Discus Biotope

[cuprajake]

sorry the smaller ones came out of a different tank, they were younger. the larger ones are the 9 months approx.

i will get some frozen stuff in, at the mo i just have tetra prime, they are starting to have a nosey at the food now, i used that as its one of the foods the breeder fed, to keep things nore famillular.

thanks for the id's, and yes i will be w/c and vaccing daily

cheers jake

 

[samh12]

Love the tank and the Discus.
I want some Discus but i'm not allowed.(Too expensive lol)
Good luck with yours
Sam

 

[markandhisfish]

amazing absolutely stunning tank

 

[cuprajake]

well, had a good long think last night about a w/c system,,,,



and have been drilling holes in my kitchen,



the grey lines added are 15mm pipe, i used this in the fish house, one will connect to my water butt/submersibel pump, this will pump into a 10+ litre container, the container will have an hole, with check valve inserted into the bottom and an air line tube to the tank, the water on timer fill fill the container then the water will slowly fill the tank via the airline tube till empty. there will be an over flow in the sump attached to the other pipe which will go out side as waste.



by calculating the changing :



The drip system will change 9.52 % of the Tank's water in one day and 18.13 % in two days.

Assuming no additional pollutants are added, drip system will replace 50.34 % of the Tank's water in a week.

jake

 

[Jim Curtis]

Youre still going to have to do gravel vacs almost daily, but if that were a barebottom tank you almost wouldnt need to. You could just scoop out the poop and uneaten food with a net.

 

[dcarmor927]

do discus like marijuana?

i want some discus if they do haha... this looks amazing

 

[cuprajake]

think i might stay away from live food stuff then, and try to mix it up with different pellets,

got up this moring and they hadn't touched the beef heart mix then looking into the tank i startled one and it went crazy for a few seconds, and nearly jumped but went up into the floating fake plants then settles down, they were all hiding in the corner near the overflow as that is hidden out of sight,

so i now have the lights coming on 30mins before i get up, so i can go down ,and not startle them and feed them,

today i will get my piping and rig up the water changer,

jake

 

[cuprajake]

well plumbed it in last night, and got it all working, its a shame the water but is so far away, and the temp really dropped last night to -7 so i think i now have some frozen water in my pipes, but it only happens for about 3 weeks out of the year.



i now have the submercible in the waterbutt, this is on a timer, and comes on for 12 mins in the morning and 12 mins at night, the pipe work rises up to the house through the kitchen and into the back area of the tank, where it flows(slowly) into a collection tub (15l) on top of my sump, the tub is drilled at the top, like a normal tank would be - then has an overflow to take excess water into the return compartment of the sump. heres the good bit, the holding tank has a heater in there so the water that is left, pretty much 15l is heated and as the fresh water is pumped in, it mixes and takes the chill off it.



i then have a small fountin pump also located in the last compartment of the sump, this is connected to the waste pipe, this turns on for one minute in the morning, just before the water in gets turned on, and then on for one minute at night too, again just before the fresh water is pumped in, and that is



im currently pumping in 22l a day and taking out about the same, i need to jiggle with the timers to make sure i take out and put enough in obs but so far it works great, well when its not frozen haha



jake

 

[cuprajake]

btw if i do up chnages and add another interval making it 3 times a day, it will change from 50% a week change to 73% change a week

 

[pinkdolphin_113]

i personally dont know too much about discus as i've never bothered with them myself so i wont comment on them.
i do think they look amazing though this may not be true but from photos and stuff, i figured the dark vertical stripes are a natural sign of happiness. but i havent got a clue lol

on the tank itself... also amazing. a very good job there how long have you been fish keeping?

there other fish... i think you could have gone with something a little more exotic (to go with the discus) than salt and pepper corydoras mate and due to the tank size!
a shoal of 6 c.sterbai would have been awsome lol but its down to personal taste.

if you are doing the daily gravel vac and water changes, which in my eyes is a little extreme (these are FISH lol if they're not wild caught (which they're not), they have propably already adapted to lazy conditions man can throw at them), why dont you get a small shoal of colourful panaques? i think it'd look pretty cool with them hanging on to those bits of wood

all in all, its a great tank and the fish look great. i hope you keep us posted on the progress of the tank

 

[cuprajake]

hi,

fish selection was purely down to the stock at the lfs, the only one i trust tbh, i did want cardinal tetras, but they had no stock, we dont have a great selection, the tank itself is by no means finished, i have some indian almond leave here ready to go in ont he floor of the tank, and i want a piece of wood for the corys to hide under, i will prob add to the stock eventually,

the fish are currently hiding near the sump overflow as that is hidden out of main view, you can see them pop their heads out to have a look, app they take a while to acclimatise and get used to things,

the tank is now auto water change, so im taking out 20l and then adding 24l back in, its like me doing it with a bucket, only pumps do it so im hitting an average of 10% a day or an overall 70% a week, tbh water can never be clean enough, in my fish house i never ran filters, it just had fresh water everyday and the tropheus would spawn for fun,

the colouring of the fish can change in an instance, but yeah i take it there happy in the pics, they will go dark brown is distressed i beilieve.

i will look into your fish suggestions though

jake

you have to becareful with plecs, they can latch onto the side of the discus, a discus secreets a fine gloop, this gloop is edible, as the young feed off it, as do plecs

 

[Jim Curtis]

Those bars are actually called stress bars. They show them when they are stressed.

 

[pinkdolphin_113]

so they are... they look good though! what a shame

 

[cuprajake]

its justone fish in particular, but i would expect them to be quiet stressed, they have moved home, been introduced to new surroundings and fish too. they are slowly getting more confidence in the tank and comming out as a group, i have added the leaves now and i think their intregued haha

im still only seeing one of them eat, but im hoping that they are doing it while im out of view, the pellets on the bottm are certinly fewer than when i feed them

 

[cuprajake]

haha, i went home at dinner to mess with my piping but it was frozen, its been really cold -7 last night and getting coler tonight, had been keeping an eye on the tank temps it had been sat at 82 the last few days, but the cold spell has brought it down to about 80, and slightly just below, so at lunch i added a 3rd heater lol in the centre of the tank, this was set to 84 to get the tank toast again,

the neons bloody love it they are circling it then shoaling off to the side as if the swimming the warm water really funny