Need help: stocking limit for frequent traveller

[DiscusBR]

Hi all,

I am starting a new 80 gallon (300 liters) tank, which is currently cycling and which was presented in another thread. The tank has a Eheim 2217 and two sponge filters. You can see a YouTube video with the setup:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTXDAYfRdiE

I need your help to decide how many discus and tankmates I will be ordering soon. The tank is a 80g, but it ended up with 65g of volume (background and sand substrate took 20% of the volume). I was planning to have the following population in this tank:

- 6 wild discus from the Alenquer region
- 8 cardinals
- 6 lemon tetras
- 4 corydoras
- 1 pleco

My problem: I will need to travel frequently due to work, sometimes for two weeks. Even if I get a helper, water changes will be less frequent during these trips. My question: Is this too much of a bioload for a tank of a frequent traveller? Should I get 5 discus instead of 6? Should I give up some of the tankmates?

In another thread Eric has provided a lot of good information, but I need more feedback before I decide. Thanks in advance.

Mauro

[TURQ64]

The stock list looks fine; dropping a fish or two won't affect the bio load enough to skip maintenance tho'...

[ericatdallas]

How do you plan to leave your fish when you leave? Do you plan to do a large WC and then leave them without food?

If you're insistent on keeping that stocking, maybe the better question to ask is: "What should I do to reduce the risk to my discus while I'm travelling?" :)

Are you going to have plants? Maybe you could consider a sump? That will help increase the effective volume of water. Another canister will also help (I think I would recommend this any way if you're going to be gone that long. This way, if one fails, you at least have the other one chugging away). Also, again, you'll increase the volume even if a little.

A peson coming even irregularly at least once is still better than no WC at all over two weeks. If you go to a planted aquarium web site, people (even those with Discus), leave their tanks without WC but once a month (if not less). I have a minimally stocked tank that's planted with an AC110 and a Fluval 405 that I haven't changed the water for two months. I did a partial 33% two months ago and before that there was no change for a month (again 33%) and prior to that I was changing it only once a week for 33%. The Ammonia/Nitrates/Nitrites are BETTER than my BB and in fact, I have to add nitrates because of my plants. By the way, if you do this, you should be careful about cleaning substrate because you can start a mini-cycle (or a mass death) when you expose the gunk in your substrate during cleaning.

So it's doable, but then you have to start planning other stuff that throws in additional variables (plants can get quite complicated too).

Also, in another thread, someone was talking about nitrate filter (denitrification filters). I have no personal experience with these, but that might be something you could consider researching.

No matter what, to make sure, you should keep a detail log of your water parameters to see how your water looks. Definitely take a reading before you go on vacation and one after so over the longterm you'll see what you need to work on to make sure your fish are good.

[DiscusBR]

Hi Eric,

Thank you for the detailed and very useful comments. Respoding your questions:

Q: How do you plan to leave your fish when you leave? Do you plan to do a large WC and then leave them without food?
A: I have learned from this forum that the best way to proceed when travelling is to do a large WC and then leave the fish without food. This is what I plan to do.

Q: Are you going to have plants? Maybe you could consider a sump? ... Another canister will also help
R: I will have very few plants, some anubias and echinodorus. No Co2. I am not considering a sump or another canister. My wife will kill me if I spend more money with this tank :)

It seems that my best option is to pay someone to come and do water changes when I am out of home for more then a week.

[discuspaul]

It's doable - and your plan seems satisfactory. If you really want to get into discus, try it.