850l Discus set up

Now that I have my 9ft tank set up and my big fish in there my 6ft is free. It is 72x30x24 with a 48x20x20" sump.

The sump has 3 chambers one with alfagrog and sponge the middle one a fluidised K1 bed and the last one just has 2 titanium heaters and my return pump

The tank has my existing 7 clown loach in and 5 blue botia and a royal sturisoma I have had for years. I was concerned my loach may be too big and active for the discus but enquiries I have made seem to suggest that it would be fine.

I have added 10 rummy nose and will see if they are ok with the loach before adding about 20 more and about 30 cardinals. I have added 3 cory sterbai but wish to add about 8-10

I went against my plans and bought 5 discus from my local store. My original intentions were to buy 10 from a breeder that resemble wilds but I have bought 3 cobalt blue looking fish and 2 yellow and white fish that I am not a huge fan of but will keep for now.


I am going to order 10 red alanquer online or maybe 5 red alanquer and a a couple of red turquoise and penang eruption

also thinking of a couple of nice fancy L number plecs at some point

Looking forward to pictures. Enter it in our May Tank of the Month contest.

Cool ! Gotta see pics of those Discus .

Not the greatest pics , discus only been in a couple of days and 2 are quite shy, plus the other tank reflects in to this one

Wow ! They are cool ! You’re lucky .

they are beautiful. I would love to have tanks that big- it's weird. When I had all the room I needed all I ever kept was a 29 gallon community tank. Finally I start getting serious about the hobby and I'm living in a townhouse LOL. Now I live vicariously through my forum-mates tanks.

MuddyWaters said:

they are beautiful. I would love to have tanks that big- it's weird. When I had all the room I needed all I ever kept was a 29 gallon community tank. Finally I start getting serious about the hobby and I'm living in a townhouse LOL. Now I live vicariously through my forum-mates tanks.

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cheers buddy. For a long time I have kept bigger fish only but I am getting excited about some smaller colourful fish
10 rummys look funny swimming in this from the side as it looks so empty

Just added 14 cardinals the store threw an extra 2 in and I bought 6 more sterbai to add to the 3 I had from the other store.

Just added a further 4 rummys as thats all the shop had left today

so I have 14 rummys and 14 cardinals 9 sterbai corys and 5 discus and the tank looks empty!

Got two big pieces of bog wood too so theyre floating along with one of my old pieces that still floating 6 weeks after adding again.

You can always weight the wood down. Either glue/silicone directly to rocks or tile/slate, or bore out hidden sections, fill with sand and plug with plumbers epoxy.

I have a 250 gallon tank ( pretty close to the size of yours ) sitting here, that I'm hoping to get set up for Discus as well this year... going through the same thought processes... will be following your thread, to see how things develop... funny, as I was going to start with Blue & yellow Discus & build from there...
I love clown loaches, & trying to get a couple into one of my tanks... but lately I've been trying hard to stick with regional fish in each tank, which would exclude them from this tank with Discus... wrestling with the pleco thing... if I could get a big group of zebra otto's I'd go that route... but getting them started is like a 1 in 4 process... I have one I've had for well over a year, in my current South American tank... but they are both expensive & hard to get, I bought 3 more recently, & I think those lasted the typical 30 days... so after trying 2 groups, I still have one of my original ones

Magnum Man said:

I have a 250 gallon tank ( pretty close to the size of yours ) sitting here, that I'm hoping to get set up for Discus as well this year... going through the same thought processes... will be following your thread, to see how things develop... funny, as I was going to start with Blue & yellow Discus & build from there...
I love clown loaches, & trying to get a couple into one of my tanks... but lately I've been trying hard to stick with regional fish in each tank, which would exclude them from this tank with Discus... wrestling with the pleco thing... if I could get a big group of zebra otto's I'd go that route... but getting them started is like a 1 in 4 process... I have one I've had for well over a year, in my current South American tank... but they are both expensive & hard to get, I bought 3 more recently, & I think those lasted the typical 30 days... so after trying 2 groups, I still have one of my original ones

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I'll look forward to seeing it. Its a good size tank for them, last time I did it the fish were healthy and breeding and looked good but that was a much smaller tank so I cannot wait to see adult discus in this tank

I'm with you on the loaches but I have had them for about 3 years and love them and dont want to risk them moving forward with the bigger fish getting much bigger. I'll see how they go moving forward but I am more likely to choose the loaches over the discus if I had to

I have always wanted to do a big Discus tank, after being exposed to one many years ago... lately I started buying rarer & harder to get African Tetras... & there are so many actually, that my tank quickly got pretty crowded... I had thought about doing African rather than the Discus... but it's always been my dream, then I happened onto this 250 gallon, I don't know how I could really do anything else...

I don't have a good local store, so I've been day dreaming on the Discus Madness website...


with wanting to start with the blue diamond high fins, & the Sunshine Golds, on the link, & build from there...

I was originally thinking about about Rummy Noses as well... I've got about a dozen ( of the platinum variety ) in my current 55 Gallon South American tank ( I've admittedly bought more ) but they don't seem to be hardy at all... my water is good, & no bullying, but they either don't handle shipping well or??? the dozen seem to be stable but even from the best sellers my survival rate to 2 weeks has been pretty dismal... if I can keep them a couple weeks they seem to thrive...

my new tank is going to be mounted "high", at eye level, which will be slightly better for visual effect, but make it harder to net dead Rummy Noses out of, so I may look for something hardier... I really like the shoal of Pristella's I have in my 55, & have recently added 3 varieties of Emperor Tetras... will be ( not intentionally ) experimenting with which Tetra's will be hardy, colorful, & interesting enough to put with the Discus

Tetras are cool particularly if they shoal. shame about rummys because they are one of the best for shoaling in my experience which visually looks great.
I've lost one in my tank over night so I'm wondering if the clowns have taken one theres no body or maybe in the weir I shall have to check

Magnum Man said:

I don't have a good local store, so I've been day dreaming on the Discus Madness website...

Discus Strains Archives - Discus Madness

Stock List Updated: Everyday ——————————————– Interested in some out of stock Discus??? Just click on “Notify me” to be informed when fish of interest will be back in stock. ——————————————–

www.discusmadness.com

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Holy moly! I had no idea they were such a high-dollar item. That's reef-tank level addiction there (I once saw a donut coral go for $1200). No judgement -- if you have all your ducks in a row then by all means enjoy.