HELP! What am I doing wrong?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
What substrate do you have? Are you experiencing plant death? How often to you prune? Ammonia is a product of decay, you seem to be experiencing a large amount of biologic breakdown (decay) be it overfeeding, lack of bio-bacteria, substrate or plants decay, etc. What is your KH?

x2
 
Seems you have several things to fix.
1) Actinic and 10k lights are just about useless with live plants. You need to be in the range of 35k-65k
2) With discus you dont need to change a lot of water you HAVE too, Juvies need good clean water or you will have a slurry of trouble and stunted discus. Im talking large wc's 1-3 x's a week
3) I dont think you feed near enough for that stock list. I had 6 2-3" discus and they would plow through 3+ cubes of blood worms a day
4) You need to clean your filters more than you are.
5) gravel/sand vac every wc and clean your filters atlest every 2 weeks with discus. I personally would do it every week.
 
Seems you have several things to fix.
1) Actinic and 10k lights are just about useless with live plants. You need to be in the range of x235k-65k
2) With discus you dont need to change a lot of water you HAVE too, Juvies need good clean water or you will have a slurry of trouble and stunted discus. Im talking large wc's 1-3 x's a week
3) I dont think you feed near enough for that stock list. I had 6 2-3" discus and they would plow through 3+ cubes of blood worms a day
4) You need to clean your filters more than you are.
5) gravel/sand vac every wc and clean your filters atlest every 2 weeks with discus. I personally would do it every week.
X2
 
ok thanks guys. i thought the pH has to be low and temperatures high for discus. They are very low maintenance plants. The only plant that doesnt seem to be doing well is the big amazon sword a few of its leaves are starting to become brown. I use sand and clean it every time i do a water change
would you recommend 2 30% water changes a week?
ill post a pic later.
 
Yes 2 30% is much better! Temps for discus around 82 are just fine. unless your tap is 8+ for ph you should be ok. 7.0-7.5 are fine maybe even a lil higher. Ph is only a great concern with wc discus. Your swords are probably feeling the affects of having the wrong lights.
 
This maybe a long shot but maybe ur water is out of wack to begin with. Have u tried checking ur tap water? The reason I'm suspecting is because u got those high readings after a water change. Low PH should not have any effect on the paramaters, specially not 6. Also I think ur temp is a bit too high. Try slowly bringing it down to 84. Another thing that might be out of wack is ur test kit, since ur fish r ok. I don't think Discus nor Rams would b able to survive for long in such water conditions like ur describing.
 
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