Pre-leg work for a 135 gallon planted discus set up

[les2011]

I've had a 125 freshwater set up before and I've had almost every fish in the line up but this time I have a 135 gallon that I lucked up on for $60 and I want to go with a planted discus set up. My 1st issue is what type of filtration to go with, I've picked the brains of my LFS and one store said to go with two canisters and the other said wet dry. As far as lighting I'm looking to run LEDs which I found on Ebay starting at around $30 and I know I'm going to need so type of heater. If canister is your suggestion for this size tank which would be the best to go with and if your suggestion is wet dry I've been looking to get a Sicce 2.0 or 3.0 pump for the sump, but how many returns would you recommend because I've read that discus don't require alot of water flow? I also need a direction on what type of CO2 set up to go with. Tank mates I would like to go with are, a mix of cory cats, cardinal tetras, congo tetras regular and albino, long fin albino busy nose pleco, galaxy rasboras, a mix of swordtails, and some rainbows, and a variety of shrimp. I've always liked the community set up.

[Sean Buehrle]

Everyone loves a planted discus tank.
To tell you the truth i dont know much about them, but if you were to post this in the planted tank forum here you would get alot of opinions and suggestions.

The only suggestions for success i can give you is have a plan and take your time, buy good HEALTHY fish from a reputable person. There are sponsers here that have the best fish you can imagine for a good price.

Ask as many questions as you can how to avoid disease in the keeping of discus, disease can wreck your fun real quick.
And have fun!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[calihawker]

The one really good piece of advice I can give you is be patient, take your time and get the planted thing down first. Have your planted aquarium setup for a good amount of time before introducing discus. My tank was setup for a year before added discus.
Visit some of the planted tank forums and get info there.

plantedtank.net
barrreport.com

Some of my favorites.

Once your planted aquarium is good and stable you can add discus.
Discus are not difficult, they just need a stable environment.




Steve

[ericatdallas]

You're going to get a wide variety of answers for filters. In fact, I flip-flop between types of filters all the time. I think if you can do a sump, it certainly will help.

I had a planted discus tank but now my plants are in bad shape from poor maintenance. One thing I would recommend is good water flow to help with removing mulm, dislodge food debris from stems, and reducing algae. Some people will tell you the mulm is good for plants, but you'll have more than enough.

Second, I wouldn't go with the cheap LEDs. Intensity does matter on these. Read a little more about these in Saltwater or Planted forums. There's a lot of technical analysis that people have put into this.

I like the tank mates. I personally use corys, BNPs, and otocinclus (but I've heard people have problems with otos but they're really good at eating algae directly on plants). Most people don't recommend livebearers in with Discus, something about disease, but I'm not personally familiar with the issue or understand why.

You should definitely discuss your concerns here AND on a planted tank. There's a lot of knowledgeable people about BOTH in BOTH forums, but the overall advice here tends to lean to caring for discus while in planted forums they dismiss the concerns brought up here a lot of times. You want to strike a balance (which is the hard part).

Planted Discus tanks look great and I'm going to give it another try. I just need my juvies to grow out completely (3-4 more months). So if you don't already know, start with adult Discus in a planted tank.

[Harriett]

Mike!
Tremendously good deal on the tank, good for you!
If you are looking at canister filters, I would say consider an FX5 and build yourself a spray bar for it. It will certainly handle a 135g. I would also suggest a bit of overkill and set up a smaller 2nd canister in the same tank. My rational: if you had a problem with either filter, you have an emergency back up, and when you clean the media for 1, the second would still be going so you would be unlikely to lose much bio. 2nd rational: when you are doing a planted tank with discus, my method is to overfilter the tank to keep it as clean and with the largest bio as you are able. Most do not do as frequent water changes as with a BB tank, since you would be sabotaging the balance by getting rid of the nutrients that the plants need as fertilizer. With a planted tank, it is ALL about the balance: of nutrients [macro and micro], light [intensity and duration and type], CO2 levels. With the CO2, there are a couple decent places to get regulators from and I would certainly get a controller for the system as well. I don't have more time right now but if you PM me, I would be glad to make equipment suggestions and tell you what I did for my bigger tank when I have a few more minutes. I highly encourage you to set up your 135 and keep it as a planted tank for 6 months or so, learn the ropes and let the tank mature, and then consider adding adult discus. You can keep the neighbors you have already selected, they sound great.

Best regards,
Harriett