Discus Aquarium - 100 Gallons

[adamgreen240]

Good evening everyone,

Hopefully soon i will have my 100gallon 5ft tank empty and would like to do a discus tank.
Few questions though:

Can i keep them in plain old tapwater ?? Or will i have to use R.O ?

How many dicus would i be able to have? What would be the best number to have?

Was also thinking about putting my 2 angelfish in with them, i have seen this done, but im sure i read somewere its not reccomended?? Will this be ok.

Thanks for any help!

Oh, and the tank will be filtered by an Eheim 2180 and 2078 so will be well over filtered - also the 2180 has a UVC.

 

[rabbut]

OK, whether or not tap water is OK, depends on your tap water. Thats what I use in mine, but others in an arround London and other areas on the UK are often forced onto RO. Can you give a run-down of pH, KH, GH, Ammonia, Nitrite and nitrate stats from the tap? If you have access to a freshwater Phosphate test kit, numbers for that would be useful also. If you don't have all those, who is your waterboard? Most of those stats have to be published by the board by legal regulation, so although not specific to your tap, will give a rough idea of your tap's water quality

It is recomended to start with a minimum group of 5 discus. You can have one per 10g quite easily (10 total in a 100g) with more experienced keepers often pushing up higher...

I'd advise you to research like crazy. These fish are often called hard to keep because keepers were too lazy (or ignorant in some cases) to do their research first, and then they blame the fish for their mistakes. Try to get to a point where you can answer any question that cropps up on the board before giving any a try and you should avoid almost all common issues I don't find Discus hard to keep now, but did origionaly, (mainly because I fell into the "too lazy to research first" bin). Though not tough if you observe their basic care guidelines, these fish are not considered "advanced" still for no reason

HTH
Rabbut

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

Good evening everyone,

Hopefully soon i will have my 100gallon 5ft tank empty and would like to do a discus tank.
Few questions though:

Can i keep them in plain old tapwater ?? Or will i have to use R.O ?

How many dicus would i be able to have? What would be the best number to have?

Was also thinking about putting my 2 angelfish in with them, i have seen this done, but im sure i read somewere its not reccomended?? Will this be ok.

Thanks for any help!

Oh, and the tank will be filtered by an Eheim 2180 and 2078 so will be well over filtered - also the 2180 has a UVC.

Everything that Rabbut said is correct. Just follow his/her words. I might just add that Angels for the most part are fine in a Discus tank. There are three main problems that can arise though, but don't fret.

1. Sometimes Angelfish can carry a parasite called Capillaria. This parasite is tolerated in Angelfish, they can even live with it their whole life! Discus on the other hand, become very sick when infected. In case you want to research the compatibility of this fish, this may come up in an article. Do not worry. Although Capillaria can infect Angelfish almost all tank bred Angels will be free of this. I can guarantee you will not have to deal with this parasite in all of your Angelfish keeping life!

2. Sometimes people say that Angelfish are better eaters then the Discus. I have never had problems with this when mixing the two. In fact, I would say it's more the other way around! Discus can be such pigs sometimes!

3. The last reason people like to advise against mixing these two Cichlids, is because once mature, Angels can become more aggressive then Discus. I have found this to be true at times, as my mature Angel was bossing around my Discus in a 50 gallon. The reason why I wouldn't worry about this in your case, is because you have a huge tank to stick the two in! More room equals less aggression.


Some people like to advise against it, but frankly I would rather advise for it. I believe that the strong, and bold personality of the Angelfish rub off on the Discus and help them feel safer, and calmer in their environment.

 

[kev_kb]

Some people like to advise against it, but frankly I would rather advise for it. I believe that the strong, and bold personality of the Angelfish rub off on the Discus and help them feel safer, and calmer in their environment.

If your Discus are healthy and you provide the right environment for them they won't need fish to help them feel safer and calmer. If you feel they do then small dither fish are a much better option.

Angels can bully Discus to the point they stop eating and become very very shy. A stressed Discus that won't eat then becomes a sick Discus which then becomes a dead Discus if you don't resolve the problems.

Of course results can vary depending on the character of the fish and tank size, but I think the mix would fail more times than it succeeds.

Research them lots before buying then decide whats best for you. You'll find there are different ideas on Discus keeping but if you research enough and use plenty of different sources of information you'll soon start to see some consistency. Use the search on this forum to find out more and then use other sites and books too.

 

[rabbut]

I, like Discuslova, have Angels in with my discus. Also, like Discuslova, after initial agression from my angels when they started breeding, the discus go about keeping them in place. They aren't out-and-out nasty to them, but if they are trying to claim part of a tank to breed in now, all eight of them gang up against the angels after a couple of hours keeping out of the way wile they spawn... My Discus group react to the angels when they steap out of line, they put them in check, then and leave it at that

The only time I get agression issues between the two, is when the angels are spawning, but the Discus only take so much before they fight back, as a group rather than singly...

In principal, what Kev is saying is right, anything that stresses your fish will likely stop them eating, leading to fairly quick demise, but it would appear that you need realy agressive angels (or frail Discus) to caurse the Discus to stress IME.

All the best
Rabbut

 

[adamgreen240]

Thanks for the help folks, had an eventfull few days so i havent been able to reply, anyway, i have the chance of upgrading my tank to a 84" X 24" wide X 36" high. am i right in thinking that the 36" height would be better for the discus. How many could i ideally have in this tank? its about 300gallons.

What would be better ? The larger tank or the 5ft?

 

[rabbut]

In a 300g, upto 30 1 per 10g is the guideline, but you usualy start with 5-8 I always say the bigger the better, but if you do need RO in that size tank, you may be biting off more than you can chew so-to-speak I wouldn't want to find 100-150g of RO twice a week for my routien 50% waterchanges if I transfered my maintanance on the current tank direct to that one What were the other dimentions on the 5ft? Also, could you fill in the un-answered q's above?

All the best
Rabbut

 

[adamgreen240]

Hello everyone, definatly going to go for the discus tank, i am awaiting the arrival of a test kit so that i can answer the above questions.

If i need to use R.O, i will probably use my 100gall , however, if i can use water straight from the tap, then i will probably upgrade to a 84" long X 24" Wide X 30" high - 250 gallons.

I was thinking of having my 2 angels in with them. Also, i will probably add a shoal of cardinal tetras and have the tank heavily planted.

Rabbut, did you say that you use plain old tap water? Do you use decholrinator?

Thanks, Adam

 

[rabbut]

For the most part, yes, I use dechlorinator, but having seen a few experienced discus keepers not using it, I'm "experiemnting" ATM I have an emergency stash of dechlor for an emergency, but two waterchanges done without, and all looks fine

All the best
Rabbut

 

[adamgreen240]

Ok, its just i use plain old tap water and no dechlor for my tanks now. Thanks a lot, Adam

 

[simonas]

adam I don't know if your waters the same as mine , I'm over in Bhead way. ours is pretty neutral

I kept Discus in the tap water and never had any problems. they spawned a few times but eggs never hatched. I found that they did better when I treated them like my other fish. they are teritorial, boisterous and bolshy at feeding times. regular changes and decent food made sure they did weell for me

 

[kev_kb]

For the most part, yes, I use dechlorinator, but having seen a few experienced discus keepers not using it, I'm "experiemnting" ATM I have an emergency stash of dechlor for an emergency, but two waterchanges done without, and all looks fine

All the best
Rabbut

Do you really think it's worth the risk???

You could spend hundreds of pounds stocking discus for a 100 or 250g then only save a few pounds per year by not using a dechlorinator. You have no control over what your water company adds to the water and no easy way to test it either. They may double the dosages each December for example...

IMO if you can't afford to dechlorinate you can't afford Discus.

 

[rabbut]

I have dehlorinator about, in enough quantities to do about 10 50% waterchanges, and I know the signs of chlorine poisoning. I keep a shart eye on the fish after a waterchange for about an hour, and if anyone shows symptoms, rest assured a double dose of dechlor will find it's way into the tank very quickly If symptoms do not eleviate, another waterchange will be carried out, again, with a double dose of dechlorinator

You will actually find that many of the experienced aquarists on here do not use dechlorinator for any fish they keep, without any issues. Looking at it, it would appear that dechlorinator is not nessisary at all. Obviously, I will continue to advocate dechlorinators use untill I have had long-term success with not using it, but I find it hard to believe that so many members would have no issues through not using it, if it was something that is genuinely needed.

It should be noted that many water companies "fiddle" with their products to make marketing gimics, like API Stress Coat, that contains Aloe Vera. Aloe is actually harmful to discus in sufficient quantities, so it could be argued that not using dechlorinator saves risk to the fish, if, long-term the use of waterchanges without dechlorinator do not harmm, and if manufacturers continue to add irritants to their products to "enhance" the slime coat on fish, by irritating their mucous membranes

All the best
Rabbut

 

[kev_kb]

Well I can honestly say I've never had problems I could attribute to water conditioners in many many years of fish keeping...

Any 'irritants' would be surely in such a small volume to not be a problem, and would surely breakdown or be removed with water changes so would not escalate to dangerous levels. I rarely visit other areas of the forum so haven't seen any posts regarding it, I have never seen it on any Discus related forums or literature.

Personally I don't think it's worth the risk at all. It's kinda like sun bathing without sun tan lotion even though you know it can stop you getting skin cancer.