My newfound love: Discus... and my infinite amount of questions!

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M

Merlot

AC Members
Dec 27, 2011
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Hello everyone!

I have always had a passion for tropical fish and have had several fish tanks but have just recently discovered Discus fish. I have just setup a long 33 gallon "starter" tank... I purchased it used, and it came with a miniature Albino Pleco.

The tank measures 36l x 15h x 12w, has a clear hood and a Coralife 96w - 6700K light.

As of now, the tank houses three medium pieces of driftwood, 8 (as of now small) Vallisneria, and 1 Amazon Sword Plant, and 2 small plants (they came with the tank. I think one is a small fern and the other one looks like some type of Anubias - but I am not sure at all). I was thinking of adding some java moss. I know it will grow slower in the higher temperature required by Discus, but I thought I'd give it a shot. What do you think? Also, is the lighting sufficient? I have never been very lucky with plants and don't want to mess it up now. I leave the light on 8-10 hours per day.

I will only be placing two Discus fish in the tank along with the pleco.

The tank came with a Marineland Biowheel 350. In my previous 42 gallon tall tank, I used to have a Fluval canister and liked it so much more. I will be buying a Fluval 206 tonight. I am still debating on what media to put in the filter. Aside black carbon and biomax, I was thinking of adding some peat moss given that the water where I live is quite hard. Any recommendations to improve the filter performance? Should I keep the Biowheel with the Fluval? I don't want the Discus to be upset by too much water movement. I will be performing a minimum of two 50% water changes per week. Will it be enough?

The tank has been running for about 4 days. There are no fish in the tank yet. The pleco is in my other 10 gallon - temporarily - so that it wouldn't have to suffer through a possible nitrogen cycle when I moved the tank. The issue I had when I moved it is that the tank had been neglected since February (I bought it last week). The tank was covered in algae and the filter was filthy. When I transferred the tank to my apartment and reset it up, I did not rinse the gravel - I slightly rinsed the filter. It was just so dirty, but I was also trying to preserve some of the bacteria colonies. I did have to clean it quite a bit though. I refilled it with water - and I used a blade to remove the algae on the glass.

Since moving the tank, I have tested nitrites, nitrates, ammonia, and ph. Everything is at a 0, but yesterday the ph was at an 8.0. I then added the driftwood and today it was at a 7.8 (way too high or Discus). This evening, I added some API ph decreaser. I will test the water tomorrow to see how it is doing. Today, I finally decided to remove two of the four carbon filters and replace them with new ones. Now I have two clean ones and two dirty ones - but again, I am trying to preserve the bacteria. I hope I have not messed it up. The temperature is stable at 84F.

The water is clear (I soaked the driftwood for 2 days). Now it has some of that white film over it - but the water parameters are still good. I read that it is not harmful to the tank/fish/plants. The plants seem to be doing - or at least, they are not rotting. The Sword Plant has a nice green to it. The Vallisneria a bit less. I trimmed it today and hopefully it will do better.

I added some bacteria starter, Tetra Easybalance and AquaSafe when I first added the water but nothing after.

Any recommendations from the experts out there?

Any and all feedback/constructive criticism will be greatly appreciated!

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discuspaul

discuspaul

AC Members
Jun 22, 2010
921
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Surrey, B.C. Canada (Vancouver)
Real Name
Paul
Please read my 'Beginner's Guide to Getting Started with Discus, located in this section - first Sticky - I believe it will help you.
First thing: make absolutely sure your new tank is fully cycled before you think about adding any new (and expensive) discus. Given what you said you did, you may not have maintained a sufficient beneficial bacterial colony. More on this later.

Forget the carbon. The peat may help, but it's not necessary - discus will do just fine at that pH, as long as it's relatively stable and remains that way. Don't add any more chemicals to alter it.
Your proposed water changes are on the low side, but you may be ok, depends on the size of discus you plan to get.
Speaking of that, a 33 gal is a very small size for discus, unless you want to keep a mated pair.
Otherwise, 2 discus is not a good number to keep - you'll very likely have undesirable aggression/pecking order problems.
Best you can do, and that's just temporary, for a few of months at best, is to keep 4, or 5, discus in there of about 3" in size.

You've been testing your water for only 4 days - you show no nitrates, so I suspect you're not anywhere near a completed cycle. You'll need to keep adding an ammonia source for a while to build up a BB colony & be fully cycled before you consider adding your discus.

Just trying to help you avoid some pitfalls here - would want you to be successful keeping discus, so please do some more research, take it slow and easy, dont rush anything, and more than anything - get good quality, healthy discus stock from a known, reliable, experienced discus source. That'll be 50% of the way to being successful keeping these beautiful fish.
Hope this helps you - best of luck.
Regards,
Paul
 
M

Merlot

AC Members
Dec 27, 2011
25
0
1
Hello discuspaul -

Your name seems to be quite well known in all the discus forums I have visited! I will gladly follow any advice you have. I read through your Beginner's Guide a few times since yesterday (after I wrote my post). It was of great help! The first time I purchased a tank, a made the mistake of following what the people at Petsmart told me to do.... it was not long before corporate got an email from me... but I learned my lesson with cycling the tank very quickly. Since then, I am terrified of the idea of intentionally putting any animal through unnecessary stress/trauma.

I have had the tank for less than one week now and I have not attempted to put any fish in it. I just ordered a canister filter and waiting for it to come in. I am planning on having it run concurrently with the current filter so that I do not shock the tank by just removing one filter and putting a new one in. Unfortunately, my building lost power today for 5 hours, so my water went back to being a bit murky. The current filter has been running for an hour now and the water is slowly getting better. Tomorrow afternoon I will test the water again and see if the nitrites/nitrates are increasing. I will make a water change tomorrow to make sure everything is ok and proceeds well. Once the water stabilizes, I am thinking of putting in 3 serpes tetra in first. Once I see they are doing well, I was planning on moving to the discus. I was planning on starting with 3inch discus.

I am hoping to get a 55 gallon tank within the next 6 months, but have yet to finalize it. Because of that, I don't want to make the fish suffer unnecessarily if I have to wait a bit longer to get the larger tank. If I were to look for a mated pair to begin with, how would I go about that?

I will read your Guide again to gain more insight...

Thank you!!
 
discuspaul

discuspaul

AC Members
Jun 22, 2010
921
51
31
Surrey, B.C. Canada (Vancouver)
Real Name
Paul
You've had your tank for a few days, Merlot, and since it hasn't had an ammonia source since day one, you will not be building up a beneficial bacteria colony therein, no matter how long you run your filter(s).
And if your first filter from another tank was seeded when you added it to your 33 gal, the bb in it's media would very likely have died off by now, without an ongoing ammonia source to feed it.
No sense testing your water for the next little while, you won't be seeing any ammonia, nitrites, or nitrates in your tank the way it sits now without an ammonia source.
So, the first thing you need to do is a fishless cycle using store-bought ammonia, or at the very least, add some fish food to the tank (for it to decay & produce ammonia) &/or a couple of pieces of shrimp meat, or something like that, so that it decomposes and produces ammonia, in order to get your cycle started.
If you try to cycle the tank now with 3 Serpae Tetras, as you mentioned, you will likely lose them to ammonia poisoning, which they will produce, but your tank will have no BB to convert it & neutralize it's toxicity.

So please cycle your tank first (which could take up to 6 weeks) - my Guide has detailed directions for doing that.
Please excuse my going on like this, just wanted to be sure you were clear on what needs to be done.

The only other option you have it is to get fresh, seeded filter media into your tank and then add the Serpaes.

Now, on to the Discus. You mentioned in your other thread that you didn't want to breed discus, so don't consider getting a mated pair of adults. For starters, a mated pair will cost likely a minimum of $300., probably more.
Your 33 gal., once cycled, would be satisfactory to raise 4 or 5, -3" discus for 3 months or so, at which time you'd need to get your 55 gal, as intended, to house them at that point.
Again, hope this helps you.
 
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