75 gallon lighting and planting questions

[MurderedOut]

wow, awesome

so happy i have it all planned out now. and i actually understand it all! woo! takes so much reading and time. im very good mechanically so it will be no problem.

i will post pics whenever i get it going, which wont be too soon!, will definitely take so time

 

[Mike fail]

hey for lights look for odyssea lights on ebay you can get 216 watt quad 48" t-5 ho with leds for 115$ shipped

 

[fizhgurl]

Discus prefer slow moving water and in a 75 with an FX5, that might be too much flow. IMO, better to go with 2 filters that are the equivalent or more of the FX5's capacity. I have a 75 with five adult discus in it now. I have a Rena XP3 and a Fluval 404 for filtration. At the very minimum, it needs two weekly WCs of at least 20% each time. All the plants I have in it are potted up in terra cotta pots using Flora Base topped with gravel. These are low-light plants like crypts and anubias. I just have one of the 48" flourescent strips that came with the AGA tank for lighting. The discus prefer dimmer lighting anyway. If you are set on keeping discus, I would suggest visiting a discus forum like Simply Discus, etc. to get lots of help and suggestions. HTH.

 

[t0p_sh0tta]

Take everything that's said here with a grain of salt.

For starters, an inline CO2 reactor reduces flow by a good amount. From there if it's still too much for the discus, you can turn it down, or extend the spraybar, or enlarge the holes on the spraybar, or split the flow... there are many options for reducing flow.

Discus are fine in both high and low light, and large daily, hourly, bi/tri-weekly etc. water changes are unnecessary.

Here is a 140 gallon, 556 watt discus tank that gets one 50% water change per week to reset the ferts (EI Dosing).

 

[fizhgurl]

Take everything that's said here with a grain of salt.

For starters, an inline CO2 reactor reduces flow by a good amount. From there if it's still too much for the discus, you can turn it down, or extend the spraybar, or enlarge the holes on the spraybar, or split the flow... there are many options for reducing flow.

Discus are fine in both high and low light, and large daily, hourly, bi/tri-weekly etc. water changes are unnecessary.

Here is a 140 gallon, 556 watt discus tank that gets one 50% water change per week to reset the ferts (EI Dosing).

top_shot, I was only relating my experience with my own tank and how I take care of it. There are a lot of disagreements over discus husbandry even among discus aficionados, but the one thing that they agree on is that discus (and most fish for that matter) appreciate clean water. How often you need to do WCs to keep your water clean depends on your system, your feeding regimen, and your bioload. I suppose if you are a tinkerer then you could just get a too-big system and then enlarge the holes on the spraybar, split the flow, etc., etc., do all that work. Lighting, I suppose is really the choice of the fishkeeper, and people have different experiences with their discus. Some have problems with their discus hiding in bright light while others don't. Some people try to replicate the discus' natural environment and have a low light tank. People's success stories are different and I just wanted to share mine.

 

[MurderedOut]

Take everything that's said here with a grain of salt.

For starters, an inline CO2 reactor reduces flow by a good amount. From there if it's still too much for the discus, you can turn it down, or extend the spraybar, or enlarge the holes on the spraybar, or split the flow... there are many options for reducing flow.

Discus are fine in both high and low light, and large daily, hourly, bi/tri-weekly etc. water changes are unnecessary.

Here is a 140 gallon, 556 watt discus tank that gets one 50% water change per week to reset the ferts (EI Dosing).

i would definately like to keep discus. And thats probably the route i will be going. Hopefully, i wont have problems with the discus's hiding. maybe i can get enough plants for them to feel secure, maybe a floating plant for them to stay under?

i normally do 50% a week at least on my tanks anyways. So i think it will work out.

That guy is using 2 GLA diffuses(awesome link btw), would that be better than the Diy reactor?