Griggsy
06-09-2012, 05:20 PM
Hello Everyone. My wife and I have had our discus tank for several months now. Our first attempt was made rather un-educated. As you know, an un-educated attempt at discus more frequently than not ends up in disaster. Our first attempt was no different thanks to less than Ideal water conditions.
Tank Info:
Size: 60 Gallon
Filtration: 2 filters that have peat moss, and 2 active carbon filters. We only run the active carbon some of the time, but we always have the peat moss filters in.
Water Quality Maintenance: We use distilled water, since we have a distiller already. The water coming out is much cleaner than even RO water. After being exposed to air, the Distilled water's PH is between 6.0 and 6.4, but the tank never gets that low, it is usually between 6.8 and 7.0. These discus were all raised in water with PH of around 7, so we've just been keeping it around there. I do water changes with distilled water every week. I keep a close view on the water quality, we've never had any ammonia, nitrates or nitrites in the water at any real levels. The tank is clean and clear and the fish are very happy. We keep the temperature at 82 degrees.
Current Substrate/setup: We have 3" of sand on the bottom of the tank, with plastic plants, and fake logs/decor. We have two air stones. I have a few floating plants and a couple planted ones. I have been adding them slowly from my 10 gallon planted tank, these are not heavy rooting plants.
Fish:
DISCUS:
2 Tangerine's(LFS told us they were Marlboro Reds, but they just aren't) that are 4" in diameter
1 pigeon blood that is 4 1/2" in diameter, a Ocean green or blue diamond (not positive which one this one is yet) that is about 3" in diameter.
1 Royal Blue (the LFS told us it was a snakeskin, but it looks more like a Royal Blue to us). We believe the Royal Blue was stunted when we purchased it, though we didn't know at the time. Its only 3" in diameter, but we got it two months ago and it hasn't really grown any. We have one more
1 Not sure. We bought this one with the tangerines and the Royal Blue, we weren't sure what it was, but they were all hanging out together, so we got them together.
NON DISCUS:
2 Pictus Catfish - Remnants of our old tank. We have heard of people keeping them with discus, and some say not to. They have been quite friendly with the discus. Our Pictus cats are not particularly active, they just have their own little spots that they like to hang out, even at night.
3 Black Mollys
5 LambChop Rasboras
6 Neon/Cardinal Tetras
1 Bushynose Pleco - We found this in a magazine about discus said that this was a pleco that is compatible with discuses, and have not been known to suck slimecoat off of them. I've been watching her anyway. If she ever tries, it will be the end of her.
1 Peacock Eel - This girl just hides all the time.
To Get to the point:
We are working on getting our 125G Reef tank going, and I purchased a 55 Gal tank to turn into a refugium for the Reef tank. I've done some research and I've found other people using refugiums on discus tanks with great success, and excellent water quality. I was considering doing a 20 G Long tank as a refugium for the discus tank. Right now I have it planned it as a 3 chamber design with two baffles:
Chamber 1: Drainage area, where I would have a sock filter, and I would run our current filters out of the drainage areas, but I would only be running the peat moss in the filters.
Baffle 1: 2 pane baffle with a filter to keep Refugium stuff in the refugium
Chamber 2: Refugium, with Dirt/Rock substrate. Lots of plants, Grow light, and Cherry shrimp!(will harvest cherry shrimp for feeding, just let them breed in there)
Baffle 2: 3 pane baffle with 3x increasing granularity filters & bio balls.
Chamber 3: Sump area
What do you guys think?
Tank Info:
Size: 60 Gallon
Filtration: 2 filters that have peat moss, and 2 active carbon filters. We only run the active carbon some of the time, but we always have the peat moss filters in.
Water Quality Maintenance: We use distilled water, since we have a distiller already. The water coming out is much cleaner than even RO water. After being exposed to air, the Distilled water's PH is between 6.0 and 6.4, but the tank never gets that low, it is usually between 6.8 and 7.0. These discus were all raised in water with PH of around 7, so we've just been keeping it around there. I do water changes with distilled water every week. I keep a close view on the water quality, we've never had any ammonia, nitrates or nitrites in the water at any real levels. The tank is clean and clear and the fish are very happy. We keep the temperature at 82 degrees.
Current Substrate/setup: We have 3" of sand on the bottom of the tank, with plastic plants, and fake logs/decor. We have two air stones. I have a few floating plants and a couple planted ones. I have been adding them slowly from my 10 gallon planted tank, these are not heavy rooting plants.
Fish:
DISCUS:
2 Tangerine's(LFS told us they were Marlboro Reds, but they just aren't) that are 4" in diameter
1 pigeon blood that is 4 1/2" in diameter, a Ocean green or blue diamond (not positive which one this one is yet) that is about 3" in diameter.
1 Royal Blue (the LFS told us it was a snakeskin, but it looks more like a Royal Blue to us). We believe the Royal Blue was stunted when we purchased it, though we didn't know at the time. Its only 3" in diameter, but we got it two months ago and it hasn't really grown any. We have one more
1 Not sure. We bought this one with the tangerines and the Royal Blue, we weren't sure what it was, but they were all hanging out together, so we got them together.
NON DISCUS:
2 Pictus Catfish - Remnants of our old tank. We have heard of people keeping them with discus, and some say not to. They have been quite friendly with the discus. Our Pictus cats are not particularly active, they just have their own little spots that they like to hang out, even at night.
3 Black Mollys
5 LambChop Rasboras
6 Neon/Cardinal Tetras
1 Bushynose Pleco - We found this in a magazine about discus said that this was a pleco that is compatible with discuses, and have not been known to suck slimecoat off of them. I've been watching her anyway. If she ever tries, it will be the end of her.
1 Peacock Eel - This girl just hides all the time.
To Get to the point:
We are working on getting our 125G Reef tank going, and I purchased a 55 Gal tank to turn into a refugium for the Reef tank. I've done some research and I've found other people using refugiums on discus tanks with great success, and excellent water quality. I was considering doing a 20 G Long tank as a refugium for the discus tank. Right now I have it planned it as a 3 chamber design with two baffles:
Chamber 1: Drainage area, where I would have a sock filter, and I would run our current filters out of the drainage areas, but I would only be running the peat moss in the filters.
Baffle 1: 2 pane baffle with a filter to keep Refugium stuff in the refugium
Chamber 2: Refugium, with Dirt/Rock substrate. Lots of plants, Grow light, and Cherry shrimp!(will harvest cherry shrimp for feeding, just let them breed in there)
Baffle 2: 3 pane baffle with 3x increasing granularity filters & bio balls.
Chamber 3: Sump area
What do you guys think?