Requirements to grow discus

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nwozniak

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Aug 9, 2012
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Lakeland FL
So just got my 72 bowfront running and cycled. Got my DIY LED lighting installed and a handful of cheap plants in the substrate. My girlfriend and I want to eventually take out the cycle fish (danio's, mollys, neons) and make a discus tank. I've never had discus before, and was wondering what is required for keeping them. My LFS says you can only use RO water for discus, but I find it hard to believe that people 20 years ago keeping discus used RO water. Can anyone who keeps/kept discus please help me out. I'm willing to learn whatever I need to keep them, or even invest in an RO system if necessary, but I can't seem to find a good starting place.

Any suggestions where to start? Thank you in advance!
 
Tom Barr

Tom Barr

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What is your tap water like,? Water report? Where do you live etc?

99% of discus are tank bred and raised. They are big old cichlids.
Not as fragile as most are led to believe.
 
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Yo-han

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Feb 6, 2011
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For wild caught discus you need just like 20years ago RO water. But most discus these days, especially the fancy bred colors do fine at normal tap water. They need high temperatures though and prefer clean water (low nitrate for example) but again, most discus bred these days are not much harder than most other fish except for temperature. (30 degree Celsius is preferred) I personally think a 72 is a bit small. Discus are best kept with at least 6 and you can image it gets crowded with 6 adults in 72 gallon. Try to read up a little before converting your tank to a discus tank;)
 
N

nwozniak

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Aug 9, 2012
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Lakeland FL
Tom Barr;90024 said:
What is your tap water like,? Water report? Where do you live etc?

99% of discus are tank bred and raised. They are big old cichlids.
Not as fragile as most are led to believe.
Click to expand...

I live in central Florida. Tap water is around 8 pH, 6gH, 4kH.

For wild caught discus you need just like 20years ago RO water. But most discus these days, especially the fancy bred colors do fine at normal tap water. They need high temperatures though and prefer clean water (low nitrate for example) but again, most discus bred these days are not much harder than most other fish except for temperature. (30 degree Celsius is preferred) I personally think a 72 is a bit small. Discus are best kept with at least 6 and you can image it gets crowded with 6 adults in 72 gallon. Try to read up a little before converting your tank to a discus tank
Click to expand...

As far as temperature, I don't forsee a problem with the mild temperatures here. 600W of heating should be more than enough. So six is the recommended number of discus? Upon some of my reading I got anywhere from 5-15 gallons per fish. What's a good number in everyone's opinion? And yes, I do want to read up, and am looking for a place to start.

I just feel that the tank looks so big to have just small fish in it. But any/all opinions are welcomed here. :)
 
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Gerryd

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Sep 23, 2007
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nwozniak;90061 said:
So six is the recommended number of discus? Upon some of my reading I got anywhere from 5-15 gallons per fish. What's a good number in everyone's opinion? And yes, I do want to read up, and am looking for a place to start.

I just feel that the tank looks so big to have just small fish in it. But any/all opinions are welcomed here. :)
Click to expand...

Hi,

Six is too many for YOUR tank IMO. You have to account for the eventual size of the fish as well. Note that crowding will keep them smaller.

Personally I would have no more than 4 in your tank and that is pushing it...

Your tank is a nice size, yes, but not necessarily for discus......

There are several good books available on discus, other forums, and I am fairly certain if you search Discus on THIS forum that your question have been asked and answered fairly recently. I will see if I can help find any of these threads...
 
Tom Barr

Tom Barr

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The tap water is fine for the fish, the tank size.....maybe not so much.
I target 82-84F for discus.
Same for Cardinals etc.

Wet/dry filter etc.
 
N

nwozniak

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Aug 9, 2012
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Lakeland FL
Thank you GerryD. I have searched for discus on this forum and some other weird threads have come up, none I came across have answered some of these basic questions. Even when searching the general interweb I couldn't come seem to find multiple sources that agreed on their care. (As seen even here, although the difference seems to stem from the fish's initial source [wild vs tank raised]). I figured asking here is the best source as I know people have raised them.

Filtering, I have a Rena XP canister. Is this ok, or should I dust off my old wet/dry?

Also any books that anyone could recommend would be appreciated. I'd be new to discus (and mostly planted tanks too) but not to the hobby. Been doing that off/on for near 20. It was actually a conversation about breeding angels and discus from that timeframe that got me to thinking to try discus.

And if honestly the tank is just too damn small I still have opportunity to bypass them altogether if thoughts are that I should.

Thank you all for the responses, this forum is amazing on so many levels! (BTW, been lurking in the shadows around Tom's advice for quite some time, back before the forum format, when the threads were over email. Lol)
 
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