Quarantine tank for discus

Diann62

AC Members
Mar 11, 2008
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Ontario, Canada
I bought a 10 gallon tank for quarantining my discus. I will be getting about 8 so I hope the small size doesn't stress them out. I put the white spongey filter in my established tank's filter to get the good bacteria on it. That will be about a month before I get my discus. I'll then take some fake plants from the established tank to help with the good bacteria. My question is........how do I know that the tank is cycled? It's not like I'll be adding them one at a time and checking the levels........I'm going to get them all at once. I'm also very nervous that they're not going to like such a small tank. I have a heavily planted 110 gallon tall tank that they're going into and I'm so tempted to just put them in. Although I learned my lesson when I recently got ich, which is why I bought a QT tank. This is my first time using it, and I wish it was on cheaper fish. These are very pricey discus and I'm so afraid of doing something wrong.
 
I bought a 10 gallon tank for quarantining my discus. I will be getting about 8 so I hope the small size doesn't stress them out...

Yeah, a 10g QT might be a bit small for 8 discus... what size discus are you getting? Maybe you can stagger the pickup of the discus and only have a few at a time?
 
:iagree:

Are these going to be juvies or adults? Either way there won't be enough room and a stressed fish will be more susceptible to disease. Not to mention your params are going to be hard to keep in tact.

Your sponge should be ready to go however the bacteria will die off unless they have a constant ammonia source.
 
you should seed the white spongy filter in the other tank, but then move it over to the QT tank a couple weeks before the discus arrive and fishless cycle the tank by adding ammonia and monitoring the water parameters to make sure you've built up a large enough bacterial colony to handle the fish you put in.

you could also keep your fingers crossed and just throw in the seeded filter sponge at the same time you add the discus to the 10g tank. either way you go, you're probably going to be doing large daily water changes regardless. if they are small enough to fit 8 of them in a 10g tank, they're small enough to need near-constant feeding and pristine water.
 
10g is way to small, even for a period as short as one month. if it was only one or two juvie discus, it may be a different story; 8 is just too many.

water parameters are very important when keeping discus, especially juvies. it will be extremely hard to keep the water parameters from fluctuating frequently. a 30 gallon would be a much better choice.
 
If the 110 has fish, definitely QT. I would go get at least a 20 gal long if you are sticking with 8 juvies. Putting media over there now and not getting them for a month will not do to much good unless you feed the bacteria enough to get the bio load needed for 8 juvies.
 
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