Thank you all. I will take your advice and go with the bare bottom set up until the discus reach 4". I'm sure this will be a much easier way to keep the water quality top notch.
Just a few questions on Discus
- Thread starter lighthouse39183
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Just like to add that I agree with Sue 5 in a 50, better 6 if the discus are small, here's why. In any group of small discus, a chain of hierarchy will develop. The fish that ends up on the bottom of the hierarchy will end up smaller than the other fish. By getting 6, when they grow out, you can remove the runt, and you will have a better looking group of fish.
Thank you, I'll definately follow all of your advice. I really appreciate the input from you all. Now I have another question. I was reading on the simplydiscus forum and saw where the water hardness is very important for discus. I have a TDSTestr and my water reads 400 ppm out of the tap. Is this going to be too hard for the discus?
Domestic discus should be alright in your water. If your fish came from someone who had them in soft water, you may want to acclimate them slowly to hard water over a period of a couple days. That would mean adjusting your tank water before adding the fish, then slowly replacing it with your regular tap water. No point stressing them out at first by dumping them from soft to hard water all at once. Remember that hard water decreases the hatch rate of discus eggs because the hard water affects fertilization. Otherwise, they should be able to live in it OK.
So when I order the fish I need to check on the water conditions that they were in. Then I need to adjust my tank to that condition and slowly acclimate them to my tap water. Is there something that I can use to adjust the water hardness? Or do I need to go purchase some distilled water and mix with my tap water?
lighthouse39183;3053625; said:So when I order the fish I need to check on the water conditions that they were in. Then I need to adjust my tank to that condition and slowly acclimate them to my tap water. Is there something that I can use to adjust the water hardness? Or do I need to go purchase some distilled water and mix with my tap water?
I'm no water guru on this subject. My well water is just about perfect for discus, so I've never actually done this. Maybe someone who has can comment. From what I've read, you should be able to mix RO water with your tap and lower the hardness a great deal. I would experiment before I bought any discus to get the perfect mix.
I will definately do that. I would have to purchase some RO water though. But if I add RO water to lower my hardness I might be altering my ph as well. I really don't know the best method to do this.
I have been reading up on how to lower the water hardness and found a site that states moving fish from a low TDS to a high TDS is often tolerated but moving them from high TDS to low TDS will often kill them within minutes. So if this is true, I should be able to acclimate them to my tap water fairly easy. Right?
Yeah, it shouldn't be that big a deal. My point was not to make any change so rapid and drastic that it puts unnecessary stress on your fish. New fish will be a little to a lot stressed from moving them as it is. I don't think it's helpful to make it any worse than it has to be.
