ROOKIE needs advice.

[Woody1]

Fish keeper for years but now finally have the time to try Discus. Going to buy a new tank and it will be 90 gallons or less. Is this big enough? How low can I go if I don't have space for a 90? Any advantages to buying a predilled and going with a wet dry filter like salt? How many Discus? In other words, what is the recommended Discus to gallon ratio?

[Hollowman]

Standard ratio for an adult discus is 1 adult to 10 gallons of water.

[rwel4809]

Hey Woody,

welcome to the forum.

you will find lots of info of the best set up for discus have already been answered in existing threads on the forum. Take some time to browse through the discussions and you should find most of the info you're after.

In terms of tank size you should be looking in terms of the maximum you can go to rather than the minimum. Discus need really clean water and require very regular and large water changes, of at least 50 % per week... most of us change more.

So it is worthwhile preparing for water changes at the outset.... another topic that is often discussed on here...

I'm sure one of the more technically minded guys on here can answer your filter question, but most of us use Ehiem cansiter filters on our discus tanks... for 90 litres you would need 1 -2 Eheim classic 2217's.. Don't forget that discus like it hot too... at around 29-30 o C so you will need to provide for that...

Good luck.

R

[Hollowman]

rwel makes some good points.

I think I would only add that before you even think of getting fish, read read read and then read some more. Do not make the mistake of buying fish and then killing them because you were not prepared for the maintenance routine or care of them.
That said, once you know the basics of water care, they are beautiful fish to keep and enjoy.

H

[Woody1]

Thanks for the advice. I have a R/O water system in the house since the local water is extremely hard, but I am concerned about the R/O system stripping all the minerals out of the water. Is that fear justified? What do you reccommend?

[rwel4809]

you can't use pure RO, you either have to mix it with some unfiltered water, or add minerals... I have an RO unit with a bypass and a tds meter that allows me to adjust the mix to the right parameters...

You might want to look into what mineral additives are available if you are worried about chlorine/chloramine in the water system....

R

[Woody1]

Sorry, "tds" meter?

[ILLUSN]

tds = total disolved solids

[Hollowman]

Yep, Rewl is right, you can re-mix your RO with tap water to add minerals back in to the water. I have a 'tee piece' on my RO system AFTER the sediment and carbon filters, but BEFORE the membrane. This allows you to add 'filtered' 'safe' water which still has minerals in it to your pure RO water until you reach your happy level of TDS or microsiemens. My fish are happy in about 200 uS or roughtly 100 TDS. It works out that I add 1/4 the volume of filtered water to my pure RO.

Doing this allows you to have mineralised water without having the cost of buying re-min salts.

hth

H :)

[Woody1]

Okay is this RO system with the tee piece something that you guys designed or were you able to buy it commercially? The current system I have is part of the home drinking water system. It sounds like I should either purchase or design a system that is dedicated just for my tanks. Also what/where do you get a testing kit?

About the time I hit the submit button "tds" came to me but it never hurts to be sure. Thanks guys.

[rwel4809]

If you are in AUS I can recommend the guy in TAS that I brought my system from .... cost me AU$ 300 or there abouts...

R