150 Gallon Discus tank, how many water changes?

[Uber]

Okay I just purchased a 150 gallon, a penguin 350 and a Marineland canister filter c530.
I currently have the c530 cycling in my 75 gallon Angelfish tank, I was wondering how long I should keep it in there for Discus use in a large aquarium?

Second, I live in an area with quite hard water (17dH) and that's after I age it for 3 days or so. Should I invest in an RO filter or just keep up with the conditioned and aged tap water? I use Indian Almond leaves in my tap because I have some left over from breeding bettas.

Thirdly, I totally understand the important of water changes, I have bred Angelfish, Gouramis, Bettas, and a bunch of live bearers and totally know they need clean water to grow fast. I plan on buying 10 juvie Discus for the tank (too much or too little?) and some Dwarf Gourami. So, with all that filtration, the size of the tank, and the amount of fish I'll have in there how often should I do water changes on a planted aquarium?
I don't really care if the fish grow slower with less water changes, just give me a number that will be keeping the tank spic and span!

Lastly, how powerful should a heater be to keep the tank nice and warm for discus?

Thanks!

Tyler

[TURQ64]

Hello, I'll go for the brief answers, and let the others go for details...There's no shortcut to biologicals developing; If you have been cycling that filter for weeks, or can exchange media, then there's a small shortcut..But to be frank, (I'm really Gary, couldn't resist!), it takes a lot of beneficial bacteria to juice up a 150..I wouldn't get too nervous about your hardness, if it's working for your angels, the Discus can do o.k. As for stocking numbers, that's acceptable. I'll steer clear of the planted tank part, as I'm a BB tank guy with the exception of adult wilds...I cannot recommend skipping water changes, I always recommend more rather than less...No shortcuts is Discus Keeping.. buy or use two decent heaters, one for backup helps...HTH, Gary

[Fishwhispererpam]

Hey Tyler... great questions. I'm not very experienced with Discus to give advice but will follow this thread. Welcome to Simply. :)

Pam

[discuspaul]

Agree with Turq.
10 Juvies would be just fine, but I'd check on the ammonia & nitrites carefully for the first week to ensure the BB colonization adjusts quickly to that bio-load.
WC's: Try to go with at least twice weekly @ 50% or more. (You said you didn't care if the fish grew more slowly). And do your planted scene if that's the case - shouldn't be a problem - I've had good success many times - no BB for me - that my .02, for what it's worth.

[ericatdallas]

I'm not experienced like a lot of people here... but I think depending on what you mean by juvie, 150G might be too big right up front. Maybe you can partition some space off for them... i know from growing out my juvies, that they didn't start to venture out to the rest of the tank unless they got super-hungry (which with juvies you don't want them to get to that point) or until they get bigger.

The less energy they waste on looking for food the more energy they have to grow.

You'll either end up feeding the tank (there goes the nitrates) or under-feeding your discus.

I think this is particularly true if there are other things going on in the tank (if it's not BB). The fish tend to find places to hide and will get stunted. I started out 6 one inch juvies in my 75G planted aquarium and all but one was stunted. Only 1/6 fish was brave enough to go looking for food and come up to me to eat. Every now and then the other fish would venture out and there was always 1-2 that would hide behind the drift wood.

On the flip side of it, if you grew out more fish in a 150G the competition for food is more fierce.

So if they're one to two inches, I would say get them going in a smaller tank.

With that said, there are going to be a ton of different people telling you the 100 different ways they do it.

[TURQ64]

I was making the assumption that by 'juvies', you were referring to 3 to 3.5 inch fish, as generally sold by our fine sponsors here...That's not a size to worry about stunting in a 150....But if someone should convince you that you have 'too much filtration', you can mail me the C530!....

[discuspaul]

Yes, I was also assuming you were talking about juvies of at least 3". One can't generally disagree with ericat's comments if you're talking about real little guys - less than 2.0"or 2.5" say.
But a 150 gal tank is just a great size for discus - no matter how many or how few, if they're of a decent size. Certainly wouldn't consider a need for any partitioning. And ime & o, there wouldn't be any problematic, fierce competition for food in a 150 gal., even if you had 15-20, 3" fish in there.
So uber, I don't think you have a problem going for it ! Follow your thoughts.

[Bill63SG]

I've got a planted 150 and I change 50%-75% roughly every three days.Two 300watt heaters in it.Would probably change water more but have a 125 and a 120,so every three days,a tank a day, plus various smaller ones.

[Uber]

So, I know this topic isn't new, but I didn't see a point to start up a new one.
Well, earlier yesterday my friend called me and told me he was killing his 50 gallon coral reef tank. I use to do a lot of diving and I really do enjoy
saltwater fish and corals. But this is a 'discus' forum and I'm probably walking in brackish waters, all in all I got a killer deal on my friends
reef tank, except that if I want to have a reef aquarium; I want it to be big.
So what I plan on doing is setting up the reef aquarium in my 150 (I was just about halfway done in cycling it ;( ) I still really want to do the whole
discus thing, so I guess I'll have to do it on a smaller scale (I mean, who can keep up with a 75 gallon over stocked Angelfish tank, another tank full of angel fry, a 150 coral reef tank, and another large discus tank?) I probably will get a regular aquarium guy to take care of the reef tank, but still that's a lot of work! So I'm going to use his 50 gallon acrylic to hold the discus!

Anyway, that was just to get you on my current status, what I was really wondering is if the amount of fish I want in the tank is too much to keep up with 2 weekly wcs.
5-4 Discus (if I can keep 5 and still get away with 2 weekly water changes, that would be sweet)
3 Rams (Bolivian probably, if my lfs has access to them)
8-12 Cardinal tetras.
4-6 Corys
And a bunch of plants, dont know how many I'll have in there though (its going to be heavily planted though)
I also plan on having a co2 system running (diy and everything!) I know it might not be really necessary, but I plan on running an air pump during night.
So, what I hear is that co2 will also drop the pH (that and the driftwood will hopefully put it at a more comfortable level) but from what I hear, the pH fluctuations that deal with co2 don't affect the fish, I don't know if this is a good question, but would that mean that it wouldn't put it into a better pH that does affect the fish or the fluctuations just don't stress the fish?

Also, thanks soo much for all the kind replies!