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55G & Discus

2K views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  SirReal303 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi everyone!

From reading the posts, this looks like a very informative and supportive forum! This post is about discus... hopefully someone can help me and tell me if I can successfully do this or not!

Currently I have set up a 55 Gallon Tank with...
- 3 Serpae Tetras
- 3 Longfin Zebra Danios
- 3 White Skirt tetras
- 6 Red Swordtails

I am using these fish to cycle with TSS. It has been 2 weeks since adding both fish and TSS

Water Parameters (I have not done any water changes since as I want this aquarium to be cycled, these readings have been consistent for the past week) are:
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrate: < 20 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
pH: 7
Water Hardiness: 80 ppm
Alkalinity: 80 ppm

My tap water is naturally soft and I only treat it with Prime and wait a day before adding it to the tank. (Is this how I will be doing it with the discus too?)

My set up:
-Marineland Penguin Power filter (350 GPH) mechanical, chemical, and biological filter (uses 2 filters with carbon, 2 bio-wheels)
-2 airlines
-Black Tahitan sand
-a couple of fake plants

Finally to the question... If I use my airline(s) to set up sponge filters and with my power filter, will I be able to successfully raise 5 2.5'' discus to adulthood with water changes? What can I do to my set up to do a better job? I know that a cannister filter is better, but can I get away with my current set up for a while? What will the water changes look like with and without the current fish (Was thinking of rehoming them, but maybe they will be better since they can clean up leftover food on the floor?
 
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#2 ·
This is one of our tanks... 55g pressurized planted tank with 9 discus, 3 angels, 50 rummies, 1 betta, 2 splendid killifish, 1 sae, 1 bn pleco, tons of shrimp and assassin snails. We use a digital ph controller to keep the ph between 6.5-6.8 but I've known people to keep discus at a ph of 7 as your tank is.



That's the most current video of the tank. If u go to my channel and scroll down to the initial stages of that 55g discus setup (we just set it up last december so the videos in december of '14 or january of this year) I go over the entire setup of the tank.

We personally haven't found discus to be that difficult to keep but it's a little easier with a planted pressurized setup that's controlled. We also have kept apistogramma for a few years prior to starting with these so that helped too. I will say they CAN be a very sensitive fish although we've not encountered any real problems with keeping them. Others I know have run into difficulty keeping them so that's something to consider as well.

If u want to try them I wouldn't just go out and drop a bunch of money on all of them, I'd start with a few to see how they do in your setup. If they thrive I'd go ahead and add some more.

Good luck.
 
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