New Discus Tank

[freerunner416]

Hi,

I have been a member of this forum for a year and this is will be the longest post I have ever written. Some of you will know I started planning a larger tank about 8-9months ago. I had two 20G (UK) tanks but was having to go back to one to make way for my other things in my new house. My wife finally gave in and decided to allow (yes, allow) me to move up to having a 57G Juwel Vision 260 as long as it met a few conditions.

Condition 1 – It matched the rest of the colourings in the living room
Condition 2 – The living room was painted and received a new carpet first
Condition 3 – It doesn’t leak!!

3 leaks in 3 years have made my tanks pretty unpopular!! Well all of the conditions were met.

Tank – £399 with £50 of accessories free - Aquariums Delivered
Caribsea Eco-Complete Live Planted Substrate 9kg - £47 – Warehouse Aquatics
Roman Gravel Jet Black - £46 – Seapets
Tetratec Ex1200 External Filter – £70 – Charterhouse Aquatics
Various Bogwood pieces - £30 – Ebay bogwood man
Plants - £11.30 – Java Plants
(5x Cryptocoryne Lucens, 5 x Crypt Blassii, 5 x Red Amazon, 3 x Crypt Balansae, 5 x Amazon Sword)

Total - £603.30
I sold my too tanks for the total of £200 to help towards the total cost of the tank and have bought things over the months and placed in storage until ready to use them.

Setting up.
I build up the stand. Then my neighbour helped me place the tank. I ¼ filled it then emptied again to remove the left over silicone from removing the Jewel filter and any dust that was in there. Then I placed half of the water from my 20gal into the 57 and then filled it half full with clean water. I then refilled my 20 and left it a day then removed half again and filled the rest of the way in the 57. I thought this would help with cycling. I then connected the filter and heater and got them running. I had moved half my filter media from the 20 and placed it in the 1200. It took a day to get the temp right. I then left it for a week before checking stats and moving some tetras across. 4 days later stats were going good so moved the rest of my fish in.

White spot broke out – think 5 new plecs I had bought had brought it with them. Managed to get it sorted fast. Never lost a fish.

Stocking
2 discus (will eventually be 5)
5 angels (will eventually be 2/3)
2 L183 Starlight plecs
4 L002 Tiger plecs (looking to sell if anybody interested)
10 Gold shoulder corys – Wild
2 Bronze Cory
2 Albino Cory
2 Black khuli loaches
1 banded Striped loach
1 spotted talking cat (never see him)
10 apistogramma borelli (fry – moving to my nephews tank later)
5 killifish
3 Zebra danios (moving to nephews tank)
2 Rummy nose Tetras (moving to nephews tank)

I have a lot of fish this know and have realised this. I have some more discus ordered and am making arrangements to free space in my tank. Any opinions that are helpful would be welcome. I was told by a friend who is a very experienced fish keeper that I should be able to have 6 discus in my tank that are fully grown. My fish are only young and will change my tank as I go.

L002

Spot the discus

Gold shoulders

Mystery plec

Angels

Discus 1

Discus 2

Full tank shot - backing to be added

So guys, what do you think of the tank?

I have one questions.

1. How often will the tetratec need cleaned out?

 

[SJ2K]

I build up the stand. Then my neighbour helped me place the tank. I ¼ filled it then emptied again to remove the left over silicone from removing the Jewel filter and any dust that was in there. Then I placed half of the water from my 20gal into the 57 and then filled it half full with clean water. I then refilled my 20 and left it a day then removed half again and filled the rest of the way in the 57. I thought this would help with cycling. I then connected the filter and heater and got them running. I had moved half my filter media from the 20 and placed it in the 1200. It took a day to get the temp right. I then left it for a week before checking stats and moving some tetras across. 4 days later stats were going good so moved the rest of my fish in.

Dear lord I dont know how you managed, you were ment to move all fish at the same time as the media! Else all bacteria will be lost might explain the white spot also. Well, looks like your sorted now and really nice looking tank good job!

 

[angelmouse]

Hi tank is looking good well worth the wait, love the bogwood. give plenty of water changes and food and they will soon be good sized adults, nice looking discus you got. Always keep on top of the overstocking issue as i have found it can make unhappy discus, they do like peace and tranquillity. I have two angels and apistogrammas with mine and they get on well but make sure the angels dont eat all the food before the discus can get some they are greedy things lol.
keep us updated
regards Angel

 

[paul_219]

NIce pics. Wonderful.

 

[Andypalf]

Good post and wonderful tank. It's clear you put a lot of thought into it which is always important in my eyes. And those Tiger Plecs are great. If I wasn't down south I'd be very interested in having one.
One day (a long time away I think) I'll have myself a discus tank. And personally I'm not a fan of Angels but yours are spectacular. Take a bow!

 

[freerunner416]

Wow wasn't expecting all that!

Thank you all for your comments i appreciate them all.

SJ2K "Dear lord I dont know how you managed, you were ment to move all fish at the same time as the media! Else all bacteria will be lost might explain the white spot also. Well, looks like your sorted now and really nice looking tank good job! "

Woopsy! In all the times i read and asked about things like this nobody told me that! Well at least everything survived and hopefully it will not have damaged the fish at all.

Angelmouse, so when are you giving me that discus of yours i love so much?

I will post updates and more pics of my fish.

The killifish arrived today. They are cracking. I will need to get some pics of them up.

The new plants just arrived yet and will be planted ASAP.

Thanks again.

c

 

[simonas]

the tank looks ace and discus are great fish to keep and I plan to return myself.

why don't you get more rummy noses? I had a big shoal with my discus and I thought they were the best fish to complement the discus

 

[freerunner416]

I was thinking that myself Simonas. Think i will keep them and get some more when my stocking is a bit better. Am going to take two of the angels back today before they get any bigger. The advert for the L002's is up if anybody is interested. Would prefer somebody up here so that they don't have to be posted due to the weather worsening.

 

[gourami_fan]

Just curious, but what is that blue/black angel fish called. It looks really nice under that lighting.

BTW very nice tank and fish. Wish I could afford to keep discus, but I'm still a student living off my parents

 

[freerunner416]

I am not at all sure what type of angels they are!! My wife hates them and says i have had alot nicer but the markings on them are very individual. I like them a lot. I don't think you can see on their tails but both have thin lines coming away from the edges which gives them a thin vapour trail look as they swim!!

Thanks for the compliments.

I am sure that you will get the tank you want one day gourami fan!! Study hard

 

[adamgreen240]

tank looks stunning mate, absolutely brilliant
those discus are great!!!!

i clean my ex1200 about every 2 months, but just keep an eye on the flow and if it drops , give it a clean!

awesome tank theough, will look 10 times better when you get your background on.

great effort

 

[PRW1988]

More pics!

 

[Straydum]

looks really good! yeah more pictures please

 

[freerunner416]

Cheers Adam!! I know you were desperate to see some pics.

I am really not sure what background to put on. My wife likes it without and i am coming around to that. I just don't know what i could put on that would look great! You sent me a pm asking about the freestuff and it was just the offer that the company were giving out with there tank to encourage you to buy. It had cichlid food, flake food, cycle stuff, water purifier stuff (all the technical names there) and more. If anybody wants to know what else there was i will dig out the receipt as they showed all the prices on it!

PRW and Straydum, I will get some more pics over the next couple of days. The discus are starting to come out more although i need to get my next couple in there soon as they are fighting at feeding times.

As a side note, i sold the L002 through the buy and sell on here to Michael from Fife. Hope they breed for him when he gets his tanks all set up!!! The money he gave me will pay for the discus that are coming on the 15th December.

 

[adamgreen240]

regarding the background i just use a plain black bacground , i love it , it really makes the colours of the fish stand out!!

i went to the craft shop and just used A4 black card and stuck them on individually, you cant even notice the joins in the paper when it is on! Thats what i reccomend to you , even if you dont like it when its done, you can just tank it off!

Thanks

Adam