hi just got a 48x18x18 tank ( 260litres or 67 usg i think???)and want it to be the centrepice of my living room(in a corner) really fancy discus but can i pull this spec off? (ive had lots fish over many years but no discus)
proposed setup
two eheim canisters one 650lph and one 300lph
co2
lots of hardy plants and wood
sand substrate
clown loaches
red finned loach
emporer tetras
my tap water is approx ph 6.5-7
nitrate is 3ppm out of the tap
i have no ro unit and cant run one
would prefer to change water two weekly poss weekly if lucky
i like the blue/turquoise discus best but im not looking to breed or have rare wild ones
also how many discus can/should i have for tank this size?would need to buy them cheapish so therfore smallish,wouldnt get them to tiny though, ive read there more sensative then
in short i dont have bags and bags of time and im not rich but id love some discus
can i pull it off?

Rule of the thumb is 40 liters per discus. Remember they will grow big and need the space. You would be better off bying apprix 4inch as the smaller they are, the less chance of survival as they needa bit more care.

Sorry but I'd forget it. Fortnightly water changes will most likely stunt younger discus, and you really need to do more.

Clown loaches get too big for the tank and are too active for discus IMO. As a first time discus keeper I would go bare bottom with some plants on wood or in pots maybe. I'd forget CO2 as it can cause ph swings, and with your reluctance to water change it could cause problems.

Any reason why you can't use RO? The filters are pretty cheap now and easy to install, but you will need time to prepare the water before changes.

Unless you have connections with breeders cheap discus are either really poor quality or tiny. Poor quality will most likely be stunted already, and tiny ones demand more from you than you are willing to give re water changes.

Have you though about Severums or Angels?

oh bugger! i thought tank breds were a lot tougher now.obviously not that tough!
if i went to weekly all the time would that work?
how many could i have?is five ok? what about when fully grown,could five co exist in my size tank?
im happy to invest in good 4 inch plus fish if i can make this happen.
i dont want to go for ro because well im a bit of a "greeny" ( sorry i know what you think!")and constantly throwing away water goes against what i preach
i hope to set up a large water butt and collect and charcoal filter rainwater but thats not up and running yet and obviously not great in summer.

A weekly water change in a bare bottom setup will work ok with 4-5" or above fish. Twice a week would be better though.

If your a true 'greeny' you may want to consider your electricity bill for a moment... Anyway using RO doesn't mean you have to waste water, you can collect it and use it for other things such as gardening or for fish that love hard water.

I would not risk using rain water on my own fish, I've heard good and bad stories about it. At least with RO you know what your getting.

Thought you wanted it cheap lol, to buy five fish at a suitable size your looking around £250-300 for high quality fish.

Good luck if you do take the plunge, but I'd really only use RO water.

oh bugger again! this is not going the way i planned oh well back to the drawing board
but are the other bits good? if water changes were twice a week i could keep 5 fish over and above 4inchs in that set up? does the nitrate in my tap water present a problem.surely if im changing lots of water im still not dropping the nitrate much? cheers

Like I said I'd only use RO. 5 will be fine, but you have to be sure you'll do the water changes...

personally i reckon your tap water would be good for discus on the face of it. if the GH, KH and the TDS are pretty low then they would even breed and rear their fry in it. you are lucky to have that water. 3PPM of nitrate is nothing. you could stand you water for a few days with bags of peat in it for your water changes to make it even better. with such good water you could even do 50% water changes to allow you to do water changes once every two weeks. i on the other hand use ro and have to wait for it to produce enough water so i am doing 20L water changes like every two days and if i'm lucky every day. my tap water has nitrates of 40PPM. i say go ahead and buy your discus, you wont regret it!

Your only filtering your water 3x over. Shoot for 4-5x. Clown loaches are very slow growers. Add 'em if you want but get a min of 3. Try and do water changes once a week as a minimum for smaller discus.

gnu i may be wrong my water co report im quoting says 40.53 mg/l (i think thats milligrams per litre)
am i wrong about the ppm.im gonna test the tap water myself.....just done it and its 25 mgl or more with a dip strip. oh well it aint gonna happen

good size tank for 5-6 discus, your ph sounds fine, just keep it stable, gh and kh should not be too high.Regular water changes are needed though(v.important) especially if you want to grow small discus to a good size and not stunt them.
Angel

I wouldn't do a 50% change on any tank, unless it was an emergency, let alone a discus tank. With discus consitancy is the key and you want to maintain the water parameters to a constant value. Smaller more frequent water changes are much more suitable for any tank IMO.