Hello there guys need help

[pakash]

I want to start a 55g with 5 discus, but i need help:

Lighting: 4 t5ho´s 54w each
Filtration: Aquaclear 50 and going to make sump
Substrate: Seachem
Co2 reactor

Plants: Hemianthus cuba
and a bunch of others.

Tetras:

20 Neons
10 Cherry Shrimps
1 Ancistrus
8 Corydoras

What else tell me.

[TURQ64]

Seems like a lot of lite for my tastes...Depending on the size of Discus, the shrimps are history.....then the neons..you might try cardinals, they are larger

[Skip]

what do you need help with?! you already found SD.. that was first step!! :)

[pakash]

What fish can work with 5 discus, and how many and what species please.

[TURQ64]

Discus can be a challenging fish to start out with. I'd either start with the Discus, and learn their preferences, or start with other tankmates..Together, they make a hard challenge if you are new to it...Gary

[dbfzurowski]

Welcome to SD!
Do you have prior experience with planted aquariums??? 4x54w is definitely a lot for beginner imo.
In my 55 I have 6x3.5in discus and: 3x bristlenose plecos; 6x cory cats; 2x rummy nose tetra. All is well.
I tried neons once when I had some adult discus, they ate most.

[pakash]

It is my first tank with plants never tried before, but i´ve read a lot and it says that the hemianthus callitrichoides cuba it need lots of light. I guess ill try but do you think its to dificult.

[snowflake311]

So that puts you at 4wpg. You will need co2. That is the right amount for the plant you want it's very high. You could grow it at 3wpg. This should be a high tech tank with that much light. You might want a stronger filter too. An ac 70 would be good. You need good flow in the tank for the plants.

If you are new to discus and plants don't try them together. The co2 will effect you ph the discus need extra clean water the plants need nitrates. Pick one or another not both right now IMO. Also planted tanks don't need wc like discus do. In fact planted tanks do better with less wc. Plants also like ferts in the water. Not sure how the discus like them.

Why not get your planted tank going. Make sure it's been running well and is all mature. Then think about maybe getting some adult discus for it.

[dbfzurowski]

I have no experience with high light planted tanks. But as I myself am getting into planted aquariums, I can give you some advice on it. 55 gal tank, Lights: T8 fixture from Menard with 1x 6700K 32W and 1x 8000K 32W bulbs. Thats 64W of light about 4 inch over water level. I do water changes(WC) of 50% twice a week and with every WC I dose:
2g-KNO3
.6g-KH2PO4
3g-K2SO4
1g-of Chelated Iron pills that contain 25mg of iron per .5g of pill.
I started off with some good beginner plants, Jungle Val and Amazon frogbit. Both are doing extremely well. The val still turns brown in some places but I trim it every week and it still looks pretty massive. I have it planted in a pot with regular top soil with few root/flourish tabs. It might replant it soon to a bigger pot as it seems to small for the current one. Frogbit is a floating plant that spreads extremely fast, got it off ebay as its hard to find locally here.
I get minimum algae on glass at the lower levels of tank, no algae on plants so I'm very happy with that.
My plan is to master low light tanks then go from there. Have a good dosing schedule and keep all fish happy. Good luck.

[ericatdallas]

You might find yourself stuck with a lot of algae if it's a slow growing plant and /or you don't have enough to effectively compete with the algae for nutrients. I wasn't a beginner, but I started with discus while I moved up my lighting and different types of plants. That was a difficult balancing act. I've learned a lot since but I think the others are right... try one or the other and then do the other once you get the hang of it.

Discus are a little more difficult than the African and South American Cichlids I have kept (but not as hard as people make it out to be) and plants were harder with lots of light. I used to grow hygros, anarcharis, elodea, and other fast growing plants with no problems but once you stray from the easy beginner plants with lots of light you have to worry about CO2 and fertilizers.

No experience with the shrimp but my larger discus leave the neons alone. It just depends on the fish and like someone said, their size... but you might be okay. I keep 7 Corys, 2 plecos, and 5 neons with two 5" discus in my 75G planted tank filtered by a Fluval 405.

[Len]

If you already have the light fixture and don't want to replace it, you can just go to Home Depot or similar shop and buy T5 bulbs that are Normal Output (NO) they rate at about 28 Watts each for about $5.00 each, and you may also be able to remove two of the bulbs to tone down the high lighting some. As far as the shrimp go, I've kept them in a planted tank with Discus and they multiplied to the hundreds, but if they don't have plenty of places to hide in the plants, they will just get eaten. As stated already, with that much light though, you will definitely need CO2 or you will battle algae endlessly.

[pakash]

I guess ill try with 4-54w of light and get a sump and co2 reactor, plus ill try first getting a nice aquascape with rocks and then add the hemianthus cuba, and what how it grows and put some other plants and the other fish and after that, at the end ill get the discus what do you think.

Do you think that it will work the sump for the discus or not.