Small Tank Newbie question

[andysoho]

Hi guys i used to keep discus about 10 years ago. I remember that discus like large tank but i sucessfully kept them in a small tank as I remember.

I still have my 19x19x19 tank. Can someone advise me if this tank is adequate and how many i can have pls. Some may say buy a bigger tank but trust me this is not an option at the moment for a variety of reasons.

Is it still correct that discus need very soft water and a low ph (6.5ish) and is it the same for juvenilles ?

My tap water is extremely hard and alkerline. I intend if need be to use RO water (which i use for my marine tank) which is currently throwing out water with a:
ph of 6.4
GH/TH less than 6
KH of less than 3 degrees
zero nitrite and
less than 10mg/litre NO3

But i have been told that RO water is unstable is this correct?

I will be using an ehiem professional wet/dry filter and a UV but I also wish to know if there is other must have equipment ?

I did want to put plants in but not sure of substrate as lime will certainly throw up the hardness and ph and some small fish like neons in and golden rams. Can anyone advice ?

I also want to know how often i need to change the water someone has told me daily cos such a small volume ? This would prob put me off starting again :cry:

What is it exactly that discus are sensative to is it nitrate, phosphate etc? With todays filter techniques surely it is possible to remove the approraite contaminent to lessen the burden in terms of water changes. Even ph can be stablised using buffers etc. Or am I missing something vital/more obvious ? I understand they eat high protein food but a couple of good scavengers should clean up uneaten food so bearing that in mind how often.

These may be stupid newbie questions but i would like to get off on the right foot please folks

Thanks Andy :D

[DiscusMan]

Andy,

Mate if you are keeping Marine then this should be easy for you.

Everything you said is correct about water conditions. I do think that RO water needs something added but i have nevered used it and am unsure what it is if anything. But the paramters you gave sound right for the water coming out of it that the discus would love it.

Water changes are solely based upon how many fish you wish to keep in the tank. Your tank is 95 litres from my quick calculation. and they say that 1 fish needs 40 litres. So two large full grown discus is ok for this tank if you want more then more frequent water changes are advisable but smaller fishes you can get more fish of course and then figure out what to do when they get bigger. Filter/UV etc will effect this as well as they will alter how clean the water is as well.

Hope you can find some nice fish to put in there.

Wayne

[kalebjarrod]

unfortunatley reverse osmosis just dosen't conatin the trace elements you need in the water to keep discus

fortunatley you can buy these products in a bottle

you do need other equipment but i think i would be obvious that you need heaters :wink:

you could keep the tank bear bottom, this would save the hassle of pickin the wrong substrate

as for water changes, from time to time, when your fish are under stress or you want to induce spwaning you may want to do daily changes

you should be able to get away with water changes every 5 days to a week, just do a nice big water change and keep an eye on your fish, they may won't changes sooner