Large Vivarium Construction

[chinoanoah]

Yeah! we wanna see the discus!

[AzureFrog]

First I want to say that your tank is absolutely beautiful!

That said, I hate to be a downer, but I have many concerns about your Discus...

Originally Posted by EverettC

Secondly, in regards to the aquarium portion of your tank, how tall is the water now? I might have missed it, but when I kept discus I had them in a 65 gallon tank (which is 3 feet wide, 2 feet tall and 18 inches deep) and I would not suggest keeping them in anything that is remotely shallow. IME they really like to "explore their space" as it were, and I think they might scratch up their ventral fins in your water section.

Everett is completely right about this... Discus prefer, and some would say need, a taller body of water.

I was also wondering how many gallons are in the water portion? Discus need a minimum of 10 gals per fish. I counted nine Discus on your list...

Most people who have had discus would say that it is not a good idea to keep large plecos (anything over 5") with Discus, they can attach themselves to the sides of your fish.

Discus are very very high maintenance fish, they are sensitive to water conditions and require at the least one or two water changes a week. Many
would argue that they need one water change a day, especially if your tank is over stocked (which I believe yours will be). I have 5 Discus in a 75 gal, I do weekly water changes (with 3 filters running) and water quality is still a constant battle.

Finally, although Discus are a peaceful fish, they can be aggressive toward one another, especially if crowded...

Please reconsider putting 9 Discus in your tank... although them may live for awhile, I don't believe they will thrive and you will probably lose several.

Just my 2 cents...

Peace
Shawn

[Energy]

[Energy]

[Energy]

[Julio]

Originally Posted by Energy

That discus is insane!!

[Energy]

Originally Posted by Julio

That discus is insane!!

They all came from Kenny's discus- his stuff is incredible!

[Energy]

Originally Posted by AzureFrog

First I want to say that your tank is absolutely beautiful!

That said, I hate to be a downer, but I have many concerns about your Discus...



Everett is completely right about this... Discus prefer, and some would say need, a taller body of water.

I was also wondering how many gallons are in the water portion? Discus need a minimum of 10 gals per fish. I counted nine Discus on your list...

Most people who have had discus would say that it is not a good idea to keep large plecos (anything over 5") with Discus, they can attach themselves to the sides of your fish.

Discus are very very high maintenance fish, they are sensitive to water conditions and require at the least one or two water changes a week. Many
would argue that they need one water change a day, especially if your tank is over stocked (which I believe yours will be). I have 5 Discus in a 75 gal, I do weekly water changes (with 3 filters running) and water quality is still a constant battle.

Finally, although Discus are a peaceful fish, they can be aggressive toward one another, especially if crowded...

Please reconsider putting 9 Discus in your tank... although them may live for awhile, I don't believe they will thrive and you will probably lose several.

Just my 2 cents...

Peace
Shawn

First off thanks for the compliments and I due appreciate your concern. Informed opinions like that help systems improve!

I'd like to get your opinion after I give you a break down of the system.

I would estimate the volume of water inside the system to be about 450 gallons and a sump of 90 gallons to make total system volume 540 gallons. They have unrestricted space end from end for 15 feet 6 inches to roam. They have two lakes on each end of the system that average in size about 4 feet by 4 feet. Just recently I built a cave area that is covered that allows them to escape from the viewing area that measures 3 feet x 3 feet. I also plan on upgrading the other side of the system to build another similiar cave area seperate from the new one.

The water temperature is set at 82 F and ph is set and regulated by a Milwaukee PH controller at 6.8.

At 5:00 pm everyday the system does an automatic 70 gallon water change(did I mention everyday). 50 gallons of this water is 1 ppm RO only water, 20 gallons is 92 ppm tap water. At 7:00 pm the excess water added at 5:00 pm is purged from the system.

The entire system is watered 5 times a day and this water adds another 15 gallons onto the total volume of water that gets purged and changed. This water must filter through pure coco-fiber before entering the water column the fish live in.

After placing the last 5 discus in the system pairs started to form immediately. This is a good sign but not really good overall. When this happens I also know aggression will increase. I have plenty of area overall to allow the Discus to seperate and not even know the others exist.

Still with all these measures in place I know there will be problems. Many people would be inclined to add more discus-given the amount of space/seperation and total in tank water volume. I do not plan on doing this. First I want to monitor how these do/interact.

Filtration: I have four(4) fluval 405's , two aquaclear 110's and the biggest biological filtration occurs through the 2 foot wide by 33" tall planted drip wall. This all in conjunction with daily automatic water changes.

[AzureFrog]

Originally Posted by Energy

First off thanks for the compliments and I due appreciate your concern. Informed opinions like that help systems improve!

I'd like to get your opinion after I give you a break down of the system.

I would estimate the volume of water inside the system to be about 450 gallons and a sump of 90 gallons to make total system volume 540 gallons. They have unrestricted space end from end for 15 feet 6 inches to roam. They have two lakes on each end of the system that average in size about 4 feet by 4 feet. Just recently I built a cave area that is covered that allows them to escape from the viewing area that measures 3 feet x 3 feet. I also plan on upgrading the other side of the system to build another similiar cave area seperate from the new one.

The water temperature is set at 82 F and ph is set and regulated by a Milwaukee PH controller at 6.8.

At 5:00 pm everyday the system does an automatic 70 gallon water change(did I mention everyday). 50 gallons of this water is 1 ppm RO only water, 20 gallons is 92 ppm tap water. At 7:00 pm the excess water added at 5:00 pm is purged from the system.

The entire system is watered 5 times a day and this water adds another 15 gallons onto the total volume of water that gets purged and changed. This water must filter through pure coco-fiber before entering the water column the fish live in.

After placing the last 5 discus in the system pairs started to form immediately. This is a good sign but not really good overall. When this happens I also know aggression will increase. I have plenty of area overall to allow the Discus to seperate and not even know the others exist.

Still with all these measures in place I know there will be problems. Many people would be inclined to add more discus-given the amount of space/seperation and total in tank water volume. I do not plan on doing this. First I want to monitor how these do/interact.

Filtration: I have four(4) fluval 405's , two aquaclear 110's and the biggest biological filtration occurs through the 2 foot wide by 33" tall planted drip wall. This all in conjunction with daily automatic water changes.

Your system sounds great, thank you for the break down. I guess the photos gave me the impression that the water section was much much smaller.

I still believe that the water is a bit shallow, make sure that there is nothing pointy or sharp anywhere in the water, as Discus can and will scrape their sides badly if they are startled.

What kind of plecos do you have? Most of the common plecos will get huge, I personally would not risk keeping them with a Discus. You might want to look into Bristle Nose cats (Ancistrus) they stay small (around 5") and are commonly kept with Discus. They are a really cool little fish, a small herd would look great in your tank.

Ancistrus cf. cirrhosus • Loricariidae • Cat-eLog • PlanetCatfish

Peace
Shawn

[Morgan Freeman]

Those discuss are stunning! Amazing colours. This tank is becomeing even more impressive.