Help selecting fish - 200 litre tank

[jurassictank]

Hi!

I am new to aquarium keeping and would like some advice on the type of fish to select. I have bought a new 200 litre tank which is 70 cm Length x 51 cm Depth x 65cm Height. I originally wanted discus fish in there with some other community fish. What are your thoughts? Everyone gives me contradicting information on the discus fish for my tank.
I don't know which fish would be suitable, and how many of each to get. I have received different information from my local aquarium shops and found them to not be very helpful.
My tank is in its 3rd week of cycling. The PH is 6.4, Nitrite 0.25ppm, nitrate 5.0ppm and ammonia is still around 8.0ppm. I have ADA amazonia aqua soil and it has live plants. thanks in advance

 

[plantnoob]

Discus prefer to be in groups of 6 or more. I'd say you are bordering on minimum tank size for that group size. I'm certain you can't add any more to your tank if you have discus. Plus you have not mentioned anything about filtration and what you have. They need pristine water, and being large fishes, you should expect a higher bioload. They don't tolerate any ammonia well. So decide if you really want discus. If yes, make it a discus only tank and you'll have to work hard at maintaining water quality. Keep in mind too that they have high temp requirements (84-87 deg f preferred).

Use aqadvisor.com to sense check your stocking level and filtration.


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[plantnoob]

Also your tank looks beautiful!

Given that you are a beginner, how about start with easier community fishes that can be a lot of
fun. I personally think discus are beautiful, but pretty boring fishes. My 2 cents.


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[jurassictank]

Thanks for your reply! I think you may be right, 200 litres may be a tad small for discus fish.
I forgot to mention the filtration I have.
I have the Juwel Lido 200 tank. It comes with a Juwel bioflow 3.0 filtration system (which has a Poly Pad, Carbon sponge, Nitrax, 2x Sponge fine, Sponge Coarse and a eccoflow 600 L/h pump) and a 200w auto heater. I also have 2 x High-Lite Day 28 Watt T5 lights.
Since I don't want to keep discus in an unfair small environment, I will consider my other options for a brightly coloured community tank fish