Stocking a 240 community

[Rodeo one]

THAT looks really good! Love how you just used one type plant...... Kinda classy

 

[BL1ND1ND3X]

Wow that's looks amazing!
Great Job!!

 

[Tommy10]

I wish i was your 5 year old son

 

[Stewy]

Tank looks Great! Do the fish school pretty well in the larger numbers?

The neons act as neons always have for me...they do what they want and are usually scattered in small groups. The rose lines are generally all in a loose school but typically stay together. Now the harlequins...the best schooling fish I have ever kept. They are always in one large group or two half sized groups but super active and they love to have a current. Highly recommend Harleys in a big group...the way they schhol is making me reconsider some of my stocking plans to add more.

 

[threnjen]

Looks absolutely amazing!

 

[fishyfriends3]

Awesome, I am so envious.

 

[Katrinag]

The tank looks so good. I am setting up a 75 gal community tank. Can you tell me what your background is and what type of plant you have? Thanks

 

[Stewy]

I will gladly let you know what I used. Though I must warn you, it is not as elaborate as you might think. For a background, I use one of the generic poster like backgrounds. The one that I use is the shale wall. As for the plants, I am currently using fake plants with plans of planting it later. The ones that I used in this tank are moneywort and cardamine. The driftwood is the only thing that is real at the time being and it is manzanita. I have used Malaysian in the past, but I have to say after using the manzanita…I like it more. It is a bit expensive, but it leaches less tannins than others that I have used in the past. So, nothing special…those are my secrets. Good luck and I hope that it works out.

Stewy

 

[Rodeo one]

You get the award for 'Best use of fake plants'! You created a beautiful tank .

 

[Tommy10]

Any updates?

 

[Stewy]

Well…the updates are not good in my little world. They could be worse so I will explain. The tank was great. Everyone that is in the tank at this moment is doing well. The bad part comes from the fish that I just lost. A couple days after I posted the pictures, I was notified that the discus that I had requested through my LFS had come in. I was stoked. I went in to the shop to find that they had in fact ordered 8 or 10 discus including mine. Picked them up and took them home where I went through the full process. Two hours of drip acclimation, no lights for more than four hours, low lights after that etc. etc. The first 12 hours seemed to be fine. I noticed towards the tail end of that evening that they seemed to really remove themselves and hide, they seemed lethargic and refused to eat the small amount that I offered them. I passed this off initially as shipping stress. The next day however they continued to be lethargic and refuse to eat. Knowing discus to be picky about water parameters, I tested only to find perfect numbers. Over the next couple days things remained the same with me stressing more and more. I was testing the water repeatedly throughout the day, made a couple PWC’s and watched everyone in the tank for hours looking for any abnormalities. This is where it got more frustrating for me because the discus that had already been in the tank was better than ever. It was energetic, eating like crazy, explorative and interactive along with all of the others that were in the tank. After a couple more days of the same, they were gone. Much to my frustration and the sadness of my 4 year old who had already named them. The bright light at the end of the tunnel actually came today. I had not had a chance to go down to my LFS since purchase so I had not talked to the owner. I found out that it had been a bad batch of fish and they had lost nearly all of the discus that they had ordered for no apparent reason with similar symptoms. So it looks like it wasn’t my fault or my tank like I had been worried about. The shop is even going to credit me so that I can replace them. I am now waiting patiently to make sure that the bad fish didn’t leave anything behind in my tank and I will pick up a couple again. Here is hoping that it is with better results.

 

[Stewy]

The guys I lost (not the white one)

 

[Scottyhorse]

So sorry about your Discus. Glad the LFS is replacing them, that's awesome. Are you doing daily water changes to grow them out?

 

[Stewy]

As best as I can with my schedule

 

[Tommy10]

That's too bad. They looked great!

 

[jessicafish]

Looks great! Where'd you get the manzanita? I'm looking for some nice pieces

 

[Stewy]

Looks great! Where'd you get the manzanita? I'm looking for some nice pieces

Jessica, I used http://www.manzanita-driftwood.com. It is a little more expensive than I expected it to be, but he has some great pieces. Plus he offers buy one get one free. I have ordered two sets from him and I was extremely impressed by the customer service. He responds very promptly and ships quick. I can not look at the site anymore because I keep finding pieces that I want but don't have room in the tank. I have six pieces in my tank and love them. They don't leach tannins as bad as Malaysian or mopani and water log a lot faster. The biggest piece I bought water logged within a week and a half. He also sells rock and shrimp. If I am ever in the market for more, I will go back to him without hesitation.

 

[Stewy]

Just an update. Still slowly stocking. I was able to acquire an awesome San merah disc to join my snow white. Still trying to finalize my stocking plans.

 

[Brookster123]

Looking good, I must admit, you have one great scape going there for those discus! Real..fake.. Whatever! Looks good!!

 

[Stewy]

Back again

So...I have been away for a while. I am still here and "The Beast" hasn't killed me yet. I did end up changing everything around from what I had originally planned. I am still in the works and my plans keep changing. I did end up going the discus route and I currently have 9 with a 40 school of harlequins and a small army of otos and hasbrosas on clean up. As I continued to figure out what I was going to do, fate decided to give me a pair of discus that decided to prove themselves and start mating. I am so screwed and I hope my wife understands when I put another tank on the kitchen counter .

If there is anyone that has bred discus, I could use a little help with questions.