Reef to Discus update 2

Hey all. Just thought would share recent photos of the old reef tank. Due to the discus shy/dumb nature (seriously, I never thought fish were smart, but wow they seem dumb) I had to add plants. I didn't want plants, but the discus are happier. Got only lower light easy species and varieties that don't need substrate and used the reefer trick of super glue gel!

 

Thanks! I appreciate it.

 

I still have the apex and dos doser. I drilled the sump with a line to the floor drain in the next room and made both DOS pumps to add water from my old kalk brute bin (that I cleaned!!). So it changes 60 gallons a day without any work from me. I have the mp40 on the bottom so most the detritus gets pushed to overflow and the socks last longer than the reef so change them every 4 days or so.

So not much work compared to the reef and I have a sump float switch if the drain clogs to turn off the DOS so I can be gone a few days at a time.


The 100% WC is really when growing babies and that is partially because breeders feed beefheart as a cheap protein source, but it's messy. As they grow the general discus feeling is you can drastically reduce changes. Although honestly I think the whole WC thing is a bit cultural in that community. Plus they don't run filters (besides basic sponge) as WC are cheaper (with tap water) for most people than fancy filters.

I also run rox carbon, purigen and a big UV filter.

 

Not a bad idea. Lots of reefers have some freshwater systems.

 

While I do think the WC thing is overboard, it's almost like a religion on the simply discus site, but you can't argue with those breeder's results. I had discus back in the mid/late 90's, although they were not nearly the size those guys can get out of their fish. They are producing a lot of over 7" fish with measured pictures using heavy WC on juveniles with the frequency and the amount decreasing as the fish mature.

As I said they feed beefheart which is messy but inexpensive, but they often also keep juveniles in extremely crowded tanks. On those they are doing 90% or much more per day, the asian breeders sometimes do several complete changes per day.

The WC also depends on if you have substrate. BB tanks you can remove detritus faster so you don't have to take a much water out.

You do hear on that site about folks doing much less WC, but the best photos of the largest and best fish seem to come from ppl that do huge WC and still pretty large WC with adults but not as extreme.

I am not 100% sold on the large WC, but since I have the automation figure might as well do the max I can, I don't have to do any work with it! It would be cool to have 7" discus...

 

Thanks!!! The tank is a custom 120, but has the standard 120 footprint of 4x2x2.

I got the discus from Discus Hans. He is pretty much a legend in the discus world now from what I gather. The packaging and shipping were all top notch and he calls to make sure there were no problems. I can honestly say he shipped better than any place I have ever ordered from - including places like Divers Den and World Wide Corals for salty stuff.

He imports Stendker discus from Germany. They are the major European breeder.

From what I understand currently in the discus world they separate the breeders into 2 main types, European and Asian. Of course this is quite a generalization, but the Asians push the latest colors more than than the Germans and the Germans focus more on large body size, breeding true and body shape, but don't have as many cutting edge strains. Oddly enough there don't seem to be any American breeders that push the strains, most breed from the German or Asian stock currently.

Stendker Discus from Discus Hans
Discus Hans USA