First Tropical

[shibby]

after keeping marines and finding out the costs of running it i decieded to convert to tropical! heres my first attempt:

tank: rio 180
filtration: rena xp or something external and an eheim ecco external
substrate: sand
lighting: standard jewel

cycled: fishless cycle with food and cloned a 2 year well establised big tank

matinence: 15% weekly water change with a mix of ro and dechlorinated tap water and one filter every 2 weeks is cleaned, every week valice and elodea is trimmed by 3 inches stuff grows like weeds!

plants:

not amazing with plant names but theres valice, elodea, a few different kripts, java fern and an amazon sword

fish:

5 neons
5 glow lights
3 discus
1 german blue ram
2 pearl gourami
1 rtbs
4 clown plecos
6 bronze corys
6 brochis splendids
6 peppered corys
10 harlequins

overstocked a bit i think but im attempting a bit more of a biotype so the rtbs and gouramis will more then likely be going soon. only lost one fish so far which was a male german blue ram so i may have to find another one.

future plans for tank:

de stock a little
remove elodea and some valice replace with some tiger lotus plants and some other different ones.

couple of pictures:

 

[ICE CUBE]

love the tank and the discus
looks reali healthy congrats

 

[Liam]

Yeah your tank looks very good. As the discus are young maybe bigger water changes if you can manage them would be good for them and help them grow to a good size.

 

[invader]

Very nice tank.
Make sure you keep your water super clean for the discus, though.

 

[paul_219]

Nice tank. Very nice stocking.

 

[turnnidge]

I am off to sulk now!

I love your tank, why wont my water just clear up its crazy!! All parameters are great.
I have two large pieces of bog wood that have established plants growing on them, so as you can imagine these have been pre soaked and in the LFS no tannins were in their water. am I doing anything wrong??

 

[shibby]

thanks all think i may start taking some elodea, valice and java fern out tonight to replace them with some aunbis, tiger lotus and other broad leaved plants i like the idea of giving corys something to sit on!


my bog wood came from the lfs and had been soaked for a year! i also run carbon now and again and regularly changed filter floss which helps it stay clear even with the corys digging around constantly in the sand!

tropicals as addictive as marines i find now i have an aq3 15 gal which i want to do as a biotype! with blue apistogrammas, cardinals and corys, need to research and plan more for that though!

 

[poconoboss]

I am a bit overstocked myself, although my fish are all small so there is plenty of room for all to have their own space, but I have to keep up on the maintenance.

I do 40% water changes twice a week with gravel cleaning. The water polishing pads in the water get changed weekly, and the media gets changed monthly.

With an overstocked tank, gravel cleaning and water changes are PARAMOUNT!

 

[omega59]

very nice
btw that is cute.

 

[GobyMaster]

Oooh, I want discus so bad!

They look like great fish

 

[shibby]

wooo got a nice red tiger lotus plant and some anubias and another plant that im not sure on id so may need help with it. just some japonicus shrimp to add now and then it will be complete for now... il take some pics later i tried a minute ago but is so bright all i kept getting were reflections of my room.

 

[shibby]

new updates, been while this is how its going:

newer tank:

on the horizon:

- set up a quarenteen tank 56 litre.

- exchange the rtbs since its had 2 chances and is still a pita.

- buy 2 more discus and exchange some of fish from tank want more amazon orientated

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

Sounds like a good plan! I think the Discus are showing great coloration now. They will only look better with 2 new mates.


My only advice, would be to do more water changes. At minimum, I would do a 30% w/c weekly. The better the water quality, the better the Discus.

 

[shibby]

yep cant wait to get two more going to qt them first, one of the discus is becoming a bit of a bully so i thought 2 more should ensure maybe more peace?

i have uped the waterchanges to about 35% now mixture of ro and tap water, im aiming to do 20% twice a week now though.

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

yep cant wait to get two more going to qt them first, one of the discus is becoming a bit of a bully so i thought 2 more should ensure maybe more peace?

i have uped the waterchanges to about 35% now mixture of ro and tap water, im aiming to do 20% twice a week now though.

20% twice weekly seems like a really good water changing routine.


Yes, 2 Discus should help. What you are seeing is just the dominant Discus doing his job, and putting the others in their place. Sometimes with a small group of 3 he might end up killing them. With 2 more you will find that agression is much more spread out.