My Discus Journey

[stalefish83]

I've read a lot of stuff about how difficult it is to do a planted tank with discus, but I had to try it anyway! I think Anubias are perfect, but after a few weeks I was tested the water and came up with a Nitrate reading of 50ppm... no bueno!! Definitely highlights how important it is to keep up on, not only water changes, but also managing those spots where debris can build up. As you can see in the picture above, there's a lot of places for debris to hide!

The bichir is good about getting to food that others can't reach, and the geo is a scavanger so he's pretty much always sifting through the sand, picking up little left behind bits of stuff, but after that nitrate reading I decided I needed to pull everything out get "the spaces inbetween" ...so to speak. It's also been almost a year since I've taken apart the two canisters for a good clean, so I did that as well (using tank water, of course). It wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting, but still felt good to do.

I also thought I should find a way to keep water moving within that dense area of bogwood, plants and rocks. So I put a little pump in the middle of it all, hidden in the back, to hopefully keep stuff from building up. I'll continue to monitor my nitrates to see how it goes.

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

How often and how much do you do for water changes?

Also, a year without opening and cleaning out the canister is definitely way too long. I see most people try to clean theirs out about once a month, and that's what I shoot for as well.

Beautiful tank though. I am currently working on a 220 gallon that will be planted with two fire eels and then will have somewhere around 8-12 discus. That is all I will be keeping in it. I will be using sand for substrate, probably pool filter sand.

 

[stalefish83]

Thanks Travis!

I should definitely do more water changes. I'm at one or two water changes a week, 70% to 80%, and Ive recently staring doing 100% about twice a month.

I've read a lot of discus keepers cleaning out canisters about every 3 months, as long as there's a pre-filter sponge on the intake. Agreed that once a year is still way to long!

Good luck with your 220. That sounds like it'll be an amazing tank! Be sure to post pictures when you get it rolling. I use PFS substrate in my tanks, and I love it! Going with black sand for my new African Cichlid set-up, but my discus tank and goldfish tank both have pool filter sand and I love it.

 

[flukekiller]

Planted tanks with discus aren't hard... they just say not to do it with juvies. Once theyou hit the 4 inch mark planted is the way to go. Some nice looking discus you have.. now a days discus are not as hard as they used to be... they are not as sensitive as wild caught and such because they are captive bred and raised in neutral waters.. I currently have my discus in hard water and are doing well

 

[stalefish83]

What prompted me to test for nitrates (I should probably make a habit of checking it regularly anyway) was after adding a couple new discus about a month ago, one of the new discus started getting a touch of fin rot. Maybe he's still getting used to his new digs, but it also coincided with adding a bunch of anubias, so I thought that might be playing a role as well. There was already a lot of debris built up under all the plants after I took them out to do a good cleaning.

They are all over 4 inches (except for the one runt who got stunted).

Probably the biggest factor, though, is not enough water changes. Once I rig a way to siphon water directly into my sink that'll make changes easier and more frequent. I have a couple pythons I got from buying used fish tanks, but my spigot doesn't have the right fitting. I do have something rigged up that goes from the tap to the tank, though, so re-filling is cake. Still messing with buckets on the siphon end though :-/

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

I'm surprised that 70-80% water changes twice a week doesn't keep your nitrates down lower than that. Your tank doesn't seem overstocked and unless you overfeed a ton you shouldn't have much of a problem with nitrates on that schedule. Most discus keepers recommend keeping nitrates below 5ppm, and definitely not anything over 10ppm.

Planted tanks with discus aren't hard... they just say not to do it with juvies. Once theyou hit the 4 inch mark planted is the way to go. Some nice looking discus you have.. now a days discus are not as hard as they used to be... they are not as sensitive as wild caught and such because they are captive bred and raised in neutral waters.. I currently have my discus in hard water and are doing well

This is exactly what I plan on doing. I will be growing out the discus in a smaller, probably a 29 gallon, tank. I will grow them out 3-4 at a time and add them to the 220 when they are around 5-6". That way I can keep up with water changes on the 29 gallon tank while they grow out to a large size, and hopefully with great color.

 

[stalefish83]

I've been inconsistent with that schedule, so I think the high nitrate was the result of some missed water changes. I do feed beef heart, which I've read can foul the water, so maybe that's part of it. I feed twice a day, each feeding is 2 cubes of beef heart and one cube of this spirulina with gutloaded shrimp stuff. The 'pop-out' cubes you can get at any fish store. I'll do bloodworms occasionally as a treat, and I usually fast them one day a week.

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

That sounds like some pretty hefty feeding but if you can keep your schedule with a 70%-80% two or three times a week then you should be ok.

One thing you might consider is trying to do a 90-95% water change to get your nitrates reset and that way you can start fresh.

 

[stalefish83]

After the nitrate spike is when I took everything out and did a large water change, being sure to suck up all the previously hidden debris. I was aiming for %100, siphoning the water level as low as I could get it without breaking the flow in my filters, then beginning to add new water to one side of the tank while continuing to pull from the other side. Essentially keeping the water level the same, pulling out as much as I was introducing. I'm not sure how others do "%100 water changes" but that's the only way I've discovered to do it without removing fish.

Side-note, discovered my blue diamond laid eggs again last night, again, on the filter intake just like in my avatar. Maybe second time they'll figure it out and I'll see some little wrigglers!

 

[stalefish83]

I needed some more greenery on the right side of the tank, so I got another anubias mother plant and some bogwood to tie it too. Was also "encouraged" by the guy at my LFS to experiment with some java moss, so sure why not. I really like it, and assuming it doesn't get devoured I will certainly get more. Here are some pics...