Tropical Fish Forums

[kamaruh]

hello from the philippines

hi I'm a big Fan of this site for so long and I've raised fishes before but never tried planted tanks so I tried researching and setting-up my tank 2 weeks ago. I got 4 3inch discus which I've heared not a good number then I have 5 pink danios, 5 white cloud minows, 10 neon tetras, 3 cory, 2 khuli loach, 2 german guppy and 2 algae eaters
I'm also new to discus and I'm verry excited to try raise some.. I registered and hoping I can learn more from all you guys and I am willing to accept any opinions as long as productivity is concerned

This is my first attempt on planted discus tank 1 and a half week old:

Tank Dimension: length = 5 feet, width = 18 inches, height = 25 and a half inches (outdoors)
Filtration: undergravel with Resun AC-9902 pumps
Lighting: daylight tubes with a total of 120w
Substrate: local river sand, aged garden soil, local river pebbles






_________________
we need to learn everyday to grow

[diademhill]

Nice sized tank but how did you cycle it as it all looks new?

did you seed it from another tank/ filter?

[kamaruh]

yep I seeded it from my friends old and stable tank.

got some few concerns if I may ask some questions:
1. is my sommunity gonna be OK for the moment? aslong as the discus isnt to huge yet.
2. is liquid iron for my plants be safe with my discus?
3. and lastly.. how much fish can I stock in my tank?

anyways thanks for reply
_________________
we need to learn everyday to grow

[diademhill]

Keep an eye on the ntrites as you have the tank fully stocked already. Unless you put in a filter or the rinsings from a filter that was supporting more fish than you have you are going to have a nitrite spike.

What are the algae eaters? They might not be compatible with the discus.

Only dose plant ferts as needed. IME heavily stocked tanks that have lots of water changing rarely need iron.

[kamaruh]

omg ima need to buy testkit
I got 2 golden algae eaters they have been working hard coz they are still small anyways I do 25 percent water change weekly <-- will this help keeping the nitartes at bay? I only used liquid iron for my red colored plants and some macro and micro nutrients and aqua balls as ferts.
_________________
we need to learn everyday to grow

[diademhill]

Golden algae eaters are not compatible with discus - or at least are not compatible when they've grown a bit.

With that stocking level I would up the changes to twice a week - more as the fish grow.

[kamaruh]

ic so those 2 gonna be evicted soon.. any other species I can replace that also eats algae? 1 thing I am concerned of plecos they get too big and so hard to find different type of pleco that doesn't grow too big
_________________
we need to learn everyday to grow

[diademhill]

If the plants grow well you shouldn't need an algae eater.