Angela_96

I want to take my 36 bowfront and turn it into a discus tank. It has crushed coral and sand for a substrate (so I know that has to go). I have an eheim and a biowheel filter on it so I know the filtration is good enough for a discus, and the tank is stable enough plus I have a visitherm heater that can be cranked up to discus temps.
I do plan to do species only.
First, what plants do I need? I want to do a planted tank.
2.Substrate?
3.Should I go w/ driftwood?

I won't be wasting the substrate from the african tank, I am going to get about a 30-40g tank for my bedroom and move the fish in the 36g into it.
I have been wanting a discus tank for a long time.

Any and all suggestions are very much appreciated!

freshwaterguy

1. Amazon Sword (Echinodorus bleheri) a good plant for Discus and dwarf varieties also available as a foreground plant, also Anubias is a hardy plant good for spawning. Hygrophila and Ludwigia family plants require too much pruning which is not ideal for a discuss tank.

CO2 is not required but would certainly help, 1.5 to 2wpg should be fine. The above plants will do well in required 82F and above.

2. Sand is ideal for discus planted tanks a good choice.

3. Driftwood looks good however beware of leaching wood, a few items e.g driftwood, plants and rocks will help discus to feel secure and they should do well.

Good luck and keep us posted on progress.

Regal

Congratulations on your discus plans, they are so pretty. I want to try them someday too. I would say driftwood would be a good choice since it makes the water more acidic.

I have a stupid question that maybe someone can answer. I have a ten gallon with about 20 angel fry in it. They're getting big and obviously are way to crowded. When I figure out what to do with all the angels I want to add substrate and 2-3 mollies.

OK here's the stupid question when you change a tank to a setup with different pH or add salt (for mollies) does that kill the bacteria that are living on the filter media? I guess what I'm asking is are there different types of bacteria in an African Cichlid tank than there will be in a tank that has water that's appropriate for the discus? Or my tank going from a tank with driftwood and plants lowering the ph to 6 to a tank where the ph is high like my tap water?
If the filter was ran on a different tank while the tank is being redone (just to keep the bacteria alive) would that be sufficient to avoid having to cycle the tank.

Allie

Discus is much more work than a mbuna tank. Harder to keep too. The bigger tank the best for them...due to some of them being sketchy. You could have a pair in that sized tank.
You need driftwood and plants to bring down the pH...silica sand would be great. In my Discus book it says you should have a reverse osmosis machine for water changes.
If the driftwood leaches it will help bring the pH down with tannins. Discus prefer tannins in their water.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discus_(fish)
http://www.simplydiscus.com/library/index.shtml

Slug

Eh you could probably get away with 4 Adults. Usually, and generally speaking the stocking rate is 1 adult discus per 10gals of water. I always round up.

Plants, pretty much anything. Plants really won't matter that much to the discus themselves, go with something that you can and want to keep. I prefer the hardier tougher plants for a discus tank because its just easier that way. Java ferns, Amazon swords, anubias, etc.

Substrate, sand would be great, but a sand gravel mix will work too. Keep in mind, the more porus the substrate the more nasties get trapped in it. I recommend sand because its easier the clean and clean is what you want in a Planted discus tank.

Driftwood is always a nice choice in planted tanks. It provides structure and some shelter/cover. Be careful though, discus being skittish at times can bump the wood and if its sharp it can injure them.

As far as the tannins go, i'm not sure discus prefer the tannins, it just makes things natural. I personally find domestic discus strains to be very ugly in tanks with tannins in the water. But like Allie said, tannins are a result of the driftwood leeching into the water (harmless unless its something like ceder, pine, etc) and lowering the pH.

RO water is usually good, but i use straight tap and never have problems. I know people using tap as well and it doesn't seem to be a problem. If you get wild discus however, RO is a very good idea.

Since you are going planted tank to start i'd suggest buying the discus at an older age and larger size. It lessens their chances of becoming stunted in a planted tank environment. Basically the larger they are the easier they are to take care of, but they also get more expensive as the inches grow.

vakvn

Water parameters:
PH=6.5 (You can use phosphoric axit (H3P04) for decreasing PH)
Temp=28 degree
a little salt for decreasing stress for fish

Now, You can keep discus fish