My new Discus tank journey :)

Hi All,

So, after a lot of deliberation, I have decided to convert my 468lt to a Discus tank, very excited!!! just have to finish selling my other fishes, which I am really going to miss, but it was a choice I had to make for the benefit of the Discus which are what I am focussing on.

I do have a few questions in order to do this the best possible way, so I would like to post my questions here and hopefully someone can assist?

First off, I want to confirm if it is fine to keep my Clown Loaches with the Discus, I have read that it is perfectly fine, but want to know the experts opinions please. Bear in mind that this will be a show tank, not breeding or grow out... it will be bare bottom, and I may keep one piece of the spider drift wood in it with moss attached, in fact I will in the beginning, but chances are I will remove it later... lol.

Then what I would like to know is, let's say all the fish are sold and the substrate is removed and while doing all this, I keep air stones in the sump, to keep the bacteria oxygenated, the tank will then be empty. Do I need to clean it out in any particular way, or can I just fill it back up with fresh water and then add about 100lt of the tanks water where the fish will be moved from (when doing a water change in that tank). Let's say that is ok and I have done that, then is it advisable to leave the tank to settle a couple of days? it won't need to cycle as the only thing that will be new is 368lt of water, the sump will be the same and I will not remove any filter media from it and would have kept it oxygenated. How long should I leave the tank to settle before moving the fish from the 220lt to the 468lt, if it is advisable to do this?

Then when it comes time to move the fish over, I would have to put them in a bucket with their tank water and slowly drip water from the new tank into that bucket - how long must I do this for? Then once that is done, I can add them to the 468lt tank right?

Since I have had algae issues in the tank, what would I need to do in that regard, is it necessary to use anything to stop it from reappearing, and would it reappear if the tank is bare bottom?

Sorry for all the questions, I know its a lot for one post, but even if you are able to only answer one, that will be great!

Thanks in advance,
Candice

 

hi Candice!

Your discus will love the bigger home!
I dont know if you would want any of the water or filtermedia in your 468l tank for your discus,as you dont know what nasties the fish that you had in there left behind!
Ill rather clean it all out and slowly use some of your 220l tank water on wc to half fill your big tank,and maybe use some of the filter media in your 220l tank for the big one and replace new media in the 228l tank!

As many purist will tell you to keep discus by themself,just remember that clown loaches are very prone to whitespot,so if you are willing to take the chance,atleast deworm them before adding them with your discus!

Hope to see some pictures soon!

 

I'm with jabula on the clown issue, not sure if they can stand the higher temps also.
it might trigger whitespot outbrake in itself.
I would not clean excessivly. (if you dont have any problems currently)
do a 50% water change in the 220lt tank but save the water you drain.
Add this drained water to the 468Lt tank with some treated fresh water of the same amount.
transfer the fish over and fill the tank to the required level.

 

Hi @mattie and @jabula 7749,

Many thanks for the input!

I don't have any issues in the main tank at this stage except for the algae... all the fish are healthy.

Clowns preferred temp is btw 25-30 degrees, they also like soft water and subdued lighting - their needs are very similar to Discus actually. I am not concerned re whitespot as it is not something I have had an issue with regarding the clowns, and it is easily treatable with raising temp and salt, should it occur, I would then wait until they were better before adding the Discus to the tank.

I would have to acclimatise the Clowns slowly, and would not just put them in the warmer water, and shock them... in fact I would probably raise the temp slowly in the main tank, with the Clowns in the tank, and once they are settled, then only transfer the Discus. How does one deworm the Clowns? I have never done it before.

I would like more opinions on the filter media, as I have used matrix in that tank and I know it is stable, so I would not want to remove it if I didn't have to... I have to say I am rather heartsore today, really loved that tank and am going to miss the fishes, but things change and life must go on... I will be happy once the Discus are in and settled I am sure.

Thanks again, I appreciate the advice

Kind regards,
Candice

 

Yes it has been done and yes some do say it works but the main reason I feel its a bad idea is because discus are diurnal and clown loaches are nocturnal. Discus will get very stressed out by disturbances in the tank while they are trying to rest. Another factor is that clowns are greedy feeders, more so than discus. Parasites and diseases are another factor but the main issue lies with their incompatible behavior imo.

Why not add a fine layer of silica sand as substrate? Since you wont be growing them you wont be feeding as much so the tank wont be so hard to keep clean.

Personally I would start the filter off new after giving everything a good clean with a strong bleach solution. Remember to use lots of dechlorinator after you refilled (just in case). I used Microbe-Lift to start up my filter when I commisioned my discus tank and I have a lot of faith in the product. I prefer the peace of mind of not having to worry about carrying any previous nasties to my new setup. Try and use as much of the discus water as you can when moving them over, that will help them settle quickly.

Best of luck with the new tank, looking forward to seeing it develop.
Kind regards
Eugene

 

I dont think you'll need more than a good sponge filter as you will be doing frequent water changes to remove the debris that accumalates on the bare bottom floor.
A powerhead mounted on a sponge filter with a spraybar attached to it works great.
(See my page photos)

 

Isn't this a contradiction? If there are any nasties, wouldn't they be carried over with the water?

 

i fully agree with Eugene of cleaning the tank and start al over!
Dont take any chances,thats all!

 

@Jenn, I was referring to nasties in the tank and not what is currently with the discus. The point was not to introduce anything new to the discus from the previous setup. I should have been clearer, thanks for pointing that out

 

Hi Jenn

we dont want the nasties from the fish that she had in the 468l tank!
The water that she must carry over is from her current 228l tank where the discus is housed in at the moment!
We dont mind whatever they have and bre used to,but dont want old nasties from what other fish could and did leave behind in the larger tank!
I wont take my chance on just a sponge filter!

 

@jedigenie & @jabula 7749 - h: Now I understand. Thanks

 

Thanks for the advice everyone!

Since I have a sump for the larger tank I will be using that, I have an internal power head if need be, but is that necessary since I have the sump?? the inlet creates movement in the tank, but not as much as a spray bar does that one has to turn against the glass in any case to stop the strong current it produces... and I will syphon out all the waste at the end of the day as I do now already...

I am definately going bare bottom, they are not fully grown, but are not babies, which is what I meant when saying it is not a grow out tank, also, the waste still eventually accumulates in the substrate no matter how much you try and clean it, and I have found it to be much better if it is bare bottom from my experience of using silica sand and then landed up having to remove it anyway in my 220lt.

I don't know what to do about the clown loaches now... I really don't want to have to sell them, but the points made are valid, in terms of their behaviour as well as if I start over with the tank, then they would have no where to go.. I certainly don't want to take any chances so if starting over is best then that is what I will do. I have never used bleach to clean everything so better start reading about how to do this properly.

I am rather heartsore, a few fish are being collected this afternoon and more tomorrow.. I just have to keep looking at the bigger picture though to get through it.

Kind regards,
Candice

 

Hi Everyone,

Almost all the fish are gone now... and while looking at the almost empty tank, I thought how nice it would be, since it is the show tank, if I were to keep the tank the same but have the Discus in the tank, so effectively just changing the fish... I know what I said above about having bare bottom tank, but there are tons of pics of people that keep Discus in planted tanks... how many on this forum keep Discus in a planted tank? Just want to consider this before ripping everything out of the tank...

Thanks,
Candice

 

Enjoy. Your discus are going to love that big tank.

 

my lfs has a 650L planted discus tank

 

Hello

What a journey this change has been thus far, I decided on going for the white silica sand and spider wood, so proceeded to remove all the substrate and plants from the tank, that was a mission on its own, but didn't take as long as I thought it would and I eventually added the silica sand on Sunday. On Monday afternoon, I proceeded to transfer the fish across, I did 2 massive water changes, first in order to get the old substrate out, I then refilled the tank and then after adding the silica sand, did another 50% water change when I decided on removing the silica sand on Tuesday as I was not enjoyint it at all.. I have become accustomed to the bare bottom tank and how clean it is, so this was my reason for removing the silica sand.

Ok so back to the Discus' new home

I used the drip method to move the fish over and used very little of their water as I was having ammonia issues out of the blue in their tank (I am now fishless cycling their old tank over again with stability and a pinch of food daily for 8 days, then I will retest the water) I will only move the babies over once I am 100% sure the water is perfect in that tank... I ensured that the water parameters were the same in terms of pH though as I have learnt my lesson when it comes to pH. The drip method worked extremely well, they did not hide out, they were all swimming upright as usual and even started shaking at each other (2 pairs have formed from the 7 Discus) lol...They appear to be very happy and I have had no issues thus far.

Of the 3 pieces of spider wood I purchased, 1 has already sunk, so that has become the centre piece for now and the other 2 are floating on either side, I actually like the look of having floating wood... but I do have a plan for when they do get totally waterlogged which I think will look nice, we will see...

Here is an updated pic of the tank as it is now, I still have a lot I want to do, such as remove the large 300w heater and rather get 2 smaller heaters and put them in the sump, I then want to also remove the internal powerhead as I don't see that it is necessary with the sump and the inlet which provides water flow and as was mentioned above, I am syphoning out the waste every evening, so the water will not become contaminated. I also want to find a way of hiding the overflow box somehow, I want the tank to look 'clean' and neat, without odds and ends here and there so that the only focus is the beautiful fish

Please let me know what you think of the pics, and any suggestions are welcome

Thanks
Candice

 

Hi Candise

Is that smaller blue diamond still the one you got from me?

Regards

Jason

 

@ Aqua looking hot! the bare bottom does look good. i find that it makes me work harder, always wanna suck waste out! dont worrie about the filter box no way to hide it in a bare tank anyway. hey thumbs up
cheers doug

 

Hi Jason,

Yes it is indeed

Kind regards,
Candice


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

Wow it has taken to your tank well it is looking great!!!