Decided Im going to do Discus

[The Bass Hole]

I have a 120 and i just got rid of all my fish and added sand. Right now im waiting for the water to clear (sands only been in for 5 days), when should it clear?
Ive been reading up on Discus for the past month or so and Ive come up with some mixed results for the cycling (some say four months, others say a couple of weeks). From your experiences what are your methods of cycling for Discus?

Also feel free to post pics, I just cant get enough of looking at them.

pH is 6.5 atm and im looking to put in around 8

How will a ray do with discus?

Thanks very much,
James

 

[jcardona1]

Cycling does not take 4 months. Use Seachem Stability according to the instructions and you can add fish from day one.

On your ph, leave it alone and don't mess with. But if you were gonna mess with it, why would you want such a high ph for fish that come from very soft water with low ph? Discus are found living in water as low as 4-5 ph.

 

[arowanas lover]

Cycling does not take 4 months. Use Seachem Stability according to the instructions and you can add fish from day one.

On your ph, leave it alone and don't mess with. But if you were gonna mess with it, why would you want such a high ph for fish that come from very soft water with low ph? Discus are found living in water as low as 4-5 ph.

discus are found in roughly 6-6.5 ph and he says hes puttin in 8 discus. also never trust any chemical

to answer your question if you cleaned the sand it shouldve cleared already. if you use established filter you can add fish right away.

if you have juvies youll be doin enoough water changes that you can pretty much get away with not have a cycle tank yet but to be safe you sure cycle your tank how you did it in the first place.

fishless cycling can take up to a month. but the positive side is you can add all the fish at once.

 

[The Bass Hole]

thank you very much and yeah im using established filters. And i stay away from chemicals when cycling but thank for the input.

i was shocked when i saw 4 months too so i posted up here. Ive never heard of any fish in pH of 4.

Im gonna start with a few (4, 4" or so).

And any Input on the ray?

 

[arowanas lover]

how big is the ray? you said the tank was 120g i dont belive that is big enough for a ray even the smallest one. so i would leave ray out maybe a shoal of cory cats?

also at 4-4.5 inch those are nice sturdy size. if you get them in great shape and health then you wont have to worry as much on them being stunt but you still must keep the water super clean

 

[busterbrown]

Id listen to jcardona1 any chance i got... Go check out some of his discus threads and they will tell you more than enough. If you goin with juvies just remember they require much cleaner water and a bare bottom tank is best. So if you keep the sand keep the tank simple with nothing else. Just get adults and your life will be much easier

 

[3dees]

going with 4"+ fish is a smart move, but I would go with 6 to start. 4 can work but you may get aggression problems. while discus can be kept with rays, I agree that your tank is too small.

 

[jcardona1]

Sorry I misread when you said you're putting in 8, I thought you wanted to raise the ph to 8. And some discus definitely come from water with ph lower than 6 and virtually zero hardness. If you're going with domestic discus, that's even less to worry about, as they can live in anything this side of liquid concrete.