I have a 56 gallon column that measures 30"L x 18D x 24"H. I have been growing out some goes for another tank in it but am close to moving them now. My friend breeds discus and my wife has been begging me to try raising some. Is this a suitable tank for them and how many would you recommend? Ultimately I would like to end up with a pair and move the rest of them on to my buddy's operation. I plan on painting sides, back and bottom black. I will be going bare bottom with two planted clay flowerpots. I will probably filter with a canister but I am undecided on that. I plan on buffering with peat as I have been able to maintain 6.2ph very consistently doing this with tap water. Wish I could afford an RO unit like my friend but I can't. Any input is appreciated.
Tank size?
- Thread starter Fishbrains
- Start date
why waste your money on peat. domestic discus are raised in ph up to 8.6 and do fine. unless your water is bad, you don't need RO either. nothing wrong with that tank. some prefer smaller tanks because of the daily 80% wc's. do not paint black if your going to raise any discus with pigeonblood genes. you will get peppered fish.
Your tank should be fine for discus. Just be sure to get at least four discus. However if you get six of them, you should have no problem getting a pair. I warn you though discus can become addictive, have fun. Keep us up to date on how things are going.
thanks, I know they can be addictive. I used to keep some in a 90 but didn't know if this tank would work. my wife has always been intrigued by them and really wanted me to try breeding them. of course my buddy has been pressuring me too. On the peat, I wouldn't be wasting my money. I realize it is not necessary but if I can afford to do it and it makes the fish happier then why not? my water runs around 7.5 ph but the GH and KH are pretty high. I will not paint black as I am unsure of pigeonblood genes. Would blue be the suggested alternative? thanks again guys for your help.
Don't waste money on the peat its useless for raising discus and wont make them feel any happier than consistent water quality and parameters will. Only use is to help trigger spawning. I paint my bottoms a light sandy color and the backs a light blue. Raising in that size tank is fine. Depending on the size you start with you can partition out the tank to make it smaller for smaller babies then as they grow give them more and more of the tank space.
My tap comes out at 6pH and 160 on the hardness scale... my discus and rams love my water. In your tank I would keep at least 6 to spread out aggression. Make sure the flowerpots are standing likes cones and a pair should claim it then get rid of the rest. For filtration don't do canister, instead go with gravel and do under-gravel filtration. usually discus are bred in 20 gallon high with sponge filtration, but a tank as big as yours I would use under-gravel simply because it will be more efficient.
Do not do undergravel. The worst filters ever evented. For raising discus bb is the best substrate then add sand or a fine gravel when they are grown. When raising discus you do not need upside down flowerpots which will only collect waste and uneatin food under them. When they are grown you can add a cone or pots to help with pairing if you want but not necessary.
Actually UGF if kept properly is among the best filtration. There's so many new filtration choices that ugf have been forgotten. I stopped using them as I no longer use gravel as substrate but I didn't throw them away.
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Ill reword it then to get my point across. The #1 filter that I have seen most people kill entire tanks with.
Ill agree that most people shouldn't use ugf because they require a lot of cleaning. When I first started keeping fish my 55 was filtered by just a ugf and my fish grew fast and tank was always clear. For discus a ugf is not the best choice is filtration just because of how fragile the fish are
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