help with water quality

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marinebiologist

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 24, 2008
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Lancaster and mission viejo
my discus always hide and only eat some times. could it be the water quality. every thing is perfect except for the ammonia .5 and the nitrite 1.0
i used to do water changes daily or every other day. but i stopped recently because the fish got to stressed out. what should i do since i cant do them that much i cut down to 20% every saturday.
i also got a uv light 2 days ago in case there are any parasites or anything.tell me your thoughts on this.
 
What type of filtration are you running and has the filter fully cycled? With a fully cycled aquarium unless it is over stocked or in a mini cycle due to filter cleaning there shouldn't be readable levels of ammonia or nitrite.
 
its a hang on and the tank has been running since september and i have a total of 3 discus,9 glowlights.1 clown loach and 2 otos and its a 30 gallon tank. probably a little over crowded and if it helps they ar around 3 inches
 
probably overcrowded, over feeding? i'd upgrade the filter for a bigger bio load. discus are messy eaters, especially if your feeding them beefhart. try that but i would definately get a bigger tank
 
As far as stocking I wouldn't say you are over stocked yet, although the loach according from what I have read needs a bigger tank (haven't owned one and from what I read they can get 15"+).

Are you doing regular gravel vacs to remove waste? Other than that the only thing I would suggest is putting on a second HOB to add a little more bio filtration, it is how I currently have my tanks setup.
 
marinebiologist;2627215; said:
my discus always hide and only eat some times. could it be the water quality. every thing is perfect except for the ammonia .5 and the nitrite 1.0
i used to do water changes daily or every other day. but i stopped recently because the fish got to stressed out. what should i do since i cant do them that much i cut down to 20% every saturday.
i also got a uv light 2 days ago in case there are any parasites or anything.tell me your thoughts on this.
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Dude, with a properly cycled tank and adequate filtration, you should have zero ammonia and zero nitrites, with only nitrates showing. Discus won't tolerate this condition for too long. If you don't correct this, you are going to end up with diseased and dead discus. It's no wonder your fish are stressed out, you are slowly killing them. You need more bio filtration for sure.
 
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