I think daily changes are a bit over the top myself,every two days would be more than enough in my experience..
Steve
Steve
daily water changes
- Thread starter marinebiologist
- Start date
My Discus are so use to water changes. I do 50% every day. I swear that they act like they love me. 4 of them like to fight on who gets to sit in my hand while I go the water change. It makes it hard to see the poo because they are always in the way.
My other tanks is a different story. My CL's Angelfish and Rainbows etc...do stress out a little because I only do theres once a week.
I have a 125 gallon tank and my 30-40% weekly waterchanges would cause my discus to go into a shock. The tap water here is very hard and is high in TDS minerals which doesn't not help the discus. Now I only do 15% weekly waterchanges and they seem to thrive off that. I'll have to constantly remind myself not to do large waterchanges since I'm so used to old habits of large percentage waterchanges. To answer your questions I think daily waterchanges is over the top. If you have a good running filtration and do not over feed you could get by doing weekly waterchanges for discus.
I still think juvenile discus require more frequent wc's than once weekly. With the high amount and frequency that they are fed, its easy for the water to become less than pristine. After they get larger, its very feasible to do just weekly water changes. Many people will age their water to be used in an exchange in a discus tank.
I've had discus for over a year and couldn't even imagine doing daily water changes, nor do i waste time checking water parameters. The LFS owner who schooled me on discus told me to put rummynose tetra in with the discus. Their coloration is a water quality indicator. The brighter red on the tetra, the better the water quality. When the red fades, you know you need to clean your tank.
Oh ya, I forgot to add that I have one live plant. This aid the filtration process and keep the water pristine longer. I think live plants are recommended for anyone getting into discus. I don't have a showroom masterpiece planted tank but I got a couple to keep the water in check.
I will disagree here. How one species feels over the water conditions is no similar to how another species feels. We are talking about separate species. Like msjinkzd already explained, we need to sacrifice the time to do daily water changes. If we cannot cope with the routine needed by the fish in order to grow and thrive, why buy that fish in the first place? This is why we see plenty of specimens whose eyes are largely disproportionate to the body size, a sign that the fish is badly stunted. It may still have a chance to grow if the water conditions and space considerably are improved but it will never grow as pretty as it would have.boxerfish;2482784; said:
I've kept Discus for years. I have close to 100 right now, many of which were bred and raised by me. In my experience, while it's true you can keep domestic Discus (wilds are more sensitive) in less than "pristine" water, rarely will they reach their full potential in anything but consistently clean water. In reality, few people keep their water as clean as it could be. I know I don't. I have a job and family. High protein foods foul water very, very quickly, as does the waste from fish eating this food. I believe this is why we see so few 7 and 8 inchers in people's tanks. I have a couple that will go 7", but these fish are 4 or 5 years old. I once saw fish at a breeder that were much younger, and much bigger than mine. I was impressed. This guy has automatic water change, and does 100% daily. I'm convinced always having clean water goes a long way toward having monster sized Discus, instead of average ones. 
