Discus in East Texas

Alright so I decided a few months ago I want to convert my 35 gal long tank into a discus tank.. Easy part.. Now comes the more interesting part. How to do it? I've done about 8 months worth of research and planning but I have to say that I haven't seen any discus tanks in the East Texas area. Does anyone have discus that they might want to explain their set up to me?
Better question, ate there some secrets to keeping healthy happy discus?

I kept Discuss for about two years a few years ago. As I remember they were pretty hardy but they need plants in the tank and a low PH close to neautral if I remember right. Mine did have babies and it was cool to see the babies cling all over Mom! They get their food from the slime coat on Mom, thats if I remember right. Really cool fish, one of my favorites over the years. My end to Discuss was a friend of mine at my new years party poured a beer in the tank, not much of a friend huh.

Yeah no kidding! We'd def have to have a talk after all that lol
I've got this gnarly driftwood piece coming in and when it does I'll start construction and planting.. Does plant life have an effect on pH?

I don't think the plants will effect your PH but some of the freshwater folks on here might chime in different, its been many years since I kept Discuss and freshwater so a little rusty would be an understatement.. Check out the link below!

About Discuss

Never kept Discus, but always wanted to, just the twice weekly water change along with the fastidious water care requirements put me off.
As for the plants, I wouldn't worry, all the best Discus tanks that I've seen have been heavily planted. I'm not sure if they had some type of substrate under the gravel to feed the plants, but they were growing well.

I have a 160 gallon discus tank and have had discus for about 8 months. I only do a 30% water change once a week, but I have great filtration and i let my water degas for 48 24-48 hours before hand as well. I live in nacogdoches and you can come check out my tanks any time you want. You can call or text me if you want 936-676-8667

Degas? Never heard of that technique before.. Could you explain how it's done?

De-gas the water put your water in a tote or a plastic barrel then put an air stone down in it for 24-48 hours before water change but you only need to do so if you use tap water. I don't worry about ph ether because I got my discus from a breeder that raised them in higher ph tap water so no need to worry about it.

What exactly does this allow your water to do? Does this somehow lower the pH before you add it to your tank? Sorry man, I'm a biology major and I try to learn the mechanics and chemistry of my tanks

Degassing the water will oxygenate the water well first of all (which should balance the pH with the water that's well oxygenated in your system), but it will also allow things like chlorine ect to make its way out of the water. Being a saltwater guy and using RO water I've never done this, but that's what I've read about it. :-)

Aaron might have some more info on it.

Is this similar to adding de-chlorinator to tap water? When we do a water change on the Cichlid tanks, we just add the commercial de-chlorinator, mixing the tap water to the tank temp, and dump it in slowly, never lost a fish to a water change.

Of course, all filters are washed/rinsed out using the water from a water change, so they never lose their bacteria (tap water rinsing a filter will kill the bacteria through the chlorine in the tap water), same with any canister filter, it's washed out with the water taken from the tank.
Losses this last year in my cichlid tanks...erm 1 that was sucked up an uncovered intake, now covered. 1 that was sucked into the intake of a powerhead..dam! Powerhead changed. I was pissed off, as I rarely lose a fish. Both my mistake.

I use prime and stress coatalong with degassing the water, and a guy that's been breeding discus for 28 years is the one that told me to do it so I do. I have change water without degassing before and using stress coat and prime together and my discus lost some of their slime coat. So crime then one I've degassed my water.

Beautiful discus :-D
So as far as plants are concerned do you need to use a fertilizer substrate? I've got white sand in my tank and I'd like to keep it but idk about the plants reaction to it.. I planted some Anubis the other day and used some liquid plant additive so I guess we'll see in a week or so

Depends on if your plants were raised in just water, clay soil, or peat moss. I use a clay soil and add plant food every week when i do my water change

Great looking Discus. As for the plant feeding, does it affect your water parameters? Or do you use something in your filter?

It has to somewhat but only has a positive outcome. I have done every test I have and not found anything bad. I us the api plant food it seams to work best.