To discus or not to discus

[DrWupass]

Hello everyone. So I’m new to these forums but have been in the hobby for many years. I currently have a 500 gallon Mixed African tank with about 50-60 fish of all ages in it as they tend to bread pretty regularly. I’m considering trying something more challenging like discus. My main concern is keeping the ph right for them. My current set up holds ph at 7.8-8 with my well water and some crushed coral. I have an auto water change setup now that changes about 50 gallons a day. My house water is about 7-7.2 naturally. Any thoughts ?

 

[altums85]

Discus are actually easy, atleast to me never had a problem keeping them. More importantly, is u buy from a reliable source that sells healthy discus. Local fish stores often carry the cheap kind. And with poor care they are stunted or sick. So you already have a bad start. They do love warmer water. I used to keep mine at 82. People like to keep them warmer. But like any other fish. Just keep up with water change and feed good food and buy healthy ones and they are easy to keep.

 

[tlindsey]

Hello everyone. So I’m new to these forums but have been in the hobby for many years. I currently have a 500 gallon Mixed African tank with about 50-60 fish of all ages in it as they tend to bread pretty regularly. I’m considering trying something more challenging like discus. My main concern is keeping the ph right for them. My current set up holds ph at 7.8-8 with my well water and some crushed coral. I have an auto water change setup now that changes about 50 gallons a day. My house water is about 7-7.2 naturally. Any thoughts ?

Welcome aboard

 

[DrWupass]

Thanks glad to be here. As far as my ph issues I assume from what I’ve read discus won’t be happy in my 7.8-8.0 ph water. So what’s my best option to remedy this ? Change the substrate from crushed coral to something else ? I haven’t had to even think about water quality in so long I feel like I’m starting all over ?

 

[Magnus_Bane]

Thanks glad to be here. As far as my ph issues I assume from what I’ve read discus won’t be happy in my 7.8-8.0 ph water. So what’s my best option to remedy this ? Change the substrate from crushed coral to something else ? I haven’t had to even think about water quality in so long I feel like I’m starting all over ?

Personally I find it to be easier to just keep everything as stable as possible rather then chasing parameters. Just my 2 cents lol.

 

[DrWupass]

Here’s a few pics of current setup.

 

[Krismo962]

Acquire discus that have been bred locally,it'll be much easier to care for them as they are already used to your parameters so they can tolerate large water changes.

 

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

Welcome to MonsterFishKeepers DrWupass!

What are the dimensions of this 1893 liter? Is it the standard 244 cm long, 122 cm wide, 66 cm tall?

 

[DrWupass]

260 long 122 tall 24 wide

 

[BigBeardDaHuZi]

I think I would definitely pull the crushed coral. What is your pH out of the tap?