New Discus pair turning dark!!

[joe jaskot]

hello how do you manage to have ph 6 with gh-13 and kh 6 is your test ok or you have to add a lot of acid witch will drop down first kh hardness
and how you prep er you water for changes i think you water is no good to keep discus.

Due to the very low kh, it is easy to have water with a pH of 6. If the kh was much higher, a low ph would be very difficult to attain.

 

[fido2]

Yes you right but kh 6 is not low and 13gh is very high ro water is ph 6 but when you add oxygen will rise to ph7 and ther is gh 0 and kh0 to have stable ph 6 you must have kh around 2-3 and soft water I do 75 l of ro water and 25l of tap water and 7 to 9 ml acid to have 6.5 ph and gh 4-6 and kh 3

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[Pomatomus]

It's not so much that you need to add oxygen as it is that you need to reduce carbon dioxide. CO2 forms carbonic acid in water which can "artificially" drive the pH down through the reverse reaction of acids with carbonates (KH). Adding more aeration will reveal if this is the is the issue; but if you want to drop your KH add some acid, do a water change with RO water, or (as a long term strategy) add some plants that consume carbonate. My tap water has a pH of 7.6 and a KH of around 7 (if I remember correctly) and I have to dose my planted discus tank with carbonate buffers frequently to keep the KH from dropping to 0ppm.

 

[Argentum]

hello how do you manage to have ph 6 with gh-13 and kh 6 is your test ok or you have to add a lot of acid witch will drop down first kh hardness
and how you prep er you water for changes i think you water is no good to keep discus.

Yes the pH is 6-6.5 parameters are correct between GH 6 - 10 and KH 3-6 I use a sera test strip so I can't identify the exact numbers but it gives me an indication. I do not add any acid to my tap water i just add the conditioner it removes chlorine and chloramine and has an anti stress agent.

The water is very clean 33% water changes daily

Anyway, I figured out this is due to parasitic infection and I am treating them with Metronidazole 500mg/10Gal I have been treating them for 3 days now the colors have enhanced and they are more active, I will continue treatment up to a week. They are still not eating but I read that this can be normal and it could take them up tp one week to acclimate.

 

[Aquanero]

I agree with the Metro treatment. You could also treat with API General Cure which combines Metro with Prazi. Discus get dark from stress it's true, sometimes finding the root cause is not so easy. Being sick is very stressfull along with many other factures. Keep the water clean, keep the fish calm and treat for IPs.