starting a discus tank

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Jan 26, 2008
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pullman
i am planning on starting a discus tank and i have read as much as i can to the point where i keep reading the same stuff over and over so i guess i have learned as much as i can from general discus articals. i wanted to run my plan by the people here before i got to far along to see if there is any changes i need to do. so please let me know what im doing wrong or what i should do better i think i have most of it figured out but i want some more opinions.

im going to start with a tank 75 to 120 gallons depending on the money supply. im going to run it BB with about 10 or so discus in the tank. i know this is a little big for a grow out tank but i dont have the money to get a grow out tank and a display tank. so i was thinking about using a divider to cut the tank in half and maybe even only fillng it half full to make water changes easier. im going to do atleast 50 to 75 percent water changes a day with deion water. feeding twice a day with beefheart mix and 2 to 3 times a day with pellets.

i will run two sponge filters in the tank when it is BB along with a HOB filter with only biomedia in it (just to be safe)

once the fish reach almost full grown i will add my canister filter im thinking a eheim pro 2 2028 and lessen the amount of water changes because doing so many will not allow the media to get set up....is that correct?

once the fish are full grown i want to make it a planted display tank i will use Pool filter sand mixed with some florite sand as i was told this helps stop the pepering but still give the plants enough nutrients. but the sand i curently have is darker then most you see. how dark is to dark of substrate? ill add a picture of my tank that has the sand in it hopefully that can give you and idea of its color.

also for a background i was going to paint one on the back im thinking white or a light blue to help stop the peppering. or is a background not going to affect the fish to much?

sorry for the long post i hope you can read it all and have it make since. i just dont want to mess it up to bad there kind of pricey fish lol.

thanks for all the help.

the tank hope it shows the substrate enough it was taken right after it was put in thats why it is a little cloudy.

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water changes are important, but don't need that much daily.
50 to 75% daily is too much, make it 30% in a couple of days.
changing much water every day isn't good for any fish.
The tank is nice, and I don't think you will need a divider, let it have more space for the discus. You plan to get 10 discus now, so they will need space to swim.
If I'm wrong, correct me too, this is just my opinion.
And good luck, post some pics when you get them
 
well i think i figured out the tank im going to get i went to the LFS today and i can get a pretty good deal on a complete set up 75 gallon tank with filter and all. so i think thats the size tank im going with.

the filter will be an eheim pro 2 2026 filter. (this will be set up after the fish are almost fill grown and i switch to a planted tank)

no the question is how many discus should i get? im thinking 10 is a good number for the tank. (it will be ran BB tell they are full grown to stop stunting) then go planted. any objections to this number of fish?
 
You don't need to do massive water changes with discus. In many Asian farms they do massive water changes because they have no filtration in their aquariums and they over stock their tanks with fish. If you don't over stock the aquarium with fish, have proper filtration and don't over feed your fish, then your discus can thrive by just doing 15 to 20% water changes twice a week.
 
well im going to be buying my discus as juvi fish and will power feed them and doing alot of water changes is needed to remove all the left over food and prevent the discus from stunting. i just dont want to risk having stunted funny shaped discus. i could lower it to like 15 to 20% water change a day. once they are full grown i will limit it to once a week water changes.
 
BaTsBR;2062728;2062728 said:
water changes are important, but don't need that much daily.
50 to 75% daily is too much, make it 30% in a couple of days.
changing much water every day isn't good for any fish.
The tank is nice, and I don't think you will need a divider, let it have more space for the discus. You plan to get 10 discus now, so they will need space to swim.
If I'm wrong, correct me too, this is just my opinion.
And good luck, post some pics when you get them
Click to expand...
If you don't mind stunted discus, 30% is fine, but to get full sized specimens, 50-100% daily is not uncommon.
 
golfhacker;2065041;2065041 said:
You don't need to do massive water changes with discus. In many Asian farms they do massive water changes because they have no filtration in their aquariums and they over stock their tanks with fish. If you don't over stock the aquarium with fish, have proper filtration and don't over feed your fish, then your discus can thrive by just doing 15 to 20% water changes twice a week.
Click to expand...
Discus need tons of food to keep from stunting. On the light side I feed my discus 4 times a day. Because of this powerfeeding, and the discus's high need for clean water, 50% daily is very common when growing out discus. Even the smallest mistakes can lead to a stunted discus. There is a big difference between thriving, and surviving.
 
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