I Am Going To Break The Rules

[lordtrini]

I have just finished setting up and planting the 46 gallon bow front that that i just got...
Right now is has 2 albino cory cats and plants...

I have a DIY CO2 system, flourite and a coralite 192 watt lighting system that i will run for 14 hours per day. I will also add some liquid fertilizer twice a week...

For filtration i am running a Eheim Pro 2 2026 that is rated for a 100 gallon tank...

I also plan to do a 25% water change once or twice a week...

It big rule i a going to breake is this...

I want to add 6 x 2.5 Discus to this setup in the next 3 weeks and hope fully grow them to maturinty...

Am i doomed to fail...

What do you guys think...

 

[rewlyn]

I have just finished setting up and planting the 46 gallon bow front that that i just got...
Right now is has 2 albino cory cats and plants...

I have a DIY CO2 system, flourite and a coralite 192 watt lighting system that i will run for 14 hours per day. I will also add some liquid fertilizer twice a week...

For filtration i am running a Eheim Pro 2 2026 that is rated for a 100 gallon tank...

I also plan to do a 25% water change once or twice a week...

It big rule i a going to breake is this...

I want to add 6 x 2.5 Discus to this setup in the next 3 weeks and hope fully grow them to maturinty...

Am i doomed to fail...

What do you guys think...

i wouldnt say doomed but if you dont cycle your tank first it will be a high possibility

and you do not want to have to do a fish-in cycle, trust me

 

[Mikaila31]

IMO YES! no way you are going to keep water qualities on spot doing only 25% once or twice a week. You should be thinking of one every two days a least at those stocking levels. You are going to have some health issues and risk losing your fish. IMO 6 discus in a 46 is way to many, those fish are really touchy about there water quality. Also the time span you are adding them in 6 in 3 weeks! How do you figure the tank won't mini cycle? I will tell you right now it will.

 

[lordtrini]

IMO YES! no way you are going to keep water qualities on spot doing only 25% once or twice a week. You should be thinking of one every two days a least at those stocking levels. You are going to have some health issues and risk losing your fish. IMO 6 discus in a 46 is way to many, those fish are really touchy about there water quality. Also the time span you are adding them in 6 in 3 weeks! How do you figure the tank won't mini cycle? I will tell you right now it will.

i for got that to add that i add the the substrate is came from a mature tank and will added some of that tetra bacteria culture to speed up cycling.
From what you guys are saying... i think i will try 4 x 2.5 inch discus instead...

 

[mwood2]

Bottled bacteria is 99% of the time useless and gravel carries little to none of the bacteria. You need mature filter media or its basically a new cycle.

 

[DJ ArKaDaRkA]

i really would'nt want to do fish in cycle on a big tank like that and doing only 15% WC you will loose fish

 

[JenCliBee]

IMO YES! no way you are going to keep water qualities on spot doing only 25% once or twice a week. You should be thinking of one every two days a least at those stocking levels. You are going to have some health issues and risk losing your fish. IMO 6 discus in a 46 is way to many, those fish are really touchy about there water quality. Also the time span you are adding them in 6 in 3 weeks! How do you figure the tank won't mini cycle? I will tell you right now it will.

i for got that to add that i add the the substrate is came from a mature tank and will added some of that tetra bacteria culture to speed up cycling.
From what you guys are saying... i think i will try 4 x 2.5 inch discus instead...

There is very little bacteria in the substrate so that on it's own wont cycle your tank, filter media is what's required and even then it's not going to be cycled just speed up the process alot.

If ive read it right your already doing a fishin cycle?, in this case you should already be doing water changes daily to make sure the cory's you say are in there arnt subjected to ammonia and nitrite.

Right lastly add the discus and they will die with the regime you have planned, discus are timid at the best of time and if they have very unsuitable water conditions they will just be unhappy and probably stop eating so either way if the ammonia doesnt kill them starvation will and as fair as ive read once discus stop eating they are hard to get going again.


Why the rush in getting fish anyways?

 

[mike os]

you will be ok if you are able to mature the filter first, if not you are going to loose fish.. The only fish I have kept that are less tolerant of ammonia and nitrite than discus are rays

 

[aaronnorth]

I have a DIY CO2 system, flourite and a coralite 192 watt lighting system that i will run for 14 hours per day. I will also add some liquid fertilizer twice a week...

Lighitng is way to high, i would run that on a 100gallon tank! 100w is plenty at most.
cut the lighting down to 6hrs for the first 4 weeks to limit algae. The raise to 8-10hrs
What fert are you planning on using? It must have nirate and phosphate in it.

You are doomed with this amount of lighting (algae wise)

 

[snowflake311]

IMO YES! no way you are going to keep water qualities on spot doing only 25% once or twice a week. You should be thinking of one every two days a least at those stocking levels. You are going to have some health issues and risk losing your fish. IMO 6 discus in a 46 is way to many, those fish are really touchy about there water quality. Also the time span you are adding them in 6 in 3 weeks! How do you figure the tank won't mini cycle? I will tell you right now it will.

i for got that to add that i add the the substrate is came from a mature tank and will added some of that tetra bacteria culture to speed up cycling.
From what you guys are saying... i think i will try 4 x 2.5 inch discus instead...

So the Substrate Came from a matutr tank ok. But that good bacteria does not last long out of water or with out food (Ammonia) it also needs Oxygen. So if at any time the Substrate was left to dry or went a week with out an ammonia source chances are that mature Gravel will not do you any good. Sure a tiny bit might still be there but most will have been killed off.

Besides 45-gal is not large enough for 6 full grown discus sorry. Hope you were planing on getting a larger tank for them once they start to mature.

 

[tenohfive]

From most angles this is a bad idea:

water quality
Discus are notoriously finicky about water conditions - personally I wouldn't consider adding them to a tank thats been established and cycled for at least 6 months. Buying juvi's and then doing 25% weekly is frankly ridiculous - I'd do more than that on a normal community tank, and when I had rams (which are only mildly sensitive to water quality) I'd see issues if I only changed that often. Discus are ALOT more sensitive than rams. And you're buying juvi's so assuming they were to survive, they'd likely end up stunted (its unlikely they would survive though, so more a minor issue.)

quantity
6 is too many for that size tank IMO

planting

As Aaron says, thats far too much lighting for that size tank.

Abandon the discus, cycle the tank properly, keep some hardy fish in there until the tanks matured abit then look at some of the community cichlids you can get - angels, keyholes etc. Discus are a bad idea.

 

[lordtrini]

bummer...

Its a good thing i posted here b4 i went out a plunked money down on the discus...

So i a going to modify the plan a bit... quite a bit...

Lighting
7am to 11am: 96 watts (its the lowest amount of light i can run with this coralife
11am to 1pm: 192 watts
1pm to 7pm: 96watts

Filtration / Cycling
The Eheim is seeded with mature media and i have added Tetra Safe Start

Fish
I am tempted to take the out a corys but i will leave them in for now...
I have 2 tanks with angels already and was looking forward to discus... So i might try 4 instead of 6
I might add a few zebras for the fish cycling...

Plants
12 x ludwigia
4 x vallisneria
1 x Large amazon sword
9 x elodea
Lots x Amazon Micro sword(?)

The wait
I am not in a rush but... it hurts to see a empty tank just sitting there

So i will wait 2 months b4 adding the 4 discus

After they are in.. i will do a 25% water change 3 times a week...

is this better

 

[Truck]

why the hell are you putting discus in a 46 gallon!!!! what are the dimensions? imagine something that can get to the size of a dinner plate in your tank!

 

[hollanda88]

bummer...

Its a good thing i posted here b4 i went out a plunked money down on the discus...

So i a going to modify the plan a bit... quite a bit...

Lighting
7am to 11am: 96 watts (its the lowest amount of light i can run with this coralife
11am to 1pm: 192 watts
1pm to 7pm: 96watts

Filtration / Cycling
The Eheim is seeded with mature media and i have added Tetra Safe Start

Fish
I am tempted to take the out a corys but i will leave them in for now...
I have 2 tanks with angels already and was looking forward to discus... So i might try 4 instead of 6
I might add a few zebras for the fish cycling...

Plants
12 x ludwigia
4 x vallisneria
1 x Large amazon sword
9 x elodea
Lots x Amazon Micro sword(?)

The wait
I am not in a rush but... it hurts to see a empty tank just sitting there

So i will wait 2 months b4 adding the 4 discus

After they are in.. i will do a 25% water change 3 times a week...

is this better

Why do you want 192W of lighting at all?, I woundn't want to try discus in that tank, i would get a bigger one and have this fomr something else. The rest sounds much beter though (Is the mature media actuall media i.e. not gravel (unless from an UGF tank))

andrew

 

[Mikaila31]

Mature media does contain benifical bacteria, but only enough to support the current stocking. Your filter would have bacteria, but not enough to process the increase in ammonia/nitrite. This would result in a mini cycle.

When you "clone" a tank with mature media. You first need media out of a heavily stocked tank(LFS work good for this). You also need enough mature media to handle they waste of the fish you add. There is really no rule to this, it all depends on the stocking in the tank you get the mature media from, and what you are trying to stock your tank with. Also you have to add the media and the new fish at the SAME time. You can't add mature media and go out and get fish 2 days later. All the bacteria you added would probably of starved off in that time. Currently as your tank stands, it will mini cycle if you add the discus.

You got pressurized CO2? I seriously hope you do. If not I wish you luck trying to run 192 watts (4wpg) without it. BTW what type of lights are you using?