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

yourchoice - I haven't tested water from my tap. I've just always used RO/DI for my saltwater tanks. The guys I know locally who are African Cichlid guys say water here in the Ozarks if AWESOME for what they do... SUPER HARD with HIGH pH.

pinkertd - I had to take a smoke break after reading your BLOCK of a post... sorry, I used to be an English major/Biology minor. I'd beat someone down with a whiffle ball bat for the discus you have in the center of your avatar pic - need anyone whacked?

So I toured the towns LFS and managed to fins two nice chunks of "Malaysian" diftwood. I made a big score when I hit a fish store that was about to do inventory, They sold me one 2.5' chunk they said they couldn't sell because it had no slate anchor and another 1.5' chunk for $4!!!

I put ONE of the two lights from my 40g over this tank. I think it is too bright for what I'd like to see. I'm thinking two 30" fixtures with 24" bulbs with <10k bulbs on them will do. Any opinions?

I nabbed my smaller "rubber-nosed/lipped" pleco from my 40g and he is now the lone fish in the 110g.

I've got a couple of chunks of driftwood I've got boiling that came out of my 40g. I want to make sure I don't transfer any hair algae or snails to the new tank.

Some pics for anyone who cares:

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/ind...dID=358709163&albumID=861454&imageID=11789520

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/ind...dID=358709163&albumID=861454&imageID=11789519

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/ind...dID=358709163&albumID=861454&imageID=11789841
 
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Soupysteve said:
pinkertd - I had to take a smoke break after reading your BLOCK of a post... sorry, I used to be an English major/Biology minor. I'd beat someone down with a whiffle ball bat for the discus you have in the center of your avatar pic - need anyone whacked?
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:lol: You know, with all the interruptions I had when I was typing your answer I kept having to leave the computer and come back a gazillion times), you're lucky it was only a short BLOCK, i haven't given you the long BLOCK yet!:grinno:

That discus is one of my blue cobalts, he's not even full grown or fully colored up yet. I'll think about the whacking! :evil_lol:

A 110G tank is awesome! That little pleco must think you dumped him in the ocean!
 
pinkertd said:
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!!
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100% agree....:thm:
 
need some aquascaping advice

Aside from the large piece that is floating up flush with my glass cross brace, I don't care for my half-hearted attempt at the look of the tank. How would you place things?
This is NOT the light I will end up with, just one I've put over the tank so I can see what I am messing with.

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/ind...dID=358709163&albumID=861454&imageID=11881240
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/ind...dID=358709163&albumID=861454&imageID=11881243
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/ind...dID=358709163&albumID=861454&imageID=11881244

I DO plan on adding two or three clusters of amazon swords - as I think they will go well with the vertical striping that will be on at least one of the discus I end up with.

So, with this being a new set up and all, how long do I wait for a cycle? How much of a cycle are we talking about here... I mean, I plan on doing 10% daily changes and a weekly 25-50% on the weekend. I guess I will do some reading on cycling.
 
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Oh, and just my two cents on water quality/tank maintenance....

I use an RO/tap water mix. a 1:10 tap/RO mix gives me a Ph of about 6.8 KH of 3-4 with a TDS of 120PPM. Since I have plants, I inject CO2 to about 35PPM wich usually sets my Ph at about 6.5 when everything is settled. The tap that I add to the RO is filtered through a carbon cartridge. All is treated with PRIME prior to adding to the tank. I perform 50% water changes every Saturday.
 
Yes, listen to pinkertd, she'll point you the right way. Also (I'm not sure if someone already mentioned this), but check out simplydiscus.com forums, they'll help you along with discus.
 
avionics30 - your tank is stunning. Is that a 125g - bigger? I was planning on doing something like what you have done (heavily planted), but the more I read, it seems that Discus aren't from waters with a bunch of plants or light, so I have decided to go heavy on the driftwood, and light on the plants and light - which is cheaper for me anyway. Please don't take what I say as a knock or anything negative - as your tank IS stunning!

So I added a couple of amazon swords today. The water is clearing nicely. I'm starting to get anxious about adding fish (the LONELY rubber-lipped pleco just ain't cutting it!).


What color of background would you suggest to get the colors to "pop" a bit more? I was thinking of going to one of the vinyl sign companies in town and getting them to make a background that fades from a LIGHT tea-color into a dark color at the bottoms - like the waters in nature do anyhow...

So, when can I start adding more livestock - assuming I start doing daily 10% and a weekly 25-30% weekend water change once I get more than one fish in there?
:hypnotized:


http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/ind...dID=358709163&albumID=861454&imageID=11916478
 
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