Tank Maintenance and Setup

First of all I want to explain type of tanks that normally hobbyist use for keeping discus.

Bare tank

                Both of my tanks are belong to this type. They are bare bottom. What you see in the tank is solely air stone and power head and                   nothing else. This type of setup is mostly preferred by breeder and to large extent some serious discus keeper.

                There are advantanges and disadvantages in this type of tank.

                     Advantages

1. 1. Easy and simple maintenance. This will ease your water changes and tank clean up. This is especially convenient for those who does dauly water changes. Hobbyist in South East Asia region will normally do this.
   2. Many plants are sensitive to salt and medicine. With this setup you are not afraid of doing harm to plants and less worry on type of medicine to put into the tank.
   3. Discus will not shy away because they have nothing to cover and hide.

                    Disadvantages

1. 1. There are less beneficial bacteria in the tank. It means you need frequent water changes or any organic or decompose food in your tank will quickly foul the water.
   2. They are less presentable. To some non-hobbyist they view the bare tank as nothing else but water and some swimming fish inside it which looks ugly.

Half-planted tank

In this type of setup half of the tanks is planted while half of it bare. This the medium setup in between the other two setup mentioned here. Half of it may filled up with river sand, coarse sand and small rocks with the plants planted onto it. While half of it is bare bottom.

Advantages

1. 1. Feeding is easier as the other half of the tank is bare.
   2. The tank looks better with the plants inside the tank.
   3. Regular routine maintenance still able to carry out.

Disadvantages

1. 1. Medicine administration need to handle with care as some plants are sensitive to the medicine.
   2. Maintenance is difficult to carry on planted part. As inteference with the bacteria bed (gravel) will cause the bacteria to die off and need time to reestablish again.

 Fully-planted tank

This type of setup need some artistic in decorating your tank as the tank view will affected by the way to decorate the plants. In this type of setup you need to cover the tank bottom with river sand, coarse sand or small rocks as a planting medium. You need to be careful in selecting what type of sand/rocks to use as some will release chemical into the water thus affect the PH and hardness of the water.

Advantages

1. 1. Better view with the plants and fish inside the tank.
   2. Tank maintenance may not be necessary so often as the the planting medium will support the growth of beneficial bacteria which in turn take care of the waste cycle. The plants will use the fish waste product as fertilizer and this constantly reduce the chemical like nitrogen, phosphate and carbon dioxide in the water. The water PH and hardness tend to stable.
   3. Fish will have cover and place to hide and this will lessen the pressure.

                         Disadvantages

1. 1. Medicine administration is definitely difficult as most of the plants are sensitive to medicine.
   2. Tank maintenance is difficult and not suitable to carry out so often as the beneficial bacteria will be affected.
   3. You can't do a heavy feeding to speed up the growth for juvenile fish as the food leftover will deteriorate the water quality.

Water Changes

Water changes is very important in keeping discus compared to other type of fish species. Water changes are important in the sense :-

1. Discus are particular in water quality be it PH or hardness. With frequent water changes the PH and hardness tend to stable. If water changes not been done frequently PH and hardness will be affected as organic matter and waste products will cause the PH lower and hardness to certain extend softer.
2. Juvenile discus will grow faster in proportion to the water changes frequency. South East Asia breeders are doing daily water changes ranging from 10 % to 100 %. They need to do so in order to speed up the growing process of the juvenile fish thus they able to market it sooner.
3. Only clean water will inhibit the growth of harmful pathogens and this will lessen the stress on discus. Nobody wants they discus to fall sick often. If your fish fall sick often this will retarded their full growth and weaken the fish. Under growth fish will never exhibit brilliant color and round shape body.

For myself I do 30 % to 70 % of water changes daily and I noticed an excellent growth in the juvenile fish.