Having a beautiful aquarium of acará disco has always been my dream …
I started and have aquarium as a teenager, at that time had no magazine or books or internet, to help, only the owner of the store who mostly just wanted to sell the fish. I killed some of my fish, for lack of knowledge, but I did not give up I started with cheaper fish and easy maintenance and when I was more experienced, I planned so dreamed aquarium discs.
To assemble any aquarium first we need to choose the place where our aquarium will stay. When we set up the aquarium, we must make sure that it does not need to leave that location for many years. This place should be sheltered from direct sunlight, then away from windows or doors, corridors and places with lots of traffic of people. And the size of the aquarium! Plan ahead for the amount of disks you want to keep. Remember that discs are shoal fish, are large and can easily reach 15 cm or more. The bigger the aquarium, the better for the discs and the less trouble keeping it stable. My aquarium is 150 liters ideal for keeping 5 discs comfortably. I suppose your aquarium is already properly placed on a furniture for this purpose, since once fully assembled, it will weigh a few hundred pounds.
The discs originate from the Amazon region where there live there are only sand and trunks at the bottom of rivers. I prefer not to run away too much from this, sprucing up the aquarium can take our attention! Discs like aquarium with plants, prefer those that can fix on the trunks. They are slow growing plants and do not require much care, such as co2 injection and fertilizers. The bottom of my aquarium is river rock, girl I chose this so as not to change the PH of the water. More today many aquarists use the sand bottom, according to them it is easier to maintain, because food and feces residues do not penetrate the substrate remaining on the surface facilitating its cleaning. The trunks should be aroeira, previously treated. The treatment consists of keeping them dipped in water for a few days until their "paint" no longer clouds the water. Use without fear… In addition to providing a magnificent look, they help maintain the ideal PH for discs. With respect to the ideal parameters, the water should have relatively low hardness (soft water), pH between 5.5 to 6.6 and constant temperature of 28º/29ºC.
Filters
Filtering: Want to have healthy and beautiful records? Provide quality water!!!Discs are very sensitive fish to chlorine and heavy metals, for this reason we can not think of a disc aquarium without the use of tamponadores and water conditioners. There are many brands on the market I use AQUASAFE from Tetra. Its use is mandatory, use the dosage recommended by the manufacturer.Discs because they are fish demanding in relation to water quality, it is necessary to use filters that perform their function exceptionally. If you still use the old background biological filter, forget it!! In addition to the pump causing some turbulence in the water, which is not much appreciated by the Discs, there are serious disadvantages in the use of this type of filter. Opt for external filters, even not to take up unnecessarily space inside the aquarium and because they are very effective. A basic rule is to use an external filter with flow 5X/h the volume of water in the tank. The filtration system is the "heart" of the aquarium. If it does not work properly or its flow is not recommended for the size of the aquarium, it was no good to follow all previous recommendations.The best filter for an aquarium is for sure is the triple filtering (mechanical, chemical and biological) offers the aquarium and especially the discs everything they need. Mechanical filtration removes suspended materials providing crystal clear water, chemical filtration removes chemical elements and odors harmful to fish and plants, and biological filtration provides pure, nitrite-free, nitrate-free and mainly ammonia-free water. The cost is not the cheapest, I agree. But if you think you're going to spend it just once, you'll see it's worth it. Another no less important factor is what concerns the heating of the aquarium. Discs are hot water fish, very hot near the fish that we are used to seeing out there. Buy a good quality thermostat. I've already lost some fish because the thermostat hasn't turned off. Lighting: there can be no shortage of guidance in the stores where you buy your discs, take into account if your disc aquarium is a planted aquarium.
We need to just wait for the aquarium water to mature. The normal process can take a few weeks and usually the eager aquarist, can not wait the necessary time and ends up putting fish before the time. This is not the most indicated, because the biology of the aquarium is not yet sufficiently prepared to receive the organic charge generated by the fish.One way to speed up the aquarium maturation process is to add liquid biology purchased in specialty stores, I've never used rather wait. Using it, you can start populate your aquarium in a few days. Make 30% weekly partial water changes (can use warm shower water). Try to check in detail all parameters of the tap water and treat it in a way that fits the parameters required by the species. Try to keep the water as clean as possible as Discs are fish that dirty the water relatively well, especially in the biological and mechanical filtration that should be well sized. In general, by making regular exchanges (30% weekly indicated) and siphoning (aspiration of dirt at the bottom of the tank), the needs of these fish, does not escape much the usual rule.
Temperature: In nature, the temperature varies greatly from region to region, but as they live in tropical areas, a constant temperature of 29ºC is ideal. When buying the fish prefer to buy the fish still small, they get used to faster, the adult discs are demanding is more difficult to get used to change and sometimes go without eating. Young people feed without problems. When buying the fish, do not forget to do the air conditioning. Place the bag with the fish inside your aquarium and will put water from your aquarium inside the bag with the fish every 30 minutes, this will help the fish go adapting with the change.
Lighting: there can be no shortage of guidance in the stores where you buy your discs, take into account if your disc aquarium is a planted aquarium.
We need to just wait for the aquarium water to mature. The normal process can take a few weeks and usually the eager aquarist, can not wait the necessary time and ends up putting fish before the time. This is not the most indicated, because the biology of the aquarium is not yet sufficiently prepared to receive the organic charge generated by the fish. One way to speed up the aquarium maturation process is the addition of liquid biology purchased from specialty stores. Using it, you can start populate your aquarium in a few days.
Examples of the materials used:
Aquarium of 150 liters; or more
pool filter sand; or river stone
substrate for planted aquariums (if you want some plants);
Conditioner;
Buffer;
lamps, reactor and wiring;
Canister filter; e Heater with thermostat
Desired parameters for Acará Discs
pH: 6.5
Temperature: 29ºC
KH<2
GH<2
NO3: 0
NO4: 0
NH3: 0
Food I buy homemade ducklings based on ox heart (has in the store where I bought the fish), but have to give sporadically, because they dirty a lot of water.
They also love the saline meats (don't forget to wash them before offering to your fish).
And I hope I've contributed to you being able to keep your Records for many years!!! The average life of the Discs is 8 years!