Morning good people. Working out how to set up my fish room starting with breeding tanks for Discus. My plan is 3 tanks 600x400x400 with one sump of about 20-30ltr full of bio balls and topped of with floss. Holes for out feed to be in bottom of tank side, as close to bottom as possible with pipe running up to top of tank and then back down so it acts as over flow and not just drain hole. Tanks will be bear bottom with water changes after feeding. My question is do I need to have sponge filters as well. Inlet for sump will be bar covered in floss to stop babies being sucked in and return will be spray bar. Hope to turn water over 3x hour. This is the frist time setting up Discus breeding so if you can see any problems please reply. Will have to get on with this as have been caught out last night with what I though were two Red Truqs flashing and dancing (colour changes and fins waving) around each other. They have allso started cleaning the intake for the filter. Fish aren't that big around 4inch tip to base i thought that I'ld have 6 months to sort this out. I think I've only had the fish about 2 months, got them of "THE NZ DISCUSMAN" who has a banner on this site. Will get cam from work so I can post pic's.

i would have some form of physical filtration (filter wool/pad) before it reaches the bio balls

out feed hole should be at the top in case you pump fails then all the water wont drain out.

Thanks for replys. Will have floss sitting on top of bio balls and out let hole in tank will be at bottom to colect waste but will bring pipe up to about 1-inch below top of tank so it works like an over flow but with out let at bottom. Hard to explain but pipe will travel up from hole and then down to sump (25mm PVC). What are your throughs re size of fish I didn;t think they would breed at this size. The larger fish of the pair has grow a lot over the last couple of weeks and I think they are still all growing, so do they start breeding before they reach full size. These are the first Discus I've keeped so size vs breeding I'm not sure of. Could they just be playing around or dry humping behind the bike sheds?

Doing the over flow this way wont work because if the pump stops it will become a syphon. There isn't anyway I know of of sucking the water from the bottom safely. The normal method is to have a power head or similar to keep the crap off the bottom and in the water so it drains down the over flow.

Most Discus breeders that I know of (which admittitly aren't many) vacuume the tank every day to remove uneaten food etc so if you did this what you are trying to do isn't really neccessary.

Also rather than putting in a sump have to considered putting a couple of bits of glass in a corner and using a small pump to put water in the top and drain from the bottom, this is very common oversea's esp in Asia. Besides if you are cleaning the tank daily your filter shouldn't really be working very hard.

There have been alot of replys to your post saying it wont work and there kinda right the water draining from your tank WILL suck all the air from you over flow and syphon your tank as the pump is running.

my breeding tank over flows are set out much the same as yours.

to avoid a syphon and keep the drains as you want you need to have the over flow open to the air.

it is differcult for me to explain quickly what i mean, some one else may pick this up who is more articulate than i.

Ten piece Non-syphoning drain

Follow using a drawing

One upright

Rt angle to right

straight

right angle down

Straight

T jointer branch to the right

on the branch short straight

right angle up

short to desired depth of tank.

Go back to T

straight to sump.

It works. Looks ungainly, but no need for drilling tank.

EJ uses it on all his tanks with a timed self filling system.

I use it on my bath ponds outside.

Alan 104

yes I understand that there could be a problem with syphoning and yes will draw of any uneaten food but still would like to have sump as I'm a sales rep and can't allways be there so even with my partner doing this would like 3rd option if she doesn't under stand what or why she is doing this task. So if we have out let at bottom of tank and pipe from this returns to top of tank(required water level and then falls this would mean that if pump falls water won't reach high point in pipe so won't have problem. With comment of sucking air allout, may drill hole in top off top bend so is only over flow and no syphon. Understand that my main problem will be syphoning and using sump so water is as clean as can be. What do the pro do when they have 100 tanks and are running sumps. Have seen photos of this in the book "Discus for the perfectionist" by J Wattle. Thanks for the reply and have change added something to plan so comments are taken on broad. Will try and draw up plan to scan so can show u all.

Alan think where working on the same idea almost but mine has hole. Drawing/photo??

ok i think i have your answer BK, your talking about a hole near the bottom, this leads to a pipe that bends up to the top of the tank to another loop which goes down to the sump right? this will act as a syphon, what you need to do is have a T joint at the top with one going down to the sump and the other going straight up and be open to air. this will stop the syphoning and act like the plumping under the kitchen sink. the weight of the water in the tank will push water out until the weight is too light. hard to explain too but have a pic i just whipped up that may explain better. kinda like a toilet. when your flushing ( water from sump into the tank) the weight will push down and wont completely drain leaving water in the tank.

you need to experiment how high the T joint should go and diameter of the pipe to use. hope this helps

Last night one pair laid eyes and then the male eat them. I think there was a bit much going on in the tank as he was keeping all the other away but when he went over to the female and eggs he starting eat them and she did then as well. At the other end of the tank I think I have another pair with them shaking/waving at each other and chaseing the others away. will try posting tanks pic's in members tanks area now.

Second pair spored (sp) last night and then dined in. I have them in a AR980 with the curved front glass, this would make them seem smaller wouldn't it.

I understand it's not unusual for Discus to eat their eggs the first few times and that they grow out of it. The extra stress of having other fish in the tank might not be helping either.

If I was you I would take the view that it is better that they don't hatch until you have the breeding tank setup.

What do I do to post pic's. Would love to post them somewhere here. Will also post drawing of tank system as well if this timber worker can work out how to do it.