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Setting up my 240 gallon, step by step

30K views 212 replies 31 participants last post by  Super Turtleman 
#1 ·
Here is the story.
I got this beauty at a price I could not pass, the day I was to pick it up I hired movers, since the tank empty and by it self it's 400 pounds..... the movers came...6 hours late, it was raining cats and dogs...when they saw the tank they just said...no, we can't do it...turn around and left.
The gentleman that sold me the tank was perplexed to said the least, I was about to have a heart attack!!!!
Next day a guy at my church saved the day along with his two sons, he came with his truck and pick up the tank for me, delivered it to my house....
here is a picture of the tank finally at my husband's home office.


More to come
 
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#153 ·
LOL, they are, and when they are hiding they pick through the plants to see what is that I am doing, if they see me holding the can of food, they come out right away, they like exploring the tank and they swim either way, all relaxed and slow like gliding on the water or supper fast, like....Zoooom and they are at the other side of the tank.
I just sit down at the desk and watch them for hours!!!!
And do you know that they change colors?.....they can have the most gorgeous colors or just barely color at all, I guess if they are happy or stressed...I know that the diamond blue's can get almost black if they are stressed. Mine have not got that way, but I saw some like that in one of the local fish stores here.
 
#156 ·
They are about 4 inches....now I need more information, what happen with the plants?
They love gliding in and out of them they go from the back to the front of the tank and sometimes they are just ether in the back or in the front....
Am I doing something wrong?
 
#157 ·
Those pictures make them look so much smaller than 4 inches! I suppose that is because you have that wonderful long tank. I love Discus fish, and yours are beautiful ones (as are JD's). It's great to finally see them enjoying that beautiful tank you created for them.

I hope that you have great success with your Discus, I'll keep checking back for more pictures :popcorn:
 
#159 ·
Ah....OK
Stunting means ....?
 
#161 ·
That is horrible!.! :?
 
#162 ·
Tell me one thing, do they get stunned because you have to remove the plants every time you clean the tank or because...or because what? stress? last time I was vacuuming the tank the fantastic 5 were at a safe distance watching me, but full color, no darkness or they did not hide....
 
#164 ·
they get stunt because with planted tank its harder to vac every piece or food/poop. if you can keep up with water quality they wont be stunt but in a planted tank its harder to keep up witht the quality.

i mentioned it before the forum had a make over and i guess my post got deleted but anyways, its not impossible to raise them in a planted tank just harder and most new comer developes problems because their tank is planted and 99% of the time the solution is cleaner water
 
#165 ·
So this is what I have done so far, following advise from the expert, I took some plants out of the aquarium, not all of them but most of them, that way it is easier to clean but they still have places to hide, that they seems to enjoy. Thy have the tank for themselves all day long without nobody to bother them since I am at work and the dogs are in their crates, so I guess they roam the tank wide and large, when I come home, they are at the front, I feed them and they are cautious, the look at me and they are all together, in a team, looking at me for about 15 minutes, then they come out to eat, they are eating well and they finish all their food what I think is a good sign. I keep the dogs out of the office because specially the giant schnauzer has discover that there are fish inside of the tank and want to ....eat them....good grief. So the fish get scare with a big bad black dog trying to catch them through the glass. The office has become off limits for Chase. I am feeding them New spectrum life and bairn shrimp frozen every couple of days that they seem to really enjoy, as well as all the other fish. So what I do is I feed all the tetras first, I feed them with the NSL for small fish, once they have their full I bring the shrimp out, they eat some but the discus eat the most of it. It is fun to watch all those fish eat, the tetras know me well and they all come to one side of that big tank waiting for me to feed them, when everyone is feeding the discus hold back. Once everyone had their fill, then I feed the discus, and they know, it is fun to see them, they seems to "blow" the food and pick it up as it blows up....flying in the water? I can sit and watch for hours. :fish: :fish: :fish: :popcorn:
 
#166 ·
So sad, two of my discus die...one one day, the other this morning. I have been doing my water changes, checking the water parameters, temperature, feeding them.....no stress....i don't know what happen. I took most of the plants out of the tank as I was advised....I came home Thursday and one blue diamond was dead, no signed in the morning of being sick or anything..... then this morning all of them where eating and swimming all over the tank and about 4:00pm another one was dead. I am freaking out!!!! what is really going on???
My water parameters are:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrates: 20
Nitrites: 0
Chlorine: 0
PH: 6:5
Temp: 83.2
Water changes every other day 40%

Feeding New Life Spectrum for discus , brier shrimp frozen, and the worms for discus the breeder was feeding them.
Any one can give me some insight?
The three remaining seem to be well, no sign of stress, or dark coloration, eating well, but also the ones that dies where doing that...... :-?
Not a single fish in the tank other than the two discus have died...not even the tetra babies.....
 
#167 ·
Nitrates is a bit high for discus. Try bigger water changes and see if that helps. What's the tank temp at? Also what are the worms the breeder were feeding?
 
#168 ·
Black worms. switch to water changes to 50% - 60%, the other 3 discus seems to be OK, they are eating well and swimming around the tank. I stop feeding them the black worms, I am just doing the FLS and the frozen bairn shrimp that the discus absolutely love...... the next buy of discus is on hold until I am sure that the 3 fantastic will be good for real, how true your comment when you stated if I trusted myself to take care of my discus. I thought I was doing everything perfectly fine.....
So now the tank has way less plants, just about 4 - 5 all together, the driftwood and rocks. of course the sand. the sump working fine, the FX5 working 5....i love that filter, it keeps my water crystal clear....
My temperature is 83.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates, less than 15 (more than 10, less than 20....I'll said around 15?)
ph 6.7
chlorine - 0

The babies came out to be diamond tetras, 16 survived and are about the size of the cardinals....I still have them apart except for 3 that I could never catch...
My plecos L260 came....the are babies, about 2 to 2.5 inches the 5 of them....they took over the tank and you can see them in all the rock and wood formations....pretty cool.
For now all is good and all fish are swimming.... :fish: :fish: :fish:
 
#169 ·
Why Did you stop feeding them black worms? I would stop feeding the frozen brine shrimp as that has no nutritional values. Black worms are actually Really good just not as a staple diet. I would feed a quality flake 3-4 times a day and give them a feeding of black worms on the weekends
 
#170 ·
Basically because I run out of them and I wanted to hear your opinion on the worms.
I'll get some more on my way home today.
One question, flake food better than the new life spectrum? What food do you recommend since I will go "grocery" shoping for my fish I would like to buy what has worked best for you.
Thank you for all the advise.
 
#171 ·
I use new lufe spectrum flakes for the garlic additives but basically anything around 50% protein is good for them. Black worms has 50+% protein but no vitamins so isn't good as a staple. Same with blood worms.
 
#172 ·
So the worms will be just a high protein snack, to call it that way?
 
#173 ·
well no exactly. think of the worms as steaks. while good for you, overdoing it will cause you to have health problems. (another reason is the worms are very addictive and if you feed too much/too often they might not eat anything else)
 
#174 ·
Ok, perfect, I love steak so I guess worms for my discus once a week will do. Thank you so much. Will post more new or questions as they come.
Thqnk you again
 
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