Starting my First discus tank

[GDominy]

Well, I have to say it, this site is fantastic. I've been reading about discus care for a good year and haf in preparation for my first discus tank and I have not found anything that came close to this widely varied collection of articles. Good work!

Now that I have that out of the way I wanted to run my proposed new tank by you guys and see what you think. This is going to be a planted Discus tank (I'm a plant guy already so this isnt a huge stretch) and I have no intention of breeding. This tank is to show off the fish in a realistic looking environment. I am well aware of the extra maintenance required for discus in a planted tank and I am mor ethen willing to put in the effort.

The tank is a 90 gallon, 3 feet by 2 feet by 2 feet. I have always loved he look of "deep" tanks, and the fish seem to enjoy the added room to swim. Here is a picture I took of the tank about a week ago (the tank was set up using cycled gravel and filter media about 2 days before this picture).



I havent figured out what I want to do for filtration yet, but I as thinking a pair of Aquaclear 500's with the spraybar's under water (I customize these so the water surface doesnt get disturbed very much, and current sheets down so there wont be too much current to disturb the discus).

The lighting is moderate, and there are areas of shade where the discus will be able to duck into if they feel the need for shelter.

I would like to keep a small shoal of cories for gravel cleanup, I was thinking about shrimp, but I'm not sure of the discus would eat them (I keep about 2 dozen different species of shrimp at the moment). For algae cleanup I have a small fleet of otocinclus catfish. I didnt want anything large (or active) that might intimidate the discus.

Am I on the right track?

[ronrca]

Sounds good to me! Good choice in tank mates. You may want to add some cardinal tetras and german rams also. How about the discus now? Any particular strains?

[GDominy]

I was considering adding some cardinal tetra's, but they are extremely hard to find in my area. I do have some German Blue rams I was thinking about mixing in but I'm still on the fence with that one, they are in with my Angelfish at the moment.

[dm]

Sounds like a good plan. I have some otos and Cories in my planted Discus tank and they are doing great. If you can't find Cardinals how about Neons or Rummy nosed or Glowlight Tetras. IMO they are all great tankmates.

[Carol_Roberts]

I think you need to rinse your blue prefilter sponges

Does everybody see all the muck that the prefilter sponge kept out of the filter?

[GDominy]

LOL yes I know.. I took that picture 2 days after I filled the tank so the sponge trapped a lot of floating debris... It is MUCH cleaner now, I just wanted to show the size of the tank :-)

[RAWesolowski]

Love the mix of substrate, very attractive! Have you considered some vallisneria?

[GDominy]

I have considered it, but I have a lot of Val in another tank of mine, I try to keep them all looking different. Just for comparison purposes here are some of my other tanks....

22 Gallon - I keep Neon tetra's, Platties, Molly's, Cory's, Oto's in here with about 20+ shrimp (several Cardina species and several different Atyopsis species)



135 Gallon - This is the main loach tank where I keep clown loaches, yoyo loaches, zebra loaches, a tiger loach, gourami's, 2 bala's, oto's, a large sailfin pleco, red tailed black shark, SAE, and shrimp (same as the 22 gallon)



I also have a 30 gallon that I am retiring and replacing with a 60 gallon tall (36"L x 16"W x 25"H) and a 45 Gallon that I keep nasty loaches in (Sun Loach, Botia Modesta's, Skunk Loaches, Tiger barbs, big mean moonlight gourami, and some SAE's)

[henryD]

wow beautiful tanks. I love the look of the planted tanks.

[giroux68]

What a set up! The river rock you have look great. Do you use river pebbles just on top? What do you put under that?

[Smokey]

Wow, I am impressed, almost make me want to go over to the green side. lol.

Unfortunately .... I can not even grow algae!!! rreally.


Beautiful looking tanks there, G.

Any discus would be proud to have such a home.

Smokey

[chirohorn]

Awesome lookin' tanks! Post follow-up pics when you get the discus.

[Troy_James]

GDominy,

are you going to run CO2 on your planted discus tank?

[GDominy]

I might, I havent decided yet. It isnt planted heavily enough to cause Ph swings throughout the day. I may use Co2 down the road if I notice Ph instability, but so far the tank is running pretty consistently throughout the day.

[Troy_James]

I had thought of a heavily planted tank myself but don't want to start mixing C02 and discus till I get some experiance with them behind me. Had considered hornwort, crypts, and rootwood tho. Thought that would look good.
Anyways, best of luck to ya and hope you enjoy your new fish

Troy