Re: Gearing up for Discus
A lot of people on here will probably tell you to:
Step 1: Read all of the sticky threads in the beginners section of this forumn.
Step 2: It looks like you have something swimming around in that tank....get rid of it and start with a fresh cycle...STRONGLY consider going bare bottom with no plants. You might know plants but you dont know discus so its not a good place to start.
Step 3: Buy all you discus at once, if you cant afford it just dont do it, because cross contamination is a big deal.
I'm sure you will get plenty more good input but thats something to chew on for awhile. A lot of people fail hard with discus and you've got a few of the common denominators going on.
Re: Gearing up for Discus
A discus tank is a model of simplicity - bare bottom, lots of water changes, just discus. It's not because we dislike decor or are anti-plants. It's because discus are really, really hard to keep unless you do it this way. This is the only aquarium fish where bare tanks are what the majority of people keep. We do it because we have all poured a ton of money into raising discus in planted tanks before. So that's my advice.
To stock your tank, do not buy from That Fish Place or local fish stores. The quality of discus from the sellers on Simply are so much better. I don't get any benefits from promoting these guys, but I've bought a lot of discus from a lot of different places in the last 20 years. I also used to sell my discus fry to LFS and stopped doing it because the discus are treated so badly there. The sellers here are specialists and they will hold your hands through the process. As for 50% water changes twice a week in a planted tank, they'll keep your discus alive - but don't expect a lot of growth.
Willie
Re: Gearing up for Discus
Welcome to SimplyDiscus! The tank looks great....but how deep is the substrate?
Re: Gearing up for Discus
The substrate is 2.5' in the back, slopes to 2' in front with some peaks and valleys.
Re: Gearing up for Discus
Thanks for the input! I've learned a lot already and quite frankly been feeling a bit defeated since the path I was guided on seems at odds with a lot of what I've read (although the Planted Tank threads give me hope).
My revised plan is to get about 6 discus to start - 4.5-5" - was looking at ChicagoDiscus and Hans. There is a LFS I was going to buy from but I looked at the pics in the Beginners Thread and saw the same What Not Top Buy.
I have an empty 60 gallon I was going to home them in to finish growing out. This tank would be bare bottom with sponge filters and I could do massive water changes every day during this period (with aged water). Once full grown I can to move the planted with the neons and tetras.
After reading some of the sticky I've scaled back my stocking scheme in the planted tank to 6...maybe 8 discus. I was also thinking of adding a Pothos on top.