milkchops

thanks for the replies, yeah I think I will go for an Eheim, I can get them at a really good price and I don't mind forking out for quality. As for the name, I donno, just something random that I came up with to replace an old username, which was Monsupial incedentally - pretty random.

sweet we only very seldom get aquarium supplies at work, so it will be a good 3 weeks before I can get a new cannister at a decent price. I'll probably get a 2217, overkill it, and then if the fluval dies ive got a filter that can easily handle the tank on its own anyway. I don't even know the people on the forums but before I registered I was checking this forum daily lol. Already have a lot of respect for the guys you have mentioned, they seem to really know their stuff.

I like the idea of having a planted tank, but I don't know if I will like the maintenance on top of trying to keep the discus happy. I have done some reading about CO2 diffusers, light setups etc for growing plants properly, but with the temps required and the extra work, I don't know if I'll go down that path yet. I will probably try a small planted community aquarium before I try it with discus. I'm only worried that my tank is going to look pretty barren for months while I wait for the discus (either to be born in the first place or to grow), the driftwood I have will easily span the length of the aquarium, but it will only come up about 15cm from the gravel, this tank has a water level around 50cm. I'll have to experiment a little to start with, and I will definitely start posting pictures as soon as possible for you guys to critique just saw your edit, and another consideration RE the filter came to mind... the tank water level of the tank is probably about 1.4 metres from the ground, the smaller Eheims could barely pump to that head height probably. Perhaps I will have to fork out for a bigger one :-? **edit** any problems with using the Classic Eheims? They don't look as flash, and you have to prime them, but otherwise they seem to do the same job as the professional series?

and I suppose I should be asking Ron, but does he have any golden/yellow sunrise, or mostly blue/red strains? I feel I'm kinda in the same boat as floater, but to a lesser extent. I used to live near Wonderworld, but that was back when they were based at Kuirau Park, then on Paradise Valley Road. I got my original discus through them. They seem to be quite knowledgable, and if I'm desperate to get golden sunrise I might have to use a LFS. Price is kind of a consideration, so I might have to stick to the slightly smaller cannisters, and certainly not the fancy ones with built in heaters or UV probably. What is the UV for btw, does it help break down nitrites or is it purely for microbial purposes?

well I have read that Eheims can barely be beaten for quality, and I can get them at a pretty good price through work. What size do you think I should go for?? I was thinking of a 2213 or 2215. I don't mind going filter overkill, and I can get a really good price on pretty much any Eheim equipment. I like the HOB idea, but more biological filtration is the way to go for discus surely. Kuhlis are so funny, I had a few when I was younger, didn't realise they were carnivorous/omnivorous though.

Yeah I know sorry about the long winded response. Yeah basically I just wanted some guidance, some ideas, people's experiences if they have tried any of the things I have mentioned. One question that I really need answered is how best to choose the right discus when I live in the Taranaki and all the breeders/importers are based a good 2-3 hours away. I'm thinking road trip... I might be over-researching, but I have read a few forums from the states which reckon the omnivorous plecos like the zebra are good with discus cos they act as cleanup crews. They are rather expensive, and my water changes should be taking care of that job really. I do like bristlenoses, they have a lot of character.

I'm becoming a forum whore, but one problem with wanting Hypancistrus and otos, as opposed to Ancistrus and corys, my wallet is supposed to have a hole burned in it from discus, not plecos :roll:

Yeah I have kept discus before, but I was much younger and free spirited. I had nowhere near the right kind of dedication for keeping them. Needless to say they didn't do terribly well and only lived for about a year. I also hadn't done anywhere near the kind of research necessary. I was really focused on getting the pH just right and having soft water, but at the end of the day I should have spent more energy keeping the tank clean and feeding them properly. I intend to get back into keeping discus slowly this time, and hopefully by the time I get some this time they will be fish I can be really proud of. Btw Floater, WOW 450litres, is that your first ever fishtank!!?! My previous biggest tank was a 3ft, probably only 130-150 litres.

thanks for all the warm welcomes. Yea i have seen pics of the golden sunrise and they are basically the reason I want to keep discus again. I had a friend who had a pair of very very nice blue turquoise that I was always jealous of as well. My fiance really likes red melons too, so I am basically looking at setting up a 300L to eventually house 6 discus, most probably a combination of golden sunrise, red melons and either blue diamonds or blue turquoise. I personally like the various albinos, especially the albino leopards and snakeskins that are being bred by Vincent discus. Unfortunately the fiance doesn't like them, so since this tank is bacically going to be the centrepiece of the living room I have to take her tastes into consideration. She really likes solid coloured discus, and I must admit if I could get 3-4 golden sunrise I would be quite happy. I had never seen yellow discus until I just recently started thinking about getting an aquarium again. I dont know if this is an appropriate place to start posting for advice already, but I have been scouring these forums and I see a few of you more experienced fish keepers have already replied, so I'll fire away. The tank I'm getting is an older bay fronted Aqua-one, 300L, quite a deep tank (good for discus I've read), 1200mm long and quite deep from front to back too. It is currently filtered by a fluval 305 (which I think is underpowered for the tank), not sure on the heater, and it has two 30W powerglo bulbs. If there is space to supplement the filtration with a HOB filter I will probably invest in a cheapo aqua-one with a decent flow rate for extra mechanical filtration. Don't know how long ago the filtration media was cleaned/replaced, but at least I know it has a pretty good population of beneficial bacteria ready to go. The tank is also coming with about 7 buckets of black gravel, looks to have diameter of about 5mm, so not terribly coarse. Previous owner had the gravel bed about 6-10cm thick. My plan is to have it minimally planted with a very shallow gravel bed (probably 4-5cm) so it can be suctioned easily. Ive got some really nice driftwood, one piece in particular which is 90cm long with some kinks and holes in it, which will form the main feature apart from the fish. I was also thinking of planting on the driftwood, not in the gravel. For this reason I have already been trolling the forums for Anubias, but I have had java ferns before and they have to be the easiest plants in the world to grow. I've seen various pictures of windelov and trident java ferns, but I don't know if the latter are available in NZ. I used to have some java ferns before I sold my tanks that looked a lot like windelov with the branching leaf tips. I've also been looking at getting some Bolbitis, but I'm not sure if i can provide the care that these plants seem to require. If you haven't already noticed I like the fern type look, and I really wish we had a better range of moss in NZ (probably wouldn't grow at 29-30 degrees tho ) Ive got an old 200L open topped drum, an old heater and a pump that I was going to use to age water without chemicals. Have never tried this, and have cobbled together these parts simply because I want to be able to change water at least every 2 days, 50% at a time if possible. Been doing some reading and have already researched how the council here treats our water. The only added chemicals other than those picked up in the pipework are chlorine and fluorine. My only concern is that there could be ammonia in the lines between the treatment plant and town, and the chlorines could be forming chloramines in the lines - making my 200L drum setup redundant. If you guys think the drum aging system will fail, I might convert it to a rain water collector. I haven't had a chance to check pH, hardness etc of our town water supply but I'm gonna test it out of the tap soon and after being left in our drum overnight to see what its like 'vanilla' so to speak. I'm hoping that I won't have to do anything fancy, but if I have to I'll use a commercial water ager (although I'm loathe to do this with the number of changes I'm planning on doing). My driftwood was only recently collected, from fresh water, so shouldn't have any salt or calcium buildup. It has got a bit of vegetable matter (moss, dead leaves) and dirt all over it. I've given it all a good scrub and wash down. Was going to water blast it, but if anyone has any more ideas about how I could kill any nasties in it I would love to hear it. I was thinking of leaving it in the sun for a few days. Even though I suspect that the tank will almost be cycled from the start (considering it will have fish in it until the day I actually pick it up), I intend to take it reasonably slowly, adding my driftwood and plants first - hopefully there will still be some dead vege matter on the wood to supply some nitrates for the plants. I intend to follow that up with the purchase of some moderately hardy fish (need help here), but was thinking some plecos (preferably carnivorous ones that don't grow too big (Hypancistrus??) - you will see why soon) and some cardinal tetras (maybe 10-15?). Will follow that up after a while with some otos for algae control - have read mixed reports of plecos and otos attacking discus, no experience personally and my old bristenoses left my previous discus well alone, have never kept otos with discus before. The reason I wanted carnivorous discus is I have read that they are superior to corys for cleaning up uneaten food, and on top of that otos are more efficient algae eaters than BN plecos. I do like the little BN critters though, and why have all that yummy driftwood if it is never gonna get munched on . Then finally...... once I have probably been running with this setup for a couple of months, I'll look at getting my discus. I've always wanted to breed them (my friends turquoises spawned), so I am quite tempted to buy cheaper 4-5cm discus in larger numbers, grow them out in a smaller BB tank, wait for pairings then put them into the tank in the living room. I fear this will be a very expensive way to go about it and is something that I really want some advice on. Getting discus to spawn would be a real thrill, but I don't intend to start breeding them 'properly' so to speak, so perhaps it would be better to get the strains I like, whether that be in the younger 4-5cm stage or fork out for bigger 10cm or so fish that are showing their colours already. I really don't mind growing them out, and I think I would quite like the challenge. I have no idea what size tank would be required to grow out 5-6 discus, i was thinking 2ft, but might need bigger. I would probably rig up an automatic feeder for while I'm at work dispensing dry foods (discus food), and I would feed them a commercial frozen/freeze dried or home made diet when I'm at home. So if I intend to grow out my discus, I was thinking it would be best to start cycling a tank soon. Was going to go with a sponge filter or possibly a submersible (I get the impression the sponges are what most breeders use). So with this novel of a post nearly finished, I hope you guys have a really good idea of where I'm trying to go with this fish tank, and any advice would be great. At this stage I've been looking at Vincent discus a lot (wish I had some already), and will most likely be getting red melons and blue diamonds from him - if he had golden sunrise I would get them from him as well. He seems to be the only reputable breeder active on the forums that I can see (Discusguru no longer does discus?). One hair brained idea that I've had is that IF I really wanted to get some breeding pairs, I could buy 4-5 of each strain I like at a time, grow them out until they pair off in BB 2ft tanks, and sell the older, bigger discus to other users on the forum. They should be really good quality if I do it right, and they would have come from top stock (Vincent or imported). Shoot me down if this is silly, or if you guys think the market for adult discus is truly bad. I don't want to be stuck with 5 discus the same colour (unless I start with the golden sunrise :lol: ) I get the impression that most of you guys like helping people set up their tanks and get stuck into the hobby almost as much as you love your own aquariums, I'm glad I stumbled onto this community before I got my new tank. Cheers

I was down at the local pet shop yesterday and met a guy who does aquarium maintenance and knows a lot about fish health based out of New Plymouth. He seems like a veritable fountain of knowledge. It would be quite good to catch up with some other local fishkeepers, I still have no idea where I can buy the kind of fish I'm after locally.

Hey just joined the forums yesterday, still haven't got my new tank yet but setting up a 300L freshwater aquarium soon. I'm a vet in the taranaki and have been in Stratford for the last 3 years. Used to live in the waikato with a relatively small 150L setup keeping discus in a community tank. Looking to setup a dicus tank again, this time focusing on the discus. Hope to learn as much as possible from the more experienced people on the forums.