shoyen Posted December 16, 2013 Report Share Posted December 16, 2013 Hi everyone, I am in the midst of planning out a new planted Discus aquarium that I would like to setup in our house. I am looking at the 60 gallon Marineland rimless cube tank (with the matching Ventura stand) and the 18" - 24" Marineland Aquatic Plant LED lighting system. The tank will be setup with driftwood, rocks, and a variety of plants. I would like to stock it with a school of cardinal tetras, some cory cats, and probably 4 or 5 Discus. I am struggling a bit trying to choose a filter for the tank. Because I am relatively new to the hobby (I haven't had a bigger tank setup in many years, and when I did I was just a kid with my dad doing most of the maintenance) and I don't have a ton of experience with canister filters, I am hoping to get a really nice, easy to setup/clean canister that will work well on this style of tank. The two filters that I have narrowed my focus on are the Fluval G6 or the Eheim Pro3 2075. I have read many mixed reviews on both filters and would love to hear some personal experiences from people to help me make my decision. What I do know is that the G6 seems to be the easiest to clean and maintain, while the Eheim might have a better flow rate and perform slightly better. The G6 seems to get a bit of a poor reputation because it is so expensive and has a lot of 'bells and whistles' that are not necessary, but I am not terribly concerned about the price as I'm more worried about the functionality and ease of use. The Pro3 2075 seems to have some leaking issues, which I keep reading about in online reviews. Because this tank will be in a prominant part of our house, I CAN NOT have a leaking problem.....my wife would kill me! It seems that most of these issues were associated with the early built models of this filter, but it still kind of scares me off a bit. If anyone has any advice or first hand experience with these filters, I would really love to hear your input. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laurensdad Posted December 17, 2013 Report Share Posted December 17, 2013 I just went though the leeks. They have fixed the problems i would go ehime in a second. There amazing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoyen Posted December 17, 2013 Author Report Share Posted December 17, 2013 Well.....I decided to go ahead and order the Fluval G6. www.petsandponds.com has them on special right now for $299, plus free shipping and an extra Tri-X Cartridge (normally $35 on it's own), so I thought it was too good of a deal to pass up. Once I get it up and running on the new system, I'll report back to let everyone know what I think of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cullymoto Posted December 19, 2013 Report Share Posted December 19, 2013 (edited) Just an FYI, but 4 or 5 discus is fully stocked for a 60 gallon. Save yourself heartache and keep things lightly stocked. Also, go find www.simplydiscus.com it's a forum similar to this one, however I is only about discus. You will find a wealth of information there. Edited December 19, 2013 by cullymoto Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoyen Posted December 19, 2013 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2013 Just an FYI, but 4 or 5 discus is fully stocked for a 60 gallon. Save yourself heartache and keep things lightly stocked. Also, go find www.simplydiscus.com it's a forum similar to this one, however I is only about discus. You will find a wealth of information there. This is where I seem to get the most conflicting reports on Discus. Some sites indicate that 50 gallons would be fine for 6 to 8 discus (this is what is stated on the Simply Discus site), while other people seem to think that is way to small. Ideally I would like to get a bigger tank, but the space in my house that I have to work with just won't fit anything else. Perhaps I should rethink my Discus choice and go with something different? I was also considering a couple of Altum Angels as my 'show' fish for the tank. Do you think the 60 gallon cube would be better suited for the Altum's instead? Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate any help I can get! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cullymoto Posted December 20, 2013 Report Share Posted December 20, 2013 Absolutely angles over discus. I'm not trying to say you can't do discus, but boy oh boy are they a lot of work. I use the rule of 10 gallons for each adult discus. A tank sold as a (x) gallon tank never actually holds that much water. My 55 gallon has an actual capacity of 49 gallons. Tanks are rated by displacement, not actuall capacity. A spot I can see conflicting reports is for adolescents or juveniles. Just last month I had close to 200 fry in a 55 gallon for example. My 120 (108 actual capacity) gallon show tank is totally full with 9 adult discus. My fry tank gets a 100% water change every single night. And it will for the next 3 months as a minimum (6 months total) that's 180 water changes just to find out if they are worth keeping or culling. My adult discus tank gets two 75% water changes every week. It is really quite dirty right before a water change, I do not have aquarium gravel, my plants are all in clay pots for easy removal, I massively over filter, I have made every attempt to make maintenece simple. Discus are a lot of work. Angels can be considered much easier, I've had them spawn for me with one water change a month, gravel in the tank (gravel holds un-imaginable garbage in your tank FYI) plants, poor foods the whole nine yards of poor fish keeping. They grey up big and beautiful despite the poor care they received. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geleen Posted December 20, 2013 Report Share Posted December 20, 2013 Yup discus are a labor of love. 5 in 60 gallon is plenty. And as mentioned more WC then most are willing to provide. J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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