Journal A Symphysodon Symphony

[*Ci*]

This is my Osaka 320, an 84g curved glass, Fluval model with original stand, circa 2009. Dimensions are 47” x 17” x 25” high. It is the larger of my two Osaka aquariums documented in my journal: A Tale of Two Osakas



Filtration is 2 Oase Biomaster Thermal 850’s to spraybars. Lighting is 2 Current Satellite Plus Pros set to a medium/low output, there is cO2 hooked up via inline diffuser, which has been turned off for the past 9 months or so. Low light/weekly EI dosing with a 50% water change.

I set it up as this low tech planted, jungle style scape in 2022, but now I want to switch it up a bit and convert it to accommodate Discus (Symphysodon discus sp.). I have never kept Discus before, so this is an ongoing learning process for me.

I think this tank is a good candidate for the conversion - it is filled with anubias, java fern, crypts, and swords that will probably all tolerate the 82F I plan on keeping the fish. They are used to 76-77F already, and my plan is to gradually increase that a degree or two per week till I hit the target.
The substrate is thin -1.5” or so, and I am considering going barebottom, keeping the epiphytes on driftwood and pot up a few of the others.

I definitely need more swimming room, so step one will be to thin out the mass and remove a few plants and pieces of wood.

Step two will be to remove some of the incompatible fish - a few long finned danios, 4 glow light tetras (which I believe are modified black skirts) 2 Synodontis petricola catfish, and the dam*ed female albino bushynose that keeps having babies (I’ll keep the male).

There is also a combined school of black Venezuelan and gold lazer cories, which I will keep in the tank along with some black mollies which hopefully will acclimate to the slow temperature rise.

I will have to remove all of the driftwood to catch these fish, so if I decide to remove the substrate, I can get that all done at the same time.

I do want a fully planted look, so tomorrow I will start the thinning process and see what things look like from there … any advice from experienced planted discus tank keepers is more than welcome!

 

[Count Krunk]

Md fish tanks recently released a discus video if you want to check that out.

Sounds awesome!

 

[*Ci*]

I removed a chunk of mopani wood covered with giant java fern from the right hand side, trimmed and re-tied the bigger clumps of anubias, repositioned the wood “caves’ and removed a sickly aponogeton. There is more open space now, and I think a group of discus will be comfortable. I’m thinking 5 adults or near adults (4”+).



I think I will pot up the rooted plants next and start to gradually remove substrate over time. This will help prevent a huge mess of debris, and let the tank keep up with beneficial bacteria as I reduce surface area.
I am also working on a scheme to semi-automate water changes so they are easier to perform. My goal for the discus tank is 2 x 50% per week.
I’m thinking of a syphon tube living in a back corner of the tank, with the bottom suspended at the half way mark, attached to the glass with suction cups for easy removal to vacuum. The other end of the syphon hose leading to a waste drain pipe that comes up through the floor behind my other fish tank. A rubber suction ball will be on the hose.
With this permanently in place, all I need to do is walk up to the tank, squeeze the ball a few times and let the water drain till 50% is out and the syphon breaks.
I also have a water filling hose coming up through the floor behind the other tank, that I usually drag over to this one to fill. If I tee off of that one with a new hose to the discus tank and somehow attach it over the edge, then that will alleviate even more fuss.
I suppose there is some kind of float switch that can turn off the hose when the tank is full, but of this, I know little to nothing … advice?

I could probably auto dose my ferts as well. I have been front loading once a week after w/c, but if I do a second w/c, I guess I will have to re-dose as well. Can you set up an autodoser to put in a certain amount of ferts at the push of a button, as opposed to on a timer?

A lot of stuff to accomplish and learn before I even think about fish!

 

[*Ci*]

Potted up the sword and some crypts, and moved the rest to my other tank. I also took out about a quarter of the sand. There was some , what looked like, blue green algae growing on the glass below the substrate, so I was glad to get rid of that before it became a problem.

I’m actually looking forward to having a clean bare bottom (tank, that is, lol)



On another front, I am finding it hard to find any discus breeders in Canada. I don’t want to spend a fortune, but I would like some quality and a from a reputable dealer. There is one in Ontario, but I live on the west coast and fear the shipping will be unreasonable. I may have to resort to LFS fish and take my chances.

 

[Koan]

finding it hard to find any discus breeders in Canada

Have you talked to this guy? He's not shipping right now till after the holiday but he's just a couple hours drive from you:



Or folks on this Facebook list should have some other contacts:

 

[*Ci*]

Have you talked to this guy? He's not shipping right now till after the holiday but he's just a couple hours drive from you:

Close to 5 hrs. plus a 2hr ferry ride plus a border wait, but I was considering it anyway. He has a good reputation but his shipping page says he only ships in the US.
Thanks for the links!

 

[Koan]

Oh you're not on the mainland, I missed that!

Hmm, maybe if he shipped to Red's in Bellingham for pickup there?

And you know there's never a wait at Aldergrove

 

[*Ci*]

All the substrate is now gone. It was amazing how many broken bits of root were floating around after scooping it all out - it will take a water changes to get the water pristine. There is a mirrored background which you can see better now. I wonder how the discus will like it?
I also installed a Yugang Open Flow Reactor, and put Co2 back on this tank. With the size I built, I am expecting well below a 1 pt. drop, which the discus should tolerate. I am going to compare the different changes in pH with running Co2 24/7 vs turning off at night.

Yesterday, I gave away most of the fish, which was supposed to include both my male and female albino plecos. Most people feel that ancistrus are fine with discus, but a few on the discus forums have reported incidents of slime coat sucking. However, after removing all the wood and plants, the male pleco was nowhere to be seen. I took every branch to the sink, peered, probed and squirted water in every crack, looked all over the floor with a headlamp - nothing! I can only think that he has squeezed into a tiny crevice (he is full grown) and I hope to highwater (pun intended) that he is not stuck and dies. It was also amazing how many baby plecos, some looking newly hatched, there were. I thought I was keeping up with removing them!

After rinsing all the wood and plants, returning them to the tank and refilling - what do you know - more baby plecos. Damn invasive pests …

I kept 9 cories, some Black Venezuelan and some gold Lazers, and a few elderly mollies, but now I am rethinking. If I remove all the fish, I can clean up the tank with potassium permanganate and skip using a separate quarantine tank for the discus. Plus the cories are spilling sand from the pots all over the nice clean bottom. I may have to rethink the potted plant substrate …

 

[Kwyet]

When I was preparing to move, I finally found one of my plecos had wedged himself into a crevice in a piece of wood.

 

[*Ci*]

When I was preparing to move, I finally found one of my plecos had wedged himself into a crevice in a piece of wood.

Was he alive?

 

[Kwyet]

Was he alive?

Oh, yes, he was totally fine, the snot!

 

[SkaleyAquatics]

I love the look of the tank like that.

I have found ancistrus(common bristlenoses) to be tough little buggers. If one is lodged in wood good luck getting it out. It'll come out on its own but they can wedge themselves into extremely tight crevices. I have also seen them survive multiple hours without water.

 

[*Ci*]

I love the look of the tank like that.

I have found ancistrus(common bristlenoses) to be tough little buggers. If one is lodged in wood good luck getting it out. It'll come out on its own but they can wedge themselves into extremely tight crevices. I have also seen them survive multiple hours without water.

That’s good to know, as I had the wood sitting out for at least a half hour!
Over on Simply Discus, the general consensus is that the tank is too crowded, with not enough swimming area for large Discus and I kind of agree. I love the look of all the big Anubias, but I am thinking of deleting some of the chunks of wood they are attached to.

 

[*Ci*]

Progress!
- I removed two large pieces of mopani and relocated the attached anubias to the remaining driftwood (plus some into my other tank).

- deleted one pot and capped the others with some heavier gravel to prevent spillage.

- went over all the driftwood with magnifying glasses, headlamp and a long skewer and still no pleco … crawled all over the floor with the same gear - nothing. I am completely mystified.



The tank is looking so empty! But I think the discus will appreciate the extra swimming room.

- I made stock solutions of all my ferts and additives and got these nifty dosing bottles for easy measuring. This step alone will save me a ton of time on water change day. I was hauling out jars, measuring dry with spoons, shaking up in a bottle of water before dumping. Now I bring out one caddy and just squeeze and squirt!



The gallon jugs of stock solutions are stored in the basement:



Lastly, I put dedicated syphon hoses on each tank which are mostly hidden behind furniture etc. They are suction cupped to a back corner of each tank at a height that will break the syphon at exactly 50% and run to a drain through the floor that I had put in a long time ago. That made it easy enough, but now I don’t have to haul out hoses and then pack them away, nor do I have to watch carefully to stop the syphon at the right time.
I can just remove them from their clips if I want to vacuum the bottoms.



I had a water filling hose coming up through the floor as well, hooked up to my laundry hot and cold taps, so I could put the right temperature water in the tanks. I added two more hoses and brought them up behind both the discus tank and my vintage chrome shrimp tank so now every tank has their own water filling hose set to just the right temp for that tank!
This is what my laundry tap looks like now - there is also a hose for my overwintering indoor cactus, succulents and basement hydroponics:


Getting closer to fish, but have a few more things to try out first…

 

[Kwyet]

Sorry about the Pleco. Maybe it’ll still show up. Awesome set-up you’ve made though!

 

[Koan]

Hey Ci you've probably already seen this?



Discus 101 lecture at an old (year??) American Cichlid Association by Al Sabetta, owner of Simply Discus.

It's awesome

 

[*Ci*]

Hey Ci you've probably already seen this?

Discus 101 lecture at an old (year??) American Cichlid Association by Al Sabetta, owner of Simply Discus.

It's awesome

Yes, I have. I’ve been getting some advice on Simply Discus, from Al and others. But thanks for thinking of me and posting the link.
Two of the things that have influenced me from this research are to set up an ageing barrel for water changes and to do Al’s full quarantine and de-worming protocol, so I am busy setting both of those things up.
Today’s chore - I bought a 50g. barrel for my WC water. It is food grade but was filled with chocolate! It came completely coated on the inside with sticky residue, so I am struggling with a heat gun and paper towel to mop it out … lol!
I also bought a 55 g quarantine tank which my son will help me move into the basement tonight. It is also filthy, so once I get it cleaned and sterilized I can start cycling it.

 

[Koan]

It came completely coated on the inside with sticky residue

How about a water butt like this? No muss no fuss, more attractive to have in the house, and a flat back to fit against the wall in a corner..

Call it part of the Discus Christmas

 

[*Ci*]

I do realize this journal is going agonizingly slowly … lol. But some small progress has been made.

- Q-tank is up and cycling. I decided to seed with old media, but the canister filter that came with the tank was faulty, so there is an inadequate sponge filter in there now until a new Oase Biomaster arrives (could set the cycle back a bit while the new media catches up).

- water change barrel is clean and set up in the crawlspace under the main tank, components gathered and waiting to be set up (heater, circulating pump, sump pump and hose to fill display tank, barrel refill hose, double float valve for redundancy, remote controlled switches to turn pumps and heaters on and off from the room above)

- On the Osaka 320 main display tank I have 2 Oase Biomaster 850s’ running. I extended the filter inputs in each back corner down to the very bottom of the tank and attached them each to one end of a 20mm pipe with holes drilled along it’s length and facing downwards.



This will pull all the debris directly off the floor and into the Biomaster pre-filters. I have this same arrangement, called a retro bottom drain, on my koi “pond” (really just a 2000g outdoor fish tank!) and it effectively sweeps the bottom continuously.
It’s been running now for a few weeks in the Osaka and there is not a speck of waste on the bare bottom of the tank with 9 corydoras, 4 black mollies, one farlowella catfish and 18 black phantom tetras. Granted, things will change dramatically with the addition of 5-6 near adult discus, but I feel confident that this system will cut down on maintenance considerably.
And it doesn’t even look too bad (wish I could have found black fittings, but … Canada, eh?)

 

[Kwyet]

That’s really cool!