Aloha, I'm Alan, I've had aquariums for about 30 yrs.

[RealAlan]

Over the years, I've had various systems from freshwater planted tanks to reef tanks.  I really enjoyed keeping fancy gold fish, archer fish, bettas, freshwater native stream fish, and now DISCUS.  Although I've been at this for 30 years, I never stop learning and am always looking to improve my system.  If there is something that can go wrong I'm sure I've done it LOL!  

My current passion is Stendker discus I've had one for ~10 years. After she died, I ended up getting more this time, 6 altogether.  This time with more fishes I'm finding new challenges with keeping the water pristine.  I changed some of my filtration strategies, and even had black hair algae which I am nearly recovered.  

I'm looking forward to participating in this group.  I've been enjoying Cory's Youtube videos and have bought a number of products from the Aquarium Co-op store as well.  

This is my tank currently, I plan to add more driftwood and rearrange the plants some.  

I hope to find some of you discus fans out there.  

[Colu]

Great looking  discus

[Fish Folk]

Beautiful! We're new to discus, but are enjoying a few. We're pretty simple with filtration. Two large sponge filters in a 55 gal, with extra air stones. We take care to keep up regular water changes, and try to stay on top of squeezing out the sponges. 

[Dana]

Absolutely beautiful!

[Emika_B]

RealAlan - Aloha!  Nice to see a fellow Islander 🙂  Your discus are beautiful. Yours, too, FishFolk.  I’m more of a small fish person but those sure are gorgeous fish and tanks!

[OceanTruth]

Beautiful tank and discus! Welcome here.

[H.K.Luterman]

Welcome to the forum! Beautiful tank!

[Ben_RF]

Welcome! And what a beautiful tank.  I hope you like it here. Its a great place to be. 

[Skillrzs]

Stunning looking fish! 

[RealAlan]

23 hours ago, Fish Folk said:

Beautiful! We're new to discus, but are enjoying a few. We're pretty simple with filtration. Two large sponge filters in a 55 gal, with extra air stones. We take care to keep up regular water changes, and try to stay on top of squeezing out the sponges. 

Very nice!!!  Are those wild caught discus?  I like your decor, Good choice on the Vals, I want to get some corkscrew vals.  I need to break up my tank more, there is quite a bit of bullying going on now.  I added one more discus and all heck broke loose, there was a little pecking going on from time to time, now they're ganging up on the new guy and going after each other now.  

How often are you changing your water, I find myself doing weekly changes on my 55.  I have a Penguin 350 dual bio-wheel (hacked with foam instead of cartridges), one large sponge, one Aquaclear 70 for chemical media and polishing, and an old canister filter set up for only bio media.  I clean the foam pads regularly(weekly) and the pre filter and sponge filter every other time.  I keep my tank warm 87F and they eat like mad, I've had them for about 3 months starting at 2.5" and they are now 3"-4".  

With the introduction of hair algae I started focusing more than ever on water quality and plant nutrients.  Thankfully Seachem Excel and a few SAE & Ottos cleaned it up.   I am thinking of going over to CO2 as I have some of the equipment from being a homebrewer as well.  Too many hobbies!  LOL!