New to the hobby

[Brian89]

hi evryone,
i have decided to have discus, i have a 42''x14''x18'' tank along with a Eheim 2324 thermofilter the media i use inside is ceramic rings and ehfisubstrat, is this enough filtration or what other filtraion do i need. can you guys give me a list of all the things i need to have in the tank to be able to keep discus successfully and also can you guys tell me how many discus and what size that would be able to fit in my tank.
thanks

[Merrilyn]

Welcome to the forum Brian. Glad you decided to joint the discus world.

There are lots of articles written about the very things you are asking, but briefly, your tank holds around 170 litres, and using the rule of one adult discus per 40 litres, you could safely have 4 adults or 6 juveniles in there.

I'm very much in favour of starting off with a bare bottom tank in the beginning, with just some driftwood, with plants attached to the driftwood, or in pots.

Discus need very clean water, and having a bare bottom tank makes things that much easier. After a while, you may decide to add substrate and a few plants, but by then you will be experienced with keeping discus, and have a better idea of what's needed.

You'll be doing a lot of water changes, so you'll need to work out the easiest way to do that. Carrying buckets of water is not the ideal :wink: Most of use a long syphon hose that can deposit the waste water on the lawn or garden. You'll also need a way to store and age your fresh water, and heat it before it goes into your tank.

Have a read through these forums, and then if you've stil got any questions, ask away.

:P