Newbie Discus Tank Ideas

[worstist]

Hey everyone!

I have finally made an account on simplydiscus after lurking on here for sometime.
After hours and hours of research I want to take the plunge into the world of discus.

My coworker introduced me to freshwater about 6 months ago. Since than I have been addicted to fish, anytime I'm on the computer I'm researching and looking through forums and articles. Anytime I'm on youtube I'm watching fish videos and setups. I don't have any other hobbies besides the occasional video game and Subaru's. So fish is like my main hobby and consumes most of my time and money.

Currently I have a 90G Mbuna African cichlid tank. It is stocked full of juveniles and I have a big plan to move it into a 6ft 125G in the next few months.

I have been doing lots of research and I decided I want to put discus and community fish into the 90G.

I think to some of you I might be rushing into discus prematurely since I don't have much experience but I feel like I am smart enough. I do many hours of research and I can spend alot of time to invest into my aquariums. My job allows me to spend whatever I want in the hobby and my own place to use. Also being a young single man has its merits hahaha

I'd like to see if there maybe any flaws in my plan:

I will be purchasing 8-10 2.5-3" juvenile discus from Gold's Aquarium in Calgary, AB. They specialize in african and american cichlids.
They will be grown out in a 40 G Long (I'm not sure if the dimensions would be fine with 8-10?)
This will be a barebottom tank, painted on 3 sides with no ornaments or anything. I will be using my AC110 from my cichlid tank and a sponge filter.

I will be doing 50% daily WC. The municipal water is 7.7 PH and quite hard water. 250 GH and 150 KH. Alittle higher than recommended.
I'm not sure if I would need to treat the water with additives other than dechlorinator. I played around with the idea of getting RO system but still not sure.
Water will be removed with a aqueon water changer and water added from aged water with waterpump.

Feeding will be an issue tho. I work shift work so 12hrs and feeding juveniles 4-6 times will be hard. I bought a eheim autofeeder that can be programmed 4 times and I think this will help me out. However only 1 kind of food can be fed at once.

I plan to put in tankmates into the 90G and let them grow and live in there while my discus is growing. (is there any issue with that?)
I hope in 8-10 months time the discus will be 6" adult size and I can move them to my 90G.
The plan for the 90G will be slightly planted (don't want to use CO2) and driftwood and sand substrate.
This will be a show tank but who knows in the future maybe I will try breeding.

Sorry for being long winded but I like to be thorough.
Feel free to give it to me if I screwed up somewhere.

Thanks alot!

[strawberryblonde]

Hi worstist and welcome to the forums you lurker you. :o

You've laid out a very solid plan and it's obvious that you've done your homework, good job! There are just a couple of very minor things to think about before you make your discus purchase.

1) I don't know the Aquarium you mentioned and they might have excellent quality discus, but before you buy from them, take time to look at our sponsor section here. Often the prices for discus through the sponsors, even including shipping, is less than the price you pay at a local fish store and the quality of the discus here is excellent.

2) You might want to rethink the number of discus. For a 90 gallon tank the max would be 9 adult discus (if you grow them out well they get HUGE!), that's 1 adult per 10 gallons of water. But you also have to take into account the other fish in the tank, plus any space that's taken up by driftwood. For a first try at this 7-8 would be much safer. I currently have 10 in a 115 and that's pushing it, but I can do an 80% daily water change.

3) Be sure to purchase a pre-filter sponge to put on the intake of your AC110 and if it's on the 40g grow out tank, turn the pump setting all the way down. Discus don't like too much current. =)

4) You'll probably want to do at least a 75% water change daily while they are in the 40 gallon tank. If they are 3" each, and that's a much better size to start with than 2.5", they are going to need a lot of fresh water daily.

Other than those few things, the plan sounds good. For feedings you can offer them FDBW cubes (Freeze Dried Blackworms) in the morning before your shift, then load the auto feeder with 4 feedings of Discus Flake food. Be sure the protein content in it is over 50%. There are several very good flake foods out there, including some beefheart flakes.

When you get home from work, feed them some frozen beefheart cubes, let them eat for a solid 30 minutes and then vacuum and do your water change and that's it...you're done. That's 6 feedings a day and they'll grow just fine with that.

Oh and don't be surprised if they end up being a bit larger than 6" in 10 months time. I was all excited when mine hit 6", and then they hit 7", and then they hit 8". LOL

[worstist]

strawberryblonde

1) I will definitely checkout "canadianaquafarm" I was unaware you had a canadian breeder. Their selection is simply amazing!

2) I think I will get 7-8 discus instead. Is there a problem getting 1 of each kind discus, will they still pair up? and how bout odds/even number will one get left out?

3) Yes I plan on using fluval prefilters.

4) Will doing such a big water change stress them out? They will barely have any water above/below them. I also wondered if you are constantly vacuuming out their debris daily, will they get stressed out having a vacuum swishing and splashing around them.

[strawberryblonde]

Hi again,

Yay, gotta love the sponsor discus, huh? =)

2) No problem getting 1 of each strain, they don't really seem to notice. Odd numbers are ok too because not all discus will pair up. Just think ahead if you plan on mixing standard discus strains with pigeon blood strains. Should they pair, they will produce very peppered fry. I have a mix of both in my tank and just have to "encourage" the pairs that I want, rather than letting oh say, my carnation pigeon pair up with my FlachenxSS. LOL

3) Way to go on the prefilters. I just bought a cheap hydro one, but if you have fluvals, they work too.

4) I know it seems like water changes and tons of vacuuming would stress out discus, but they aren't like most freshwater fish. They are quite intelligent and curious, as fish go, and will get used to you doing the daily water change. Before long they'll follow you around the tank as you clean, will nip at your hands and nudge the siphon hose as you vacuum. I lower the water till the fish start to tip on their sides...doesn't bother them a bit. Some people actually siphon out all the water they can till the discus are laying flat on the bottom, but I just can't do that to my little guys, so tippy is as far as I go. LOL

[BobDaniel]

Feed them a favorite food shortly after the WC and they won't mind as much!

[worstist]

I pulled up their daily report on the water quality.
I can't post url's yet because I don't have enough posts.

Important parameters

Alkalinity, total mg CaCO3/L - 117
Chlorine, total mg/L - 2.00
Conductivity uS/cm - 357
Hardness, Calcium mg CaCO3/L - 113
Hardness, total mg CaCO3/L - 164
pH - 7.7
TDS mg/L - 211


Do you think I will have to worry about lowering my pH and hardness? I have flirted with the idea of using RO water to dilute but it will complicate the process so much.
Or is using declorinator and letting the water age be fine but than pH will be around 8 I think.

[ashtricks]

I pulled up their daily report on the water quality.
I can't post url's yet because I don't have enough posts.

Important parameters

Alkalinity, total mg CaCO3/L - 117
Chlorine, total mg/L - 2.00
Conductivity uS/cm - 357
Hardness, Calcium mg CaCO3/L - 113
Hardness, total mg CaCO3/L - 164
pH - 7.7
TDS mg/L - 211


Do you think I will have to worry about lowering my pH and hardness? I have flirted with the idea of using RO water to dilute but it will complicate the process so much.
Or is using declorinator and letting the water age be fine but than pH will be around 8 I think.

Hello worstist. Welcome to SD. I am in a similar situation to you except the being single part. LOL. I am going to play with the water chemistry and filtering for a while before going ahead with any fish. Things that I am going to try are adding peat moss/or crushed coral to my refugium, making alterations to the plant ferts I am going to add to the refugium and what not. Over a period of time (say six months depending on the water quality of my new apartment) I am going to get closer to what actually is going to happen in the tanks. I am going to need some strong forces to hold me back from buying discus for six months. :angel: The best way.... Do not watch the stock videos and posts of the sponsors on SD . LOL