

Thanks moon! =)

I tried vinegar and lime-away and they didn't work. The glass on the inside is perfectly smooth to the touch, so I'm not sure what caused the cloudiness. I'll plan on tearing down the tank and trying the CLR this weekend. Cross your fingers for me, k?

I have a QT all ready to go. Forgot to mention that...sheesh. I'm planning on just using the Whisper filter in it since that filter is all primed and good to go.

I wondered about the temps for the Platy too, but way back in the dark ages I had a community tank and all the fish learned to play nicely no matter that my pH was too high (or too low) for them and the temp was always set to 82. Back then I had just one wild blue Discus and fell in love with them. He was THE most awesome fish I've ever owned. They didn't even have a proper name for that guy..can you believe it???

So the Platies will stay unless they stop thriving or are a problem for the Discus and if they are...hmmm...I guess I'll have to go buy myself another tank just for them, huh? LOL

I'm willing to put up with extra WC's in order to have some gravel and a couple of plants in the tank. I tell myself that all that water lugging is good exercise for an old lady.

SB

[moon_knight1971]

The way I understand it the lower the temp, say 80 - 82, invites things like lack of appetite and possibly illness in Discus. I too wanted a community Discus tank with Rams, Cardinals and Discus but I'm only running a 40 gallon tank right now so I don't want to overload the system. The general rule of thumb is 10 gallons per Discus so I'll be getting just the Discus for now unless I buy a larger tank (which I can almost guarantee I will lol)! Good luck with the CLR!

[strawberryblonde]

Aha, didn't realize that a temp of 82 could cause illness...thanks! I'll consider moving the Platy out then. Aw gee gonna hafta buy another tank...hehehe.

I hear you on the overcrowding issue! I'm going to start off with just 3 - 4 Discus plus the tetra school and the catfish. Hoping to get a bigger tank within a year. Money isn't really a big issue for me, it's just finding space and convincing hubby that fish are THE most awesome critters on earth.

SB

[target]

I run my tank at 78 and have never had any illness or lack of appetite with my discus. Been running at 78 for over 2 years, with the discus breeding.

[moon_knight1971]

I run my tank at 78 and have never had any illness or lack of appetite with my discus. Been running at 78 for over 2 years, with the discus breeding.

How big are your Discus?

[strawberryblonde]

I run my tank at 78 and have never had any illness or lack of appetite with my discus. Been running at 78 for over 2 years, with the discus breeding.

Hmmm, so maybe the Platy's could stay then? So many decisions to make...<sigh>

Ok, I'll go back to my original plan to try out the Platy's and the discus and then separate them only if I see problems with temp and/or aggression. Both species are peaceful fish, so hopefully they'll get along.

[moon_knight1971]

Hmmm, so maybe the Platy's could stay then? So many decisions to make...<sigh>

Ok, I'll go back to my original plan to try out the Platy's and the discus and then separate them only if I see problems with temp and/or aggression. Both species are peaceful fish, so hopefully they'll get along.

I'm curious to the size of his fish. I did a community tank in a 55 gallon tank about 5 yrs ago which had 6 discus, 2 rams, 3 skunk corys, a dozen cardinal tetras and a 6 inch fire eel. I ran the tank at 80 degrees and did 25% weekly water changes and although my fish looked happy and ate they never grew over 5 inches. Most people here will say that my discus did not live up to their potential because they were so small. I guess it depends on what your goal is? Do you want an array of fish living together or do you want to focus on making your Discus THRIVE?

[Eddie]

Aha, didn't realize that a temp of 82 could cause illness...thanks! I'll consider moving the Platy out then. Aw gee gonna hafta buy another tank...hehehe.

I hear you on the overcrowding issue! I'm going to start off with just 3 - 4 Discus plus the tetra school and the catfish. Hoping to get a bigger tank within a year. Money isn't really a big issue for me, it's just finding space and convincing hubby that fish are THE most awesome critters on earth.

SB

Discus can survive at temps below 82, but they will not thrive.

[target]

My discus vary between 4.5 - 5" with one a bit smaller. http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?85852-90g-discus&highlight=

They started off at a higher temperature, but the OP said she was going to start with adults so there would be no grow out period.

[moon_knight1971]

There you go. Under the right conditions you could possibly have discus that are 6 - 7" or do a community tank where they survive but do not get very large. At least target was able to have his breed which I think is an amazing accomplishment.

[strawberryblonde]

Thanks for the info target. =)

I'm definitely planning to buy adult or nearly adult fish since I'm really not set up at this point for growing them out myself. That'll have to be somewhere in my future when I can find the space in my house for everything I want/need in order to grow out, pair and breed some fishies.

Now see? That's the problem with having too many hobbies... my house is already full of rockhounding goodies, computers, inlay equipment (power tools ftw!!) and then my husbands hobbies.

Thanks for all this awesome advice. I'm learning. And my oh my how the hobby has changed since the last time I kept fish! Back then my discus was in a community tank with an undergravel filter. On the plus side though, he did grow from about a half dollar size to over 6" in just under a year. And did it while eating nothing but Tetra flake food.

My new guys are gonna be SO spoiled. LOL

[Eddie]

My new guys are gonna be SO spoiled. LOL

Thats the best practice IMO. ;)

[strawberryblonde]

Updates to my plans -

Welp, no surprise here that things didn't all go as planned last weekend with the tank tear down. LOL

CLR didn't do the trick Moon. I started off with vinegar again and nope, still badly clouded. Moved on to CLR and a scrubby pad and nope, didn't change the look of the glass at all.

And then I moved to my "last resort". The night before the tear down I was searching online for anyone who might have had the same cloudy glass problem and found a car forum where someone had used a windshield treatment for too long and had cloudy glass that didn't respond to any treatment.

That person was told to just have it professionally polished, or to buy a new windshield, and then at the very bottom of the thread a lady piped up and said she had the same problem and her science geek husband told it was microfine bits of carbon that had embedded in the glass. His cure? Vegetable oil! LOL

I was skeptical, but went ahead and applied the oil. I about fell over in shock when the cloudy stuff started to actually smear off onto my paper towel as I was wiping on the oil.

Four applications and one hour of hand rubbing later and the glass is nearly perfect. It's still a bit cloudy when there's no water in it, but looks perfectly clear when the tank is filled. Woot!!

On to the next thing that didn't go as planned. The disk bubbler I bought fell apart on me on the fourth day of use. Literally just crumbled in the middle. Blech..cheap air stones!

I decided to forego the airstone for now and let the plants supply the oxygen during the day. I'll keep an eye out to make sure that they don't deplete the levels too much at night while they're respirating. If they do, I'll go ahead and add a difuser.

I added my adorable little plants to the sides and back of the tank, leaving a nice feeding ground for the discus and plopped in 2 pieces of driftwood as well. Wish I could find a taller piece since the tank is so tall, but oh well, I'll find the right piece eventually.

My other big surprise was finally figuring out that my tank was NOT a 44g. I kinda felt like it was bigger than that based on how tall it was, but the only thing they sell online is a 44, so I figured I was imagining it. Till I was sitting here bored on Sunday night whilst waiting for my tank to clear (ok ok, I might have stirred up the water a wee bit by adding the plants and driftwood...).

I do strange things when I'm bored. I decided to see how good my college math skills still are. Uhhh, but college was several decades ago, so picture an old lady with paper and pencil trying to figure out the area of an irregular pentagon at 1 in the morning. I eventually manged the equations and got the volume of the tank, then converted to gallons. I did it several times to be sure that I was right. It's actually a 56 gallon tank.

The tag on the bottom says it was manufactured in '99 so I'm assuming they offered a bigger pent. back then.

So now I've decided I'm gonna have to add a sponge filter to the tank for sure since my canister filter is only rated for a 55.

Other than that, things are going well and the tannins in my water are clearing nicely. The Platy's seem to be happy with the new temps in the tank and are eating well and enjoying the greenery and the driftwood cave.

Alrighty then, that's it for updates for the time being.

SB

[moon_knight1971]

Vegetable oil huh? who woulda thought lol....