Steve_B
03-12-2012, 12:45 PM
1) Please Introduce your self and tell us what your experience is with fishkeeping, give us as much information as possible as to how long in the hobby, what you have kept in the past and what you currently are working with.
Hey there SD, my name is Steve and I have been lurking on this forum for about 3 months, devouring all the information I can find about the hobby of keeping discus. I'm on the path to getting discus, I have wanted to keep them for about 5 years now and am finally in a position to do so. I have been keeping fish on and off for around 20 years, I have kept many different varieties of live bearers (platties, swordtails, guppies, mollies), African cichlids, angelfish, oscars, piranha, and pleco's. Currently I have a 30gal setup with tiger/green barbs and black/white skirt tetras, and my future discus tank which I recently acquired, a 80Gal tank that came with some rather large goldfish/pondfish.
2) If you have no previous experience with keeping discus, have you done any research to properly prepare yourself, e.g. have you read any Stickies in this section of SimplyDiscus, or other material?
As stated above I have read a lot of the information available on this site, it has been very informative and helped me make decisions thus far.
3) Describe your tank, its size and dimensions, breeding or display. Include how long it has been setup or if it is still being cycled.
As above, I acquired this tank after doing some research, hearing that bigger is better, I ended up picking up a 80gal setup from a friends parents that were looking to get rid of it.
Dimensions:
4' long
16 1/8" wide
2' tall
this tank is located in the living room as display. It has been setup for about a month now, and is cycling (just had the nitrite spike, ammonia is dropping, and nitrates are now rising)
4) Describe the décor for the tank; type of substrate or bare bottom (BB), whether the tank will be planted or a biotope.
Some fake plants brought from the 30Gal tank to help seed the cycle, bare bottom tank (I spray painted the outside of the bottom of the tank when i received it with a light specklestone color, and sealed it with a light brown...got the idea from a thread on this forum). I am keeping the tank BB and am looking to pickup some nice driftwood (no luck as of yet).
5) Describe your water changes planned or practiced, percentage and how often. Include if you age your water and use of tap/RO or mix.
So far to keep the goldfish that came with the tank alive I have been doing 25-50% WC per day, plan on continuing this as from what I have read its a must for keeping discus happy. I am using water straight from the tap, temperature is matched to the aquarium water, and of course using prime to dechlorinate.
6) Describe the type of filtration planned/used for the tank; sponge, HOB and/or sump. Also include the other equipment you are, or will be, using in your tank, e.g. heater, lighting, etc.
Filtration: The setup came with a aquaclear 110, the casing actually busted when i picked it up after first cleaning it so in a panic I jumped online and saw fluval 405's on sale for $150cdn, so I picked up one of those, but i needed filtration in the meantime so I was able to find a replacement casing for my 110 (also picked up a new impeller and impeller shaft as they were both worn). On top of those i also have 2 sponge filters located in the back corners of the tank. I have a fluorescent light that came with the hood, no heater yet as the goldfish prefer the cooler water.
7) If the tank is already setup and running, include the water parameters;
- temp __70 f
- tank ph __8
- Ph of the water straight out of your tap __7.8
- ammonia reading _.25ppm
- nitrite reading __1.5ppm
- nitrate reading __5ppm
- well water __n/a
- municipal water __7.8ph, 0 0 0 for the rest
8) Describe your current or planned stocking levels; number/size of discus and number/type of dither fish. Where did you get your discus from or do you have a proposed source for getting your discus?
Well once the tank is finished cycling and established for a few months, I am moving the goldfish to a friends pond, then will be looking to pickup some discus, I would like to get 10 around the 3" size (I know this is more than the tank can handle once fully grown, and will sell 2 off provided there are no casualties), may keep a bn pleco with them as i hear thats ok. There is a breeder located about 2hrs from me and he has very nice looking fish, it's a toss up between him and ordering from canadianaquafarm.com.
9) Describe your planned or existing feeding regimen. Include what and how often you are feeding on a daily basis.
From what I have read discus need to be fed around 4-6 times a day, I plan to feed high quality flake, pellets, freeze dried black worms, and some frozen bloodworms as a treat a couple times a week.
10) What are your goals in this hobby? For example are you looking to keep discus in a planted community tank, or do you hope to become a hobby breeder of Discus? Do you want to raise Discus with the hopes of competing in shows?
To start I just want to keep discus, once I get a feel for it i may try to breed them (have successfully bred all the live bearers and angelfish listed above).
Alright now I have a few questions for you knowledgeable folks!
heating:
I have poured over these forums trying to decide what the best route for heating is, it seems that heaters today seem to be all pretty flaky and there is a no clear best in this category. Going by what i have read i am leaning toward Eheim Jager for my heating. I'm on the fence of weather I should pickup one or two 200W heaters (2 in case one fails that way there is a fail safe). I'm also looking into a temperature controller and possibly pickup a UPS, would love your input!
Water Ph:
Consistency is king from what I have read, my water out of tap is 7.8, in my aquarium it jumps to 8 (I think, I'm having a rough time reading the api master test kit results as they seem to be so close together). Now my problem/worry is this, I do not have the space/room to keep a barrel for aged water, at best I can fill 2-5Gal pails and age them (I doubt that would help much though), and I do not have the money for a R/O unit at this time, although I may look into it in the future if this is a big issue. So I am stuck doing water changes straight from the tap, so far my barbs/tetra's in the 30 gal show no stress when doing water changes, and the goldfish in the 80gal don't seem to be bothered either. My question is this, when I do get discus, is the .2ph difference going to stress or shock the discus when I do my daily water changes?
Thanks for the read and any input, sorry for the long post.
Hey there SD, my name is Steve and I have been lurking on this forum for about 3 months, devouring all the information I can find about the hobby of keeping discus. I'm on the path to getting discus, I have wanted to keep them for about 5 years now and am finally in a position to do so. I have been keeping fish on and off for around 20 years, I have kept many different varieties of live bearers (platties, swordtails, guppies, mollies), African cichlids, angelfish, oscars, piranha, and pleco's. Currently I have a 30gal setup with tiger/green barbs and black/white skirt tetras, and my future discus tank which I recently acquired, a 80Gal tank that came with some rather large goldfish/pondfish.
2) If you have no previous experience with keeping discus, have you done any research to properly prepare yourself, e.g. have you read any Stickies in this section of SimplyDiscus, or other material?
As stated above I have read a lot of the information available on this site, it has been very informative and helped me make decisions thus far.
3) Describe your tank, its size and dimensions, breeding or display. Include how long it has been setup or if it is still being cycled.
As above, I acquired this tank after doing some research, hearing that bigger is better, I ended up picking up a 80gal setup from a friends parents that were looking to get rid of it.
Dimensions:
4' long
16 1/8" wide
2' tall
this tank is located in the living room as display. It has been setup for about a month now, and is cycling (just had the nitrite spike, ammonia is dropping, and nitrates are now rising)
4) Describe the décor for the tank; type of substrate or bare bottom (BB), whether the tank will be planted or a biotope.
Some fake plants brought from the 30Gal tank to help seed the cycle, bare bottom tank (I spray painted the outside of the bottom of the tank when i received it with a light specklestone color, and sealed it with a light brown...got the idea from a thread on this forum). I am keeping the tank BB and am looking to pickup some nice driftwood (no luck as of yet).
5) Describe your water changes planned or practiced, percentage and how often. Include if you age your water and use of tap/RO or mix.
So far to keep the goldfish that came with the tank alive I have been doing 25-50% WC per day, plan on continuing this as from what I have read its a must for keeping discus happy. I am using water straight from the tap, temperature is matched to the aquarium water, and of course using prime to dechlorinate.
6) Describe the type of filtration planned/used for the tank; sponge, HOB and/or sump. Also include the other equipment you are, or will be, using in your tank, e.g. heater, lighting, etc.
Filtration: The setup came with a aquaclear 110, the casing actually busted when i picked it up after first cleaning it so in a panic I jumped online and saw fluval 405's on sale for $150cdn, so I picked up one of those, but i needed filtration in the meantime so I was able to find a replacement casing for my 110 (also picked up a new impeller and impeller shaft as they were both worn). On top of those i also have 2 sponge filters located in the back corners of the tank. I have a fluorescent light that came with the hood, no heater yet as the goldfish prefer the cooler water.
7) If the tank is already setup and running, include the water parameters;
- temp __70 f
- tank ph __8
- Ph of the water straight out of your tap __7.8
- ammonia reading _.25ppm
- nitrite reading __1.5ppm
- nitrate reading __5ppm
- well water __n/a
- municipal water __7.8ph, 0 0 0 for the rest
8) Describe your current or planned stocking levels; number/size of discus and number/type of dither fish. Where did you get your discus from or do you have a proposed source for getting your discus?
Well once the tank is finished cycling and established for a few months, I am moving the goldfish to a friends pond, then will be looking to pickup some discus, I would like to get 10 around the 3" size (I know this is more than the tank can handle once fully grown, and will sell 2 off provided there are no casualties), may keep a bn pleco with them as i hear thats ok. There is a breeder located about 2hrs from me and he has very nice looking fish, it's a toss up between him and ordering from canadianaquafarm.com.
9) Describe your planned or existing feeding regimen. Include what and how often you are feeding on a daily basis.
From what I have read discus need to be fed around 4-6 times a day, I plan to feed high quality flake, pellets, freeze dried black worms, and some frozen bloodworms as a treat a couple times a week.
10) What are your goals in this hobby? For example are you looking to keep discus in a planted community tank, or do you hope to become a hobby breeder of Discus? Do you want to raise Discus with the hopes of competing in shows?
To start I just want to keep discus, once I get a feel for it i may try to breed them (have successfully bred all the live bearers and angelfish listed above).
Alright now I have a few questions for you knowledgeable folks!
heating:
I have poured over these forums trying to decide what the best route for heating is, it seems that heaters today seem to be all pretty flaky and there is a no clear best in this category. Going by what i have read i am leaning toward Eheim Jager for my heating. I'm on the fence of weather I should pickup one or two 200W heaters (2 in case one fails that way there is a fail safe). I'm also looking into a temperature controller and possibly pickup a UPS, would love your input!
Water Ph:
Consistency is king from what I have read, my water out of tap is 7.8, in my aquarium it jumps to 8 (I think, I'm having a rough time reading the api master test kit results as they seem to be so close together). Now my problem/worry is this, I do not have the space/room to keep a barrel for aged water, at best I can fill 2-5Gal pails and age them (I doubt that would help much though), and I do not have the money for a R/O unit at this time, although I may look into it in the future if this is a big issue. So I am stuck doing water changes straight from the tap, so far my barbs/tetra's in the 30 gal show no stress when doing water changes, and the goldfish in the 80gal don't seem to be bothered either. My question is this, when I do get discus, is the .2ph difference going to stress or shock the discus when I do my daily water changes?
Thanks for the read and any input, sorry for the long post.