If you could only have one discus tank

[brewmaster15]

If you were limited to only having one tank of discus and could have any strain or species of Discus you wanted what would the tank contain and how would you set that tank up. You can add other species of fish but the primary is Discus

Lets limit it to a 125 gal tank.

Price is no consideration.

[Second Hand Pat]

It's funny you post this Al as I am exactly considering a 125 (maybe 150) in the near future. I'm waiting to rehome the 230 as the new tank will go in it's space. First the new tank will be an acrylic tank. All my large tanks are acrylic. They are light and generally do not leak (crossing fingers here that I do not jink myself). It will also have a sump both for the filtration and the water volume.

It will not be a planted tank as I suck with plants. It will be a biotype for wild discus. Mostly likely eight. I will set it up with a swallow sand bed and driftwood. I have a ton of driftwood in the barn I have collected other the years. I will consider adding philodendrons cutting to the water surface for the look and the roots having an nice effect on the water quality. I will also consider a background of some type. I think that mostly covers it.
Pat

[LizStreithorst]

It would have to be a 125. The more space the better, I guess.

[mleibowi]

I have a 150 gal Al. I like variety... tiger turq, fine spotted snake skins (super duper pantheras), albino red and yellow covers, blue diamond, heckel

[Vanman]

125 from Glass Cages made with low iron glass in the living room with a 250 gallon sump in the basement. It would be on a custom built Cherry stand or built in the wall with an access room behind it. Stocked with 9 Wattley solid turquoise. Al did say that money was no object.

[Iminit]

5.Though choice here! What do I do with the other 55g?

[anewbie]

I think i would stick to what i have but make it twice as large. It is a planted tank with wild caught cameta orange discus. Btw now that i'm treating them better the florence blue accent has really taken off (even on the smallest discus). I might up the number to 10 or 12 if the aquarium was twice as large but certianly no more than that. So I'm thinking dimensions approx 8 or 9 feet long and 3 feet wide. The current aquarium 6 feet long and 2 feet wide for area 12. I wonder if the florence blue is a seasonal thing but as i said the past week it has gotten super strong on all the discus - this is an older picture and not very good of the tank but it is what i have sitting on my computer. You can see some of the blue on the larger discus in this older picture and when it was taken the smaller ones had almost none but it has really popped recently on all of them (anyone know if this is just seasonal?)
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The two largest ones seem to be showing pairing behavior but i'm not sure if they are m/f as the only trait i could find on line was tail shape and if htat is accurate they are all the same sex. I'd say the largest ones are nearly 60% larger mass than the smaller ones.
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I don't do much to clean the aquarium so maybe long term i'm headed for a disaster (aquarium has been running for 11+ months and populated with discus for 9 months. Cleaning consist of 2 gph drip system (that is approx but i think the dripper is a bit slower); and once every 2 to 4 weeks a 40 gallon water change and wiping of the glass with a paper towel to remove soft algae. The plants have grown like crazy (which i don't understand since everyone says they won't grow). A few plants did die - i'd say 3 species with about 10 species doing very well. At the rate it is growing if left unceckecked my micro sword (Echinorodus quadricostatus) will cover the entire bottom. See next picture of it (it started as one small plant on March 1st).




For water chemistry i use pure ro water with a little non-nitrate plant fertilizer. The ph probe i use suggest the water is 5.0-5.01 but i don't trust it and the ec meter indicates it is 28 (which i trust). The blackwater tank i have with the lowest ec is 21 and the highest is 45. (ec is 2x tds so an ec of 28 is tds 14).
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The temp is 83/84 and in another month i will try lowering it a degree and see how they react. I'd like to get it to 81 if they will tolerate the lower temps. The biggest concern i have is their diet. Currently i've been stuffing them with freeze dried blackworms and i'd like them to eat more greens and less worms but they were a bit under weight so my intention is continue another 6 months with the worms and then evaluate. The two largest ones are not under weight and bordering on plump but not overweight. Hum i suppose too much details for your question.

[Discus-n00b]

If you were limited to only having one tank of discus and could have any strain or species of Discus you wanted what would the tank contain and how would you set that tank up. You can add other species of fish but the primary is Discus

Lets limit it to a 125 gal tank.

Price is no consideration.

That is a tough question. I have 3 ideas, no real specific order, all very similar especially given my recent foray into the planted tank world. I think each would contain a single or very similar strain rather than a hodgepodge group.

Choice 1: Use my 100gal rimless and make it full planted with a group of big adult old school blue cobalts, the powder blue body into the darker blue fins, full face striation, old school cool strain. I would be fine substituting with some super clean Blue Diamonds or Blue Snakeskins though. Just that full blue group against the green would look great.

Choice 2: Use my 100gal rimless and make it full planted with a group of big adult super clean orange/red pigeon bloods (ew I know right?). Talking like the old Marlboro reds with with sparse blotchy white on the full red body types. Or a super super clean full body red melon type. The contrast with the green plants would be incredible.

Choice 3: Start my old 100gal rimless wild tank back. This time with some really nice wild greens maybe? Never know though I'm always tempted by those wild reds. Would have a large school of some type of tetra and a couple small bottom dwellers like an apisto pair or similar and some cory of course. I think if I started it again I'd go for a more planted tank rather than a straight biotope. Even if its not full high tech planted.

Sad thing is I still have the tank, it's been sitting empty for years now, just holding all of my plant propagation tubs. Maybe one day soon. I think I will eventually do something like this. I feel like I've got the plant knowledge and a good grasp at running a planted tank now, and I've had discus long enough to know what mistakes I made in the past and what I would do different on a second go round to be more successful, not to toot my own horn too much but I think I could create a killer setup I've just got a bit too much going on right now and a few other things I want to spend money on to start it up just yet.

And for good measure, some photos of some nice blues I took at one of the NADA shows (Chicago maybe?) that I would love to see in my planted tank dreams in Choice 1. I don't know whos they were, I think Liz bought the snakeskin though? I really miss having large fish to photograph....
Bluediamond2 by Matt, on Flickr
Bluesnake by Matt, on Flickr

[Vanman]

Al said "Price is no consideration."

Dream big or go home.

[LizStreithorst]

That is a tough question. I have 3 ideas, no real specific order, all very similar especially given my recent foray into the planted tank world. I think each would contain a single or very similar strain rather than a hodgepodge group.

Choice 1: Use my 100gal rimless and make it full planted with a group of big adult old school blue cobalts, the powder blue body into the darker blue fins, full face striation, old school cool strain. I would be fine substituting with some super clean Blue Diamonds or Blue Snakeskins though. Just that full blue group against the green would look great.

Choice 2: Use my 100gal rimless and make it full planted with a group of big adult super clean orange/red pigeon bloods (ew I know right?). Talking like the old Marlboro reds with with sparse blotchy white on the full red body types. Or a super super clean full body red melon type. The contrast with the green plants would be incredible.

Choice 3: Start my old 100gal rimless wild tank back. This time with some really nice wild greens maybe? Never know though I'm always tempted by those wild reds. Would have a large school of some type of tetra and a couple small bottom dwellers like an apisto pair or similar and some cory of course. I think if I started it again I'd go for a more planted tank rather than a straight biotope. Even if its not full high tech planted.

Sad thing is I still have the tank, it's been sitting empty for years now, just holding all of my plant propagation tubs. Maybe one day soon. I think I will eventually do something like this. I feel like I've got the plant knowledge and a good grasp at running a planted tank now, and I've had discus long enough to know what mistakes I made in the past and what I would do different on a second go round to be more successful, not to toot my own horn too much but I think I could create a killer setup I've just got a bit too much going on right now and a few other things I want to spend money on to start it up just yet.

And for good measure, some photos of some nice blues I took at one of the NADA shows (Chicago maybe?) that I would love to see in my planted tank dreams in Choice 1. I don't know whos they were, I think Liz bought the snakeskin though? I really miss having large fish to photograph....
Bluediamond2 by Matt, on Flickr
Bluesnake by Matt, on Flickr

My dream is to consistently breed Spotted Blue Snakeskins that loo like the one you pictured, Try as I might, it keeps on not happening. That is a killingly beautiful fish,

[arkmann]

Great looking tank anewbie! It's like you and I have the same idea. I have to say though, you're only dripping 48 gallons per day and nowhere near the recommended 30 gallons per water exchange since the RO water is diluted in the tank. Also you don't need pure RO water unless you're breeding.

Kidding aside, your tank looks great! I'm planning to do the same thing with my tank with pure RO and two small water changes per day.

For my dream 125 (180 in my case), I would stock it with wild green tefe or some sort of ica red. The wall of my fish/tv/music/bike room is white with a green tint so I would like a fish that is in contrast with that. For other fish, I will try to stock it with a handful of geos, some solid or red/black dither fish, and some sort of cleaner or bottom dwelling fish. I wish it was October already so that people will start bringing in more wilds.

[QUOTE=anewbie;n2755542]



--
I don't do much to clean the aquarium so maybe long term i'm headed for a disaster (aquarium has been running for 11+ months and populated with discus for 9 months. Cleaning consist of 2 gph drip system (that is approx but i think the dripper is a bit slower); and once every 2 to 4 weeks a 40 gallon water change and wiping of the glass with a paper towel to remove soft algae. The plants have grown like crazy (which i don't understand since everyone says they won't grow). A few plants did die - i'd say 3 species with about 10 species doing very well. At the rate it is growing if left unceckecked my micro sword (Echinorodus quadricostatus) will cover the entire bottom. See next picture of it (it started as one small plant on March 1st).

[anewbie]

[QUOTE=arkmann;n2755633]Great looking tank anewbie! It's like you and I have the same idea. I have to say though, you're only dripping 48 gallons per day and nowhere near the recommended 30 gallons per water exchange since the RO water is diluted in the tank. Also you don't need pure RO water unless you're breeding.

Kidding aside, your tank looks great! I'm planning to do the same thing with my tank with pure RO and two small water changes per day.

For my dream 125 (180 in my case), I would stock it with wild green tefe or some sort of ica red. The wall of my fish/tv/music/bike room is white with a green tint so I would like a fish that is in contrast with that. For other fish, I will try to stock it with a handful of geos, some solid or red/black dither fish, and some sort of cleaner or bottom dwelling fish. I wish it was October already so that people will start bringing in more wilds.

--
I don't do much to clean the aquarium so maybe long term i'm headed for a disaster (aquarium has been running for 11+ months and populated with discus for 9 months. Cleaning consist of 2 gph drip system (that is approx but i think the dripper is a bit slower); and once every 2 to 4 weeks a 40 gallon water change and wiping of the glass with a paper towel to remove soft algae. The plants have grown like crazy (which i don't understand since everyone says they won't grow). A few plants did die - i'd say 3 species with about 10 species doing very well. At the rate it is growing if left unceckecked my micro sword (Echinorodus quadricostatus) will cover the entire bottom. See next picture of it (it started as one small plant on March 1st).

Yea - the ec is 30; the reason i went with pure ro water is that (a) they are wild caught and (b) there are some blue rams in there (again wild caught). It isn't actually blackwater since i put in some gh but the ec stays very low. Here is an updated picture i took today after a water change - kind of hate doing water changes because it really upsets them but about once a month i'll do a 40 gallon water change and wipe the glass and if needed add a few root tabs:

At this point all the plants (cept for 2 small crypts in the very front middle right) are well established and growing quite well - the echinodorus on the far right (remi maybe?) has really taken off; the Echinorodus quadricostatus on the left started as one small plant and the apongeton cripus which are the two large plants started at 6 inches.

Hum i should do a close up of the reni as it is a pretty impressive multi-colour plant - not sure it is actually a reni; need to look back on receipts - it might be something else but i'm pretty sure it is a red reni i planted on 1/26 so 7 months to get established.

Normally the discus have a bit more colour but they are really pissed at me. They will cheer up at dinner time

[anewbie]

[QUOTE=arkmann;n2755633]Great looking tank anewbie! It's like you and I have the same idea. I have to say though, you're only dripping 48 gallons per day and nowhere near the recommended 30 gallons per water exchange since the RO water is diluted in the tank. Also you don't need pure RO water unless you're breeding.

Kidding aside, your tank looks great! I'm planning to do the same thing with my tank with pure RO and two small water changes per day.

For my dream 125 (180 in my case), I would stock it with wild green tefe or some sort of ica red. The wall of my fish/tv/music/bike room is white with a green tint so I would like a fish that is in contrast with that. For other fish, I will try to stock it with a handful of geos, some solid or red/black dither fish, and some sort of cleaner or bottom dwelling fish. I wish it was October already so that people will start bringing in more wilds.

--
I don't do much to clean the aquarium so maybe long term i'm headed for a disaster (aquarium has been running for 11+ months and populated with discus for 9 months. Cleaning consist of 2 gph drip system (that is approx but i think the dripper is a bit slower); and once every 2 to 4 weeks a 40 gallon water change and wiping of the glass with a paper towel to remove soft algae. The plants have grown like crazy (which i don't understand since everyone says they won't grow). A few plants did die - i'd say 3 species with about 10 species doing very well. At the rate it is growing if left unceckecked my micro sword (Echinorodus quadricostatus) will cover the entire bottom. See next picture of it (it started as one small plant on March 1st).

Yea - the ec is 30; the reason i went with pure ro water is that (a) they are wild caught and (b) there are some blue rams in there (again wild caught). It isn't actually blackwater since i put in some gh but the ec stays very low. Here is an updated picture i took today after a water change - kind of hate doing water changes because it really upsets them but about once a month i'll do a 40 gallon water change and wipe the glass and if needed add a few root tabs:

At this point all the plants (cept for 2 small crypts in the very front middle right) are well established and growing quite well - the echinodorus on the far right (remi maybe?) has really taken off; the Echinorodus quadricostatus on the left started as one small plant and the apongeton cripus which are the two large plants started at 6 inches.

Hum i should do a close up of the reni as it is a pretty impressive multi-colour plant - not sure it is actually a reni; need to look back on receipts - it might be something else but i'm pretty sure it is a red reni i planted on 1/26 so 7 months to get established.

Normally the discus have a bit more colour but they are really pissed at me. They will cheer up at dinner time