My new 120G Discus tank!

[neonlyte]

well i finally decided to upgrade from my 55 gallon tank with assorted fish to a 120g tank with my favorite fish ever, discus!

day 1, moving the tank... what a pain! it measures 48x24x24 and has 1/2" thick glass! never again will i ever want to move this! i borrowed a cube van from work that had a lift gate on it and borrowed a heavy duty fridge dolly from my dad's work, never again!

here it is after i got it into place and installed my eheim jager 250w heaters and the output pipes for the filters. while installing the filters the silicone on the right hand pipe came loose and i had to reseal! setback! oh no...



im running a fluval 305 as well as a fluval 304



day 2, i let the silicone dry for 24 hrs and i put in my river rocks and water tested the tank, no leaks! victory! also put in my driftwood (some more is still to come but its soaking) and a jebo filter.





day 3, i got a marineland double bright LED light, filled up the water and put a thermometer in, but that's not every exciting so i didn't take any photos...

day 4, today is the day i get my fish! i'm so impatient, i'm surprised i lasted that long... by now the water is at the right temp, the filters have been running for a while, everything is stable and ready to go, so off i go to get my new fish, and here they are! the LED light gives off a lovely effect and makes the fish look great!



















thanks for viewing! next plan is to get my other driftwood in there and re-arrange things a bit, and put in a bunch of cardinal tetras, then i am all set! don't know how many cardinal's to get, but a large school would be great!

[discuspaul]

Not to rain on your parade, Neonlyte, but what am I missing here ? Your tank's just been set up new 4 days ago, and you've just added all those beautiful discus ? How did you work out the cycle for your tank ? Did you add seeded filtration from your existing 55 gal., and any other source of beneficial bacteria colonization to deal with that bio-load ?
I love the fish, Peter has great fish and knows what he's doing - did he know your tank was just newly set up, and did he give you a seeded sponge filter to get things going ok from the get-go ?
I'm somewhat fearful - tell me where I'm off the mark, ok ? - so we can both feel better.

[Mferko]

sounds like he used media from his 55G

[Peterchow]

Congrat, Thomas !!!!

The discus look better in your new tank for some reasons(good lighting). Discus love clean fresh water as long as cholrine is removed from the tap water when doing W/C as well as stable PH, and salt. No need to age or cycle water.

Yes, all the filter media are used + bio rings so they did speed up the cycling process for new set up.

Your tank looks GREAT !!!!!!

[discuspaul]

I hope so - maybe those 2 Rena filters were fully seeded from a previous tank operation - I sure hope that was the case - otherwise the bio-load from that number of discus could spell big trouble trouble real fast. Perhaps Neonlyte can help us understand this soon. Otherwise, he'll need to take some disaster prevention action right away.

[Peterchow]

I hope so - maybe those 2 Rena filters were fully seeded from a previous tank operation - I sure hope that was the case - otherwise the bio-load from that number of discus could spell big trouble trouble real fast. Perhaps Neonlyte can help us understand this soon. Otherwise, he'll need to take some disaster prevention action right away.

I kept 20+ discus in my previous 75G with one fluval 404 + 2 HOB magnum, with W/C every second day, and they were in top shape.

I see no problems in this tank with 3 times W/C per week.

[discuspaul]

Yes, I'm sure of that Peter, but I expect your Fluval & Magnums were seeded at the time.
And wc/s 3 X week are great to maintain good water quality, remove nitrates, etc. for those discus.
But a newly set-up tank - with all those discus - and questionable, perhaps very light Ben. Bac. colonization ? I can envisage an ammonia build-up very soon. Were those Renas seeded ? I've been fish-keeping for 50 years, and I can sense a problem here.
Perhaps I'm being over-sensitive to what may, or may not, have been done to prepare this tank ?

[April]

HEH PETER..YOU GOT rid of your fish? i figured some looked like my fish..
hopefully all goes well. peter your experienced..you know what to watch for.
keep us updated on their progess in settling in.

[neonlyte]

The tank is new to me but not new, it was more of a transplant if anything. I used the seachem new tank chemical for good measure, but the only things new about the tank are the heaters and the light, all other pieces are from someone else, i may be a bit new by some standards but i've kept fish successfully for over 10 years myself

[Peterchow]

HEH PETER..YOU GOT rid of your fish? i figured some looked like my fish..
hopefully all goes well. peter your experienced..you know what to watch for.
keep us updated on their progess in settling in.

Yes, April !!!!!

All 13 discus were from your stocks. I need to downsize my tanks in view of my mother in law's injury(cracked right hip).

Thomas, I get most of my discus keeping tips from April since 2007. Your 120G tank can actually handle more discus with stroner filtration + more frequent W/C.

Shelly from "-N/A-" & Joseph from "Josephl" are 2 other very experienced discus keepers in this forum, and you can also pm them if you are stuck.