Soupysteve's 110g (5ft) Discus tank journal

Sounds like you have a good start.

A couple of things.

I'd fill the tank with RO/DI water then use some type of Freshwater Trace Elements since RO/DI removes both the good and bad elements from water. I wouldn't add tap water.

You don't need any kind of black water treatment unless you plan to have wild discus. Not recommended for your first attempt at discus. Most discus hatcheries try to acclimate their young discus to more "common" water parameters so that there's a higher chance of survival. You're already ahead of the curve using RO/DI as a base.

Since you're looking to have a discus biotope, you can use the black water additive. Just not necessary though for discus health. Clean close to neutral pH water is all you really need.

The last time I had discus I had to end up giving them to a friend because my local water is just too harsh for them and I don't have RO/DI yet.

Many years ago, I had great success keeping them in a community setting with just dechlorinated water and no additives. They bullied every other fish in the tank and were fat and happy.

There's no difference in disposition between color strains, so mix-n-match or go all one type whichever is pleasing to your eye.

Cardinals would be iffy, but you can try. I've successfully raised cardinals and angels together when I started the angels very small with them. Discus may or may not behave the same way.

Plecos you have to watch with discus because some like to feed on the discus slime coat. They just think it's another flat surface to suck on. The discus tend not to like it much.

Cories are fine.

I'm not a fan of bio-wheels and honestly don't think they work effectively. They try to duplicate the huge biological drum filters used in aquaculture. The technology doesn't scale down well.

For hang on back filters, I use Hagen Aquaclear filters exclusively. I'd put 2 Aquaclear 110s and an Rena xP canister on the tank if I was doing it.

Discus don't need dimly lit or subdued lighting to be happy either.

OK,
First off, Look for lighting in the 6700K range, by the substrate you've chosen I assume you are planning on a planted tank.
you should have at least 1.5 watts per gal to support low light plants. you will have to dose some trace elements with RO. I use Plantex CSM+B (rexgrigg, or greenleaf aquariums sells it)

There are only a few types of Cory cats that will tolerate the 84F degrees of the tank water, do some research and get the right ones..
Strebai, Panda, Adolphi are A few good choices off hand..
you could put some clown loaches in there, I have 7 in my 125.

I have about 10 Cardinals in my discus tank, and have no issues. dont get neons as they are smaller, and might become a snack. Keep the discus well fed and you shouldnt have any problems. feed 2-3 times a day, they like to snack alot. I also have 20 Rummynose, and 6 Black neons.. As well and about 20 red cherry shrimp.. and a 8" common pleco.

Many people say that common plecos will try to eat the slime coat from the discus, but I personally havent seen that, while he does occasionally chase them about a bit, he hasnt tried to suck on one... Other suggestions are Bushynose (Bristlenose) and the rubber lip. I have 8 otos in my tank as well... and some bamboo shrimp.

the important thing is water condition. While many people say pristine water is a necessity, it isnt, unless you plan on breeding them, or have juveniles in your tank.
I do a 30% w/c on my tank at least 4 times a week, if not every day.

While the sump has good filtering potential, it does gass of the co2 that you might want in your tank, but a low light set up, really doesn't need co2 with the right fertilization... co2 helps to control algae growth, and helps plants in higher light..

I use a Fluval FX5 that I bought new from Ebay for $200...
I have 3 stealth 250 watt heaters.. one is set at 84F, 2 are set at 81F..
my attempt at being effecient..

Anyway, Hopefully this helps.



You should have at least 5 discus.. less than that and they will fight constantly.

Soupysteve said:

Thanks for the replies, folks!
I checked out your thread, Zig - beautiful tank!

Click to expand...

\

Thanks man!
Trying to make it as easy as possable.

Sounds like you've really been busy. I'm wondering why you decided to go with RO water? Is that what Macsdiscus keeps his discus in? I'm thinking chances are the discus you will get have not been raised in RO water. Unless your tap water is really way off in quality in order for fish to live well or you're considering buying wild discus, RO water is totally not necessary. Some people do switch over to RO when they want to breed because their tap/well water won't suffice. I have average municipal tap water, a little on the hard side, ph 7.4, dechlorinated for tank use with NovAqua+ and my discus thrive. They've spawned and I've had the eggs hatch without a hitch. I keep the tank at 84-86F. My tank is nicely planted low tech with minimal ferts and requires the least maintenance of all my tanks. If you get true malaysian driftwood, it will leach tannins very similarly to what wild discus live in in the South American Rivers. The wild discus habitat is mostly roots and some leaves, and basically devoid of plants, but dark from the tannins and soft. Bottled Black Water is absolutely not necessary to use to successfully keep discus. I boil driftwood before I add it to kill any bugs/bacteria, but not sure how you'd properly clean a 4' piece. Maybe soak in a clean tub with a little bleach added then rinsed with dechlor and left to sun dry completely. I always tell people be careful with sharp branches with discus. They are known to startle and dart wildly through the tank and sharp branches can do a lot of damage to a frightened, darting discus. No fish truly "like" bright lights, discus included. But they will get used to it. Most of the places you would get discus from do not keep them in brightly lit tanks. The lighting is more subdued. Discus can thrive in a big range of ph I'd say from 6.0 to 8.0. My tank stays at 7.6 and suits the discus and the other tankmates. I have rummies, cories, black neons, otos and a pleco. I have at times kept a clown pleco, common pleco, gold nugget pleco or bristlenose plecos in with the discus and have never had a pleco go for the slime coat. Your rubber lip should work out just fine. Otos will if they run out of food and get hungry. They are more of a true algae eater than plecos, so plecos usually go for any leftover discus food so they rarely are so hungry that they'd suck on slime coat. Out of the many varieties of tetras that I have kept in with the discus, I found cardinals and neons to not be very hardy. The rummynose are ok but mine basically stay away from the discus unless it's chow time. The black neons are my choice of neons for the tank for their hardiness, personalities and they do not fear the discus size as other tetras do. I think my rummies will live forever and netting them is impossible so until their numbers dwindle, I only have 3 black neons at the moment. I have standard hood lights with a 10,000K bulb for the plants and to show the nice colors of the discus. They are not super bright, but I did not think the yellow cast lights really show the true colors of the fish well enough. The lights in my tank are able to be on from 7:00 AM until 10:00 PM without algae issues of any kind. The cories I've tried over the years have included panda, false julii, albino aneus, and sterbai. The least shy and most active and amusing cories are by far the albino aneus. Mine never hide, always out in the front of the tank swimming and scavaging and they do fine in discus temps. The sterbai would be my second choice for a little smaller cory. I have a school of 19 in my planted 75G pleco tank and they are definitely much shyer than the albinos. False julies and pandas really don't do as well at those high temps, especially pandas. Get a nice size school of cories! I keep two 300W heaters in my tank. After a lengthy time of observing my 72G discus tank, I chose to take the AC 110 out and replace it with two biowheels because the AC 110 is just too much flow for the discus. They do not need or like that kind of flow. I keep both an AC 110 (on the right side of my tank) and a biowheel (on the left side of my tank) on my 55G planted sidthimunki, they and the cories love the flow. But having the AC 110 only on the right of the tank gives them a calmer area on the left side to retreat to. And I keep an AC110 on the left side of my 75G planted pleco (and others) and it blows the plants and fish at a very hefty pace! I'm surprised they don't get tired of swimming the current in that tank! But discus being so tall and flat get blown too much by the large AC. It doesn't matter what colors you choose, strains are color variations only, not personality variations. And the biggest thing is.....clean, clean water. Moreso for growing out juvies than for adults.
Good luck to you! Your will really enjoy keeping discus! They have a ton of personality!!

Pink hon you're the goddess of discus and I loves ya for all the help, but for the love of god use the enter key occasionally. LOL

Enter key, your keyboard has an Enter key?? :raspberry:

Yep, both of them do.

Back on topic, you said a lot of things I wanted to say, but I was trying not to scare off the new guy. LOL

Hopefully I didn't scare the OP. Just trying to share what's worked for me and what's not, what's useful and what's not. I don't even want to try to imagine how much money I spent on my learning curve with keeping discus.:shakehead: