Discus In 200L

[techen]

Is this possible? I wouldn't be using RO water though as my water soft anyway.

 

[garyspence84]

You might be cutting it fine mate to be honest. I kept mine in a 240ltr for years and that was borderline. If its 4ft long then it should be fine... I think?

 

[MBOU]

Personally I wouldn't do it. Tank is pushing too small anyway but I wouldn't ever use tapwater again for discus...
 
Its not just how soft the water is, its just unreliable on what the nitrates come out at, it fluctuates all the time... and then all the trace metals etc as well.

 

[mishmash]

Plenty of people use tapwater for discus, especially with the proliferation of tank bred specimens.  It can be done without too much concern.  We dont keep fish, we keep water, so as long as you keep your tap water pristine I dont foresee any problems.  However, the tank MAY or MAY NOT be an issue.  Its more to do with dimensions than volume.  I have seen people keeping small groups of discuss in a 3 foot tank with no problems at all.

 

[MBOU]

Would be fine assuming you religiously test your tap water and when it does have high nitrates, have a way of prefiltering it first... summer seems to see higher nitrates I have found but not always but everywhere I have lived and worked in last 5 years has literally varied in nitrates from one month to the next, anywhere between 0 and 80. In one place it was 100 and we had to go to the waterboard to ask what was going on, meanwhile we had customers fish dying because they couldn't keep nitrates down.
 
In all fairness, I kept and bred discus in tapwater and I would never do it again, was a nightmare never knowing how the water was going to test and it meant far more frequent water changes..
 
RO is hardly difficult to come buy or create, for the difference it makes.. don't get why people would want to keep discus in tap water any more than they would want to use tap water (with salt..) for marine tanks. Buy sensitive and expensive fish and cut corners on water? Meh..
 
And Techens tank is 1m long, its a Roma 200 I believe Discus would be ok in there buy would eventually outgrow the tank but long term...

 

[TwoTankAmin]

You can for sure keep a larger pair of one of the more hardy tank strains in that tank. Actually 2 females would also likely work. The problem would be if you wanted to keep a group of discus. At that point the tank becomes too small. Smaller discus need much cleaner water than they will when they get bigger, so one needs to do more work.
 
I used to keep a pair of Red turqs in a 25 gal. (24x12x20 inch) tank using my tap water for years. They spawned about 20 times but the eggs were never viable

I should mention my water had close to a neutral pH ( a tad over) and is pretty soft. GH 5-6 and KH 4-5. Sorry for the bad pics.