310 gallon build and 55 gallon quarantine tank

What part of NY? I’m on the island with city water and my water is great . I change 50% on one tank every other day and on the other every 2 days. Once a week on community tanks. I go from the tap through an under counter filter than into the tanks. Nothing added. I do carry buckets when draining. I’ve got cherry shrimp with the discus so I’m always looking for the little ones that get siphoned out.

I am on the bigger island aka Long Island my water is pretty acidic. 50 percent water changes every other day that is insane what is in that tank? I got my one mud ball tank 65 gallons 4 Cories and 5 giant danios and 1 platy with my Favorite (and only) angelfish. I try and do water changes every week about 20 gallons I might need to pick it up cause I have been slacking recently. But yeah basically I got the tank as a gist to replace my smaller tank. But when I went shopping I bought weird pairings and now I got a really weird tank.

 

Many answers already given since my last post .
Garras are the 'spa fish ' that they use to 'manicure' peoples feet ! They eat the dead skin .. Close enough to 'bio slime' I guess if you are a hungry fish . Spa Home - Garra Rufa - Paphos Spa Cypria Maris Beach Hotel & Spa
I use sterbai cories I got from DarkOne or nothing . I have kept my super red plecos in 84+but only with my rams not discus . All sucking fish are a threat potentially .
I have gone to many swap meets in the NY/MA/CT area .
Look into NECA ; NEC Council (northeastcouncil.org)
Actually looks like there is finally some activity on the calendar !
The auctions are great and just a ton of fun ..
I hope they happen ..

 

To the garras I’d just leave them. If there’s a problem down the road deal with it than. It’s not guaranteed they will go after the discus. Oh and they change color to a darkish green when they mature. For clean up fish I have in one tank 4 ottos and 12 sterbai corys. In the other I have a bn pleco,4 ottos and 9 bronze corys. Oh and 2 SAE in each tank. Many different plecos used in discus tanks. All good till it looks like your discus has ring worm .
Yeah the swap meet sounds like a great deal. I’m in NY and never heard of that.

so I won’t have to worry about fishing out the panda garras...I got home and amazingly I found the two in my sump all the way on the return end with my pumps. BOTH of them!! just couldn’t believe it. They’re pretty active down there feeding on some of the algae that’s formed in the sump.

 

Could leave them down there - they like lots of current

Just be sure to give them a bit of meat now and then.

so I won’t have to worry about fishing out the panda garras...I got home and amazingly I found the two in my sump all the way on the return end with my pumps. BOTH of them!! just couldn’t believe it. They’re pretty active down there feeding on some of the algae that’s formed in the sump.

 

I am on the bigger island aka Long Island my water is pretty acidic. 50 percent water changes every other day that is insane what is in that tank? I got my one mud ball tank 65 gallons 4 Cories and 5 giant danios and 1 platy with my Favorite (and only) angelfish. I try and do water changes every week about 20 gallons I might need to pick it up cause I have been slacking recently. But yeah basically I got the tank as a gist to replace my smaller tank. But when I went shopping I bought weird pairings and now I got a really weird tank.

Lol same island! Massapequa here!

 

Could leave them down there - they like lots of current

Just be sure to give them a bit of meat now and then.

Haha I was tempted to but since I will be raising the temp, I didn’t want to cook them

 

If anyone is in the Midwest, there’s another fish swap happening in April again!! Will plan on picking up the clown loaches and possibly another six discus, cardinals and rummies! Here’s some updated photos. Discus color has bounced back nicely.

What are y’all feeding your discus? I’ve ordered a cow heart from Hyvee and looking at making my own beef-heart recipe...any good pelleted food out there that I can alternate with where I’m not contaminating the water as often?

 

Fish swap sounds like fun. Wish we had something like that in my neck of the woods. Discuss look colored up nice!!

 

Update on the discus tank: I want to share this experience hoping I can spare others from the experience I had. The importance of quarantining... I chose not to quarantine because I moved a majority of my fish out of the 310 prior to introducing the new fish. What I didn’t think about is the amount of water I would be treating if there was any sickness and the fact that I have live plants. I know rookie mistake This limited my choices on medications.

I noticed ich on my discus within the first week of arriving into the aquarium. Fortunately, I picked it up quickly from close observation each day. I had to order the meds which by the time it arrived two days later, it had spread to my cardinals.

One discus had a mark on its lateral fin that I could not distinguish as just a marking, damage or some kind of fungal growth. I observed for days without any changes before I decided to play it safe after the ich treatment. This one is quarantined now. I tried a salt treatment for a week with no changes. This week I have tried the Melafix, and the size of the growth has decreased after about a week. The discus had never shown any signs of stress and has always been an aggressive eater. He’ll be returning back to the 310 by end of next week.

Ich treatment in the 310. I chose IchAttack for a couple reasons: 1) it is not harmful to my plants. 2) it’s highly concentrated. 3) you don’t need to do daily water changes during treatment. Cons: it will tint your water to a dark yellow/brown during treatment.

Total treatment was 11 days. It took 7 days to obliterate the Ich. The directions state to continue treatment for three more days following the first signs of no ich which is very important. I added an extra day for safe measure.

It has been almost two weeks and I haven’t seen any more ich in the aquarium and I observe every fish very carefully a few times a day. I can’t say enough good things about this medication. The aquarium has been staying steady at 86 degrees and currently have been doing 40% weekly water changes.

I will be at the fish swap again this month. The 55 gal is ready for quarantining the next batch. We are looking at 6 more discus and more cardinals/rummies. The tetras have exploded in size and the discus will pick the food out of my hand before I can place it in the aquarium lol. Will update when the new ones arrive. (Also got the 90 gal up and running. Barbs in there will be moved out most likely if we go with african cichlids, otherwise will be the loach tank)

The first photo shows my red cover discus before I moved him out. You’ll notice the damage/growth to the fin I mentioned.The following photos are updates on the remaining discus. Also, attached is the food. Upper left is a blend we’ve tried making ourselves (beefheart, garlic, krill, spinach,multivitamin). I’ve stopped using this in the 310 because it’s very messy but I’ll be great for the quarantine.
Photos:

 

Oh yikes! I thought it was bad when I had to medicate a 25 gallon tank (instead of 10 gallons)! I can't imagine having to dose a 310 gallon tank!

Glad it sounds like the ich has cleared up.

 

Glad the fish are ok now! Love the rummynose tetras, theyre one of my favorites

 

The new fish are here!! We picked up seven more discus of similar size to the six we have now. We also got four Sterba’s corys. These are all being quarantined in the 55 gallon.
We also finally got a school of 12 clown loaches that are in the 90 gallon and a L200 (green phantom) pleco.

I’ll give it a few weeks of quarantine and then the discus and corys will be going into the 310 with the rest!