Thank you for the reply. I'm sorry i didn't mean to hijack this thread. I see u have 6 discus in 55 gallons. Isn't it overcrowded? I've been into this hobby for almost 10 years and never kept a disucs before. People scared me with requirements of discus. Your tank give me a basic idea of discus tank setup. Are u going with 6 discus in that 55 for long run or are you going to change tanks once they get into adults?
6 in a 55 is doable, but its a little more work than keeping 5. They are still juveniles, around 4" each, and my initial plan was to keep them in there for the long haul. (they're relatively docile fish, unless startled) I've recently changed my mind, and will likely be converting my 55 to a low maintenance reef tank in the next few months. (dependent on finances) If I had the room (and permission, as I still live with my folks) I'd have the 6 of them in a 75g tank, possibly with another 1-2 to really liven up their interactions.
Discus truly are wonderful creatures, and believe me, I love my fish, but they are a lot of work as well. My old water change schedule was 3x 50-75% weekly water changes... lately its been suffering at 1-2 50% weekly changes. (I've been ill for the last couple of weeks, but work/school/etc. had me pretty busy as well) With the prospect of a single 25% water change a month and topping up every couple days on RO water, a low maintenance reef sounds like a more suitable option for me at present, though it certainly won't be cheap to get started.
Like I mentioned, discus do need a very high protein diet, which must be varied. I feed mine a combination of mysis shrimp, krill, plankton, blood worms, beef heart, brine shrimp, 2 kinds of flake food, 2 kinds of sinking pellets, and occasionally small pieces of store-bought shrimp. Their diet is part of why they require such tremendous water changes. A sand bed tends to be easier for me than a gravel bed would be, since most excess food and waste sits atop the sand, and is easily siphoned off. With gravel, its easy for food and or waste particles to sink down into the substrate and begin to rot, producing excessive ammonia.
A number of people will suggest a bare-bottom tank, and for what its worth, that really is ideal. It is easiest to keep clean and keeps a maximum volume of water in the tank, but it doesn't have a very nice aesthetic appearance, and is not required. Live plants in a discus tank won't necessarily be the easiest to handle either, given the volume of water changes, but it certainly is doable. I typically select low-maintenance plants, and keep them under really good light.
To answer another question which was brought up, a single 350gph filter will not suffice for a 50-55g discus tank. (unless of course this was a 20g sump with a 350gph return pump... but I know that's not the case) I'd recommend having two filters, partially for added filtration media, partially for redundancy in case one fails. (gives you a better chance of catching it before it becomes disasterous) It would be recommended to keep two heaters in the tank as well, each set to the same temp, also as a means of redundancy just in case, but I myself keep a single heater.
I'll see if I can't find a few of the threads I started along my journey, and post them on here for your reference.
