OK, I have been doing small things with my new 60 gallon for about 2 months now (got the tank in the beginning of October). I have a sand over pete moss substrate with a small amount of plants (for now), with 6 24w 6500k bulbs, and 2 nice size pieces of drift wood. For filtering I have a Fluval 305 with ceramic rings and filter floss only, and an aquaclear 30 with a foam filter and filter floss. I do water changes every 3 or so days to get into the habit of doing frequent water changes. My tap water has a ph level of 7.6, and with all of the water changes thats what my tank water stays at. My plans are to get 4 discus around the end of November. From what I have read, discus do better in groups of 5+, but I don't want to over stock the tank. My concerns are my ph will be just too high for the discus to thrive, and the smaller school of discus will harass each other until someone gets hurt. I do want to get another piece of wood in the near future, but i highly doubt that will help my ph too much. So can anyone offer any insight as to what to do about the ph problem? Also any constructive criticism is welcome. Here are some pictures of my tank.







P.S. all of the fish in the tank in the pictures are being re-homed except for the Pleco.

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do not pretend conclusions are certain that are not demonstrated or demonstrable.

Also, does anyone know if I can keep a school of neon tetras in the tank with full grown discus? At my local fish store they told me the discus will eat the tetras, but I have read that discus like the company of other schooling fish. I already have a small school of 7, and as delicate as these things are it would be really nice to be able to keep them where they are.

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do not pretend conclusions are certain that are not demonstrated or demonstrable.

Ive had good luck with neons/cardinals and discus/angels. Id go for it, but they dont school as good when they figure out they arent on the menu, I changed over to bloodfin tetras and love it, no matter what time of day they are all in a big school

My plan WAS to have a small 10 gallon, planted tetra tank. That tank would include 7 neons, and 5 red eye tetras. I may keep the neons in the 60 now that I know it should be ok. They are pretty established in the tank where they are and I really like the colors of them. Im not too concerned about them schooling, I just like the look of them. Right now they don't school until I do water changes, even then they just hide in the plants. Then 10 gallon is probably going to be my terrarium/ER tank.

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do not pretend conclusions are certain that are not demonstrated or demonstrable.

So do you think the discus would be ok in a group of only 4? I was thinking about getting some angels also.

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do not pretend conclusions are certain that are not demonstrated or demonstrable.

discus dont take up alot of water space, angels id keep to either males OR females, try not to mix the two as then you will have aggression problems in the tank.

Id get the 6 discus then wait on the angels, 4 is a small number for a schooling fish and more then likely unless its heavily planted you wont see the discus much and they will be more stressed, however 4 might do just fine. I always buy them in lots of 6 so if any do pair I got that going for me and growing them to adult hood and selling the extra discus will be very profitable.

Although I don't really have the space to breed discus, I could only imagine how profitable it could get. That is what I will do then, thanks.

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do not pretend conclusions are certain that are not demonstrated or demonstrable.

the bigger the discus the higher the price tag. Breeding them isnt bad, its not super easy but its alot easier then other species, they just need 40g breeder tanks to get the job done right.

Yea thats why I planned on getting the "medium" sized discus from DiscusMaddness.com when I pull the trigger.

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do not pretend conclusions are certain that are not demonstrated or demonstrable.

As far as neons and discus go, I'd say get cardinals instead as they tolerate the warmer water temps better. I think their colors are more striking too. =P

Will your discus make a snack out of neons/cardinals? That's kind of a hit and miss. I've personally never had a problem with it though, but I've read of folks mixing them and ending up with a slowly diminishing school. =(

You will not be disappointed with discusmadness.com

If you want another great breeder, try hawaiidiscus.com, rob over there is great, he sent me 3 proven pairs when I ordered just 8 different strains.