Help starting new tank

[Caley]

Hello, I have had a community tank for years, and even tried discus once before, but it has been a long time and every thing has changed. With that said I want to act as though I know nothing at all. I need help with filtration, other tank mates, water, plants, and anything else you can think of. I am most interested in filtration. My tank dimensions are 5' x 2' x 18". Please let me know all you ideas. thanks

[jesx57]

Well, that's quite a big question you're asking there. I don't know much about filtration (I've just got a box standard canister filter), but I can help you with some other areas.

Tank Mates

I your size tank, you could have quite a nice school of tetras (cardinal, black neons, any peaceful sort). In my tank I have some black neon tetras and bronze corydoras. Anything that isn't very boisterious, fast swimming or the first to feed, otherwise your discus will have to compete for food. Corydoras are a good idea, plecos aren't that ideal. The main reason for this is because once the plecos get bigger, they may develop a taste for the slime coating on the sides of the discus and latch onto your beloved discus. So, best not to go there in the first place. Most catfish should be fine, some people don't like keeping them with thier discus, but I haven't heard of any problems yet. Rams are another option, and other peaceful dwarf cichlids. You don't really want too many mid-water dwelling fish, because discus get BIG and need lots of room to move. You're new to discus keeping like me, and a lot of people reccommend understocking at first, because you'll need to do plenty more waterchanges if you have too many fish.

Discus in general need to be kept in a school, unless they are a mated pair (which could be very expensive). Juvenile discus are more aggessive than the much older ones, so I'd advise getting more than 4 to start off with. They'll organise a pecking order within themselves, and if you get less than 4, I'll guarantee that one of them will get the raw end of the deal. If I can use a calculator, your tank is roughly 102 gallons, which means 10 gallons per discus, you could have 10 in there. But to be on the safe side, and with room for your other fish, about 7-8 would be more sensible.



Water

Discus love nice soft water. I keep my pH around 6.2, which is also good for other fish as well. Some people who have discus only keep theirs at 5.8 and lower, but if you want plants, I don't think they'll tolerate it so low. There should be no ammonia and nitrite, and try to keep your nitrates under 10.

Water Changes

I do 35% every second day, but if you don't have a lot of time, 40% two times a week is fine. Because discus come from some of the most cleanest waters in the world (I'm not talking about colour either), your fish will really benefit from as many waterchanges as possible (it's not common for some people to change 50% a day). I'm sure someone else could add onto this part.

Substrate

Well, it's either gravel/sand or barebottom. If it's a display tank, I'd go gravel or sand (I prefer sand), but for ease of breeding and growing juvies, the barebottom is the best option. It's up to you, but be warned that gravel more than sand will hold in the waste and left over food. That's why most people choose the barebottom, you can just siphon off the waste without uprooting the whole tank. It's your choice.


Plants

I'll just run over this briefly. If you have a barebottom, you could have driftwood with anubias or java fern attached. For gravel/sand, anything's possible. Personally, I don't like plastic plants because they look really tacky and cheap, but if you don't have a green thumb, this might be the option. I find baby tears and amublia really easy to grow and they look beautiful when well pruned. Again, it's up to you.

Lighting

Discus don't like bright light, mainly because where they come from there isn't that much light because it's covered by tree roots and such which block a bit of it out. If you've already got a really bright light, put some floating plants in to block some of that out, and it'll also give a nice dappled effect onto the sand/gravel. For my 3 footer, a single fluro tube does fine. Plants grow well, doesn't blind my poor fish, so everyone's happy.


Sorry I couldn't help you with filtration, since that's what you wanted to know the most about. Hopefully some of my ramblings makes sense to you. Good luck with your tank :)
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[ILLUSN]

Good advise given above, if you want planted, stick with plants that like it hot, anubias, val and swords for low light, tiger lotus and some rotalla spp for higher light.

as for filtration, you tank is 400L so 2x eheim 2217's would be perfect.

just a word of warning with tankmates i'd avoid loaches and scaleless fish because when the discus get sick treating them and not killing the tankmates becomes an issue.

[Caley]

Thanks for the comments. I am going to start this weekend getting my tank ready, but I am not going to get fish until after the first of the year. Again thanks for the help.