Brand New Tank And Keeper

[sparts]

Hi I am very new to keeping fish, just got an fluvil vicenza 260 tank 54 gallons, has eighty wats of lighting T5, also fluval 305 filter, 300 wat heater, uv light 24 wats,

I intend keeping Discus * 6 plus couple of other bottom dwellers other wise only other things in tank will be plants. My question is what I need to make this work from new.

Intend getting ecomplete or laterite then fluorite on top is that correct substrate. How deep should this be.

Plants well I think it would be low light plants and plants that take the type of heat discus like. any help in what plants would be good in a new setup would be appreciated as well.
I know I need to set tank up and leave to cycle are there any treatments I need to do in this time befor fish are introduced to help keep algae down besides water changes what set tests should i run whilst it is going through this stage.

What problems should I look out for at this point, I know I have hard water here in Hertfordshire. And will be taking a drop down to local store to ask if they can let me know the correct paramertas of it

If I buy a ph meter would this be better than a ph testing kit

In the end when money is more forth flowing I intend to have a container sitting in shed with tap water for a few days and at tank temp so it may help with ph and chlorine but any other help is greatly appreciated,
Hope in future to post some achievements on here and be able to help some one else out like you guys and gals

 

[dwarfgourami]

I am not a discus keeper, but a couple of points I think I can make:

discus will probably need to go in a tank that is not only cycled (check up pinned topic on fishless cycling) but also mature; i.e. has been running for a while with other fish

in Hertfordshire you will probably need an RO unit to get softer water

you will certainly need your own test kit, to test not only for ph, but also for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and water hardness

if you are using some tap water, with your RO water, this will need to be dechlorinated; I don't know what they put in their tap water in Hertfordshire, but it's quite likely to include chloramines, and just letting the water stand won't shift those

Other than these basic points, I think your best bet will be to ask in the New World cichlids section of the forum, as that's where you'll find the experts.

 

[timmystood]

Hiya Sparts welcome to the forum.

Firstly, great choice in tank. The Vicenza's are fantastic pieces of equipment and come with very powerful lighting and a nice external system.
The best bet is to head over to the new world cichlids forum - there's plenty of experts on there that will help you with discus and point you in the right direction.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

hello and welcome

the best bet if you want to keep discus is to fishless cycle the tank, the run it for 6 months or so with basic stock like platy's, danio's etc, then after 6 months when the tank has matured and your used to maintenance etc then swap all the fish at your lfs for discus

 

[Jozlyn]

Java fern, java moss, elodea are all great tough plants for low light. But you'll get the best advice on plants from the Planted section forums.

Liquid based test kits are better. As meters need to be rebalanced regularily to make sure you're getting correct readings.

Buy an "all in one" kit of liquid based test kits as you need to test your amonia, nitrite and nitrate levels so you'll know when your tank has finished cycling. Have a read of the pinned cycling topics, they'll tell you how to cycle your tank without fish. They will also contain the things you need to up or down your readings.

You also should get a thermometer to measure your water temperature, as the dial on the heaters are notorious for being wrong!

Water conditioner is a must, just leaving your buckets of water for a few days will get rid of the chlorine but if your water supply has chloramine in it, the only way to remove this fish killer is with water conditioner. Make sure you use the dosage on the bottle, no more and no less. There really is no need to have buckets sitting around if you're using water conditioner, also leaving the water to sit will have no impact on your ph either. Just boil some of the conditioned water in the kettle and pour it into your bucket/s to bring the water up to tank temperature before you add it.

 

[sparts]

Thanks for your imput here people i am taking notes, all helpfull Thankyou

 

[dwarfgourami]

I want to chime in with miss Wiggle about running the tank with other fish first. Not only will that mature the tank for the discus, but it will give you a chance to become a little more experienced before you take on rather more challenging (and much more expensive) fish like discus. After 6 months, you will feel confident with things like checking water stats, water changes, feeding routines and spotting if fish are unwell or unhappy. Discus have a reputation for not being very forgiving of beginners' mistakes.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

The other comment to make is about the hardness of your water and pH.

pH, gH and kH are an absolute bugger to adjust, you can very very easily do more harm than good by trying to change it and it swinging wildly all over the place. A stable pH is the most important thing.

In general I would advise people to tailor their fish selection to their water not the other way around