UAS in Discus tank

[Rudra]

Hi Folks,
My current setup is a 110 Gallon, 2 inch small gravel / sand mixed substrate - 4 Large Angels, 6 Discus - 5+ inches, 6 Cardinal , 5 Rummy nose, 6 Sterbai Cory, 2 Electric Blue Acara (Pair), 2 Amazon plants, 1 Anubia, and couple of Vals. Add tons of MTS and 3 Assasin snails to this. Couple of Drift woods, and flat slates

The tank has 2 Eheim Filters, 1 Sponge Filter.

The fishes are fine apart from the occasional aggression.

Water changes - 40% done day1, no wc, 40% on day 3 etc - with light vacuum

Typical water parameter before wc - 0 Ammonia, Nitrites, ~20 Nitrates.

Had to go out for a week - during which the tank was fed once a day only - usually I feed them 2 times on no wc days and 3 times on wc days.
Coming back the parameter was 0 - Ammonia, 0 -Nitrites and 60+ Nitrates.

Of course, this got me thinking of ways to reduce nitrates and I have setup a Uplift Algae scrubber with a 110 Rated tetra whisper and the roughed up plastic canvas. They have 2 small CFL pointing at it from the outside for the night.

Just set this up yesterday. Will keep the group updated on how it goes.

Will put up some pics later.

[rickztahone]

60ppm of Nitrates? I'm surprised they didn't become sick. Those are really sky high numbers for discus. We all tend to want to keep the nitrates to less than 10 for sure and closer to 5 if possible. This is only achieved via more frequent water changes. Consider upping the water changes if you would like to reduce your nitrates.

[Akili]

Increase the percentage of your water changes and go with daily water changes,like Ricardo mentioned keep your nitrate level below 5 ppm.

[Phillydubs]

Next time you go away do not feed at all!
Big WC before you go and that's it...

What are your nitrates regularly ?

[Rudra]

Thanks for the reply guys.
Like I mentioned, the 60 ppm was with almost ~ 6 days of no wc and one feeding of tetrabits only per day.

I try to do daily wc, but to be honest, most of the time, i end up with doing it every other day.
I thought <20 Nitrates was ok for them.

The UAS setup is an attempt to eliminate these nitrates as well, so there is no nitrate spike ups. I have read in some places where they managed to reduce it to <5, so lets see

[Rudra]

Next time you go away do not feed at all!
Big WC before you go and that's it...

What are your nitrates regularly ?

I was just worried the discus will eat the remaining tetras as well. I started with 20 of them cardinals 4 years ago and now only 6 left...

[Rudra]

Increase the percentage of your water changes and go with daily water changes,like Ricardo mentioned keep your nitrate level below 5 ppm.

some people hyping the UAS mentioned it it brings it down to undetectable amounts. I will be finding out soon. :)

[Rudra]

Update time.

Well, I tried skipping a wc (so that is 4 days without change - compared to my usual once in every 2 days routine) The test was done right before the wc on 4th day evening - showing a nitrate level between 20 - 40 in the API test kit. (this, compared to my previous nitrate level of ~60.

I am not entirely sure if the UAS needs more time to establish - but all that happened was due to my DIY design, lost a couple of inquisitive rummy nose caught between the meshes.

I believe the nitrates were brought down more because i took off the cover on one half and added a couple of water hyacinth - which already have ~4 small plantlets.

Anyway, will keep the UAS running for another month.97193

[FishFanMan]

I use a nitrate reactor full of seachems de-nitrate for denitrification. Seems like a simpler approach than a scrubber. It's the same principle that refers use to keep nitrates to near zero with minimal wcs.

[Rudra]

Update:
Well, I decided enough was enough, moved all non discus large fishes to a different tank along with the gravel, leaving this tank only with discus, Rummy nose and tetras.

Daily wc's is probably the easiest way to low nitrates and that is what I hope to do :)

[kira ken]

IMO, Canisters filters are not the best option for discus (at Least without a pre-filter). They accumulate detritus over time that usually go unnoticed because the tank looks clean with each water changes (same with gravel). Make sure to clean your filter media once or two times for week.

Best,

[Rudra]

Hmm.. yeah that makes sense too. Will add sponge pre filters to the canister inlets..

[Luke in Phoenix]

I run an algae scrubber in my discus tank and my nitrates are always 0-5 ppm with heavy feeding and limited WC. It can easily be done if setup properly. I run mine in a sump though so it's a little easier and out of the display tank.