Few questions and comments please

Hello there,

Ive been keeping fish now for 10 years, i started as usual with the "community" tank and then progressed to a hard water Tricephalus tank. This eventually became my reef tank which ive now broken down as ive moved out of home and reefin is just a we bit expensive for me to keep up with allong with all the bills etc. So im back in the Fresh water again and thought that id go Black, so here i am.

http://www.xanthos.co.uk/Tank.jpg

Heres the old reef, ill miss it im sure :(

http://www.xanthos.co.uk/Snake%20in%20Hand.jpg

Heres my lil girly, just thought you might like to see her ;D

http://www.xanthos.co.uk/Copy%20of%20cape%20view%20crew.jpg

and just because im new, heres me in the middle.

Anyways, heres a quick run down of my system so you have an idea what im doing so far.

Effect Line 80G tank (booooootifull)
Seachem Flourite 3 inches deep at front to 5 inches back
Rena Heater Cable (no thermostat because it doesn't get that hot)
Ehiem Thermo External Canister (two basket model / effi mech & Bio)
3 x 36W Tubes (two Sun Glo's, one Power Glo)
2 x 30W Tubes (both Life Glo's)
Tunze PH / C02 Controller
Aquamedic C02 Reactor


OK, so before we get into any fights about the heater cable id just like to ask a few Q's. ;)

1) do Discuss need a night light, and do i have to be carefull about what light i choose so i dont screw up the plants?

2) what NO Flourecent bulbs do you guys use?

3) Any of Marc Weiss's stuff good?

4) Which Discuss "glow" red under the Actinics the best?

5) Which surface skimmer would you use if at all.
a) Tom
b) Ehiem
c) Fluval

6) UV anyone?

thanks in advance for any replys. ;D

[Carol_Roberts]

1) do Discuss need a night light, and do i have to be carefull about what light i choose so i dont screw up the plants?no

2) what NO Flourecent bulbs do you guys use?GE Aqua Rays

3) Any of Marc Weiss's stuff good?not needed

4) Which Discuss "glow" red under the Actinics the best?pigeon blood varieties such as red marlboro

5) Which surface skimmer would you use if at all. none
a) Tom
b) Ehiem
c) Fluval

6) UV anyone? not me

Discus are totally different than reef. Best way to grow out juvenile discus is a bare bottom tank and daily water changes of 25% or more. Is your water cheap? Discus are addicting.

Carol :heart1:

[limige]

well from the trend i've seen on here,
lighting is optional, some just use room light, so go full lighting to grow plants

most keep barebottom tanks with sponge filters often with and aquaclear or wet/dry to back it up.

some do the sand/plant thing but it's easier to keep a clean tank without them(see show tanks/biotope setup section)

most change 50% water daily, this helps discus stay happy, healty and grow very quickly!!!

live foods help keep the water clean california blackworms, redwigglers or baby brine shrimp.

frozen foods like homemade beefheart mix, bloodworms(hikira), brine shrimp, wattley discus formula, ocean nutrition from1&2

dry foods like tetra color bits, flakes, or various freeze dried

our creed is KISS...or Keep It Simple Stupid
no offense meant to you or anyone, just avoid adjusting ph or conduvity if not abosulutely necessary. the simpler your setup the less problems your likely to have.

enjoy your discus, there are many great breeders who visit us, maybe if you post your location we can suggest some nearby, this way to don't overpay and get high quality fish to start out with ;D

i really wish i would've found simply before i bought my first fish, i went in blind and dumb..wow look and the pretty fish :o i'll just buy some of the babies instead of paying 100+ per fish. well, the quality wasn't there but they've been great to learn with! so now my collection is growing and i'm seeing more and more breeding activity lately ;D

welcome to simply ;D

[BlueTurquoise]

Right on! All you need is a bare bottom tank, a heater, an air driven sponge filter (like a hydrosponge V), daily water changes and to keep things clean and parameters stable.

IMO the discus are the show pieces and decorations only detract from the centre of attention, and add to your maintenance routine.

That said I really like some of the planted tanks that I have seen :o

Good luck!
Chong

[April]

welcome. nice snake. yikes!!
so far you have all the answers. and im sure your thinking...well surely plants cant hurt...
welll. you should learn on bare bottom and grow in bare bottom then eventually try planted.
and yes ...kiss method is best. steady parameters 50 percent or more water change a day...squeeze your sponge filter out every now and then in tank water..and wipe down the walls and bottom. and high quality food.
oh...and get a group of at least 6 fish. 8 or 10 is better. and get them all the same size and from the same place and the same time to aviod heart ache.
ask more questions...we;re here.... and welcome.
and be prepared to be addicted and in love. ;D

Thanks for the answers guys, got some good info here. I think bare bottom is out of the question as i allready have the tank filled and a few of the smaller inhabitants in place.

4 x Panda cory's
8 x Cardinal Tetra
4 x Normans Lamp Eye
3 x these little stripey dudes with blue eyes that hang arround the surface

Unfortunately, as allways with new tanks i seem to have become covered in the brown hairy monofilamentous algie/bacterium. And as a precautionary measure the aquarium has started a three day black out to rectify the problem.

Also, something which i didn't quite think off was that the whole time my system was running as a reef i was depositing calcium onto the inside of the canister impeller housing and surrounding area. It was actually quite pretty, lots of reds and yellows, but 1/3rd of an inch of reef is the last thing you want on the inside of a soft water filter.

The PH has been at about 7.2 average, and when i water change i get it down to about 6.8, but it slowly climbs back up. Hopefully though i have the worst of it taken care off and the PH should stabalise soon. Ill have to be carefull though no to set my C02 too heavily initially because of this as i think i could probably kill all my fish if i tried to let the C02 adjust it down.

Anyways, with regards to this night light, i was thinking of one of those "blue moon" bulbs, maybee 15W, would this give me algie probelms or detriment the plant to any extent?

I have been doing water changes allmost every other day, ive got a "purity on tap" RO filter that seems to be working fine. More water changes to come before the PH is reduced to stable levels.

Ok, im in Balham, London. anyone know of a good Pidgeon Blood breeder / dealer. Theres this guy in the south i was going to visit, he's got a huge fish room specifically dedicated to discuss, im sure i could get 6 of the best from him. Any other places i should visit?

also, if you guys dont use surface skimmers how do you stop that oily film appearing? Im thinking that these little stripey fish i bought have cleaned most of it away, the surface seems much cleaner since they were added. I cant remember what their called though, yellow and black stripes with bright blue irridecent eyes, shaped kinda like a killy.

thanks for you replys.

[keno]

Try this web site and browse the dealers un United kingdom.

http://discus.pagina.nl/

Ken

Thanks or the Link Ken, unfortunately it doesn't work got another?

[keno]

Hmmmm, it works for me, maybe it was down when u tried?

Ken

[Carol_Roberts]

I just ried it and it works for me.
CArol :heart1:

[Don_Lee]

Welcome Aquamouse,

You have already received alot of good advice here, so I will just add a few things.
Reef and discus are very different in terms of lighting needs if you are going for a BB tank. If you are going planted, then lighting becomes an issue. The balance between the two can be very tough, so be prepared. You are shooting for a minimum of 2-3 watts per gallon if you want to keep most plants alive, the type of bulbs is really more esthetics than anything else. I like bulbs in the 6700K range the best personally. I would not install a night light for discus.
Few if any freshwater/discus people use skimmers. UV's are normally not needed either IME.
You should need very little water additives, Mark Weiss or otherwise.
Read read read! Check out the biotope/show tank areas, lots of good knowledge there!

Don ;D

[BlueTurquoise]

Hey Aquamouse!

One more thing to add, personally I don't need a surface skimmer becuase the water doesn't stay in the tank long enough to get oily! That is why daily water change is a good idea...

I think I have to say from the impression of your post, that what Don is saying is right, reef and other fish biotopes are very different from what would be ideal for discus. Basiaclly advice to go bare bottom is becuase it is easy to keep clean and probably best practice for growing out and raising discus. It is more than possible to keep a planted tank and discus (a la Don!) but it is alot of work and in my opinion very difficult to keep as stable and as clean as bb tanks.

Anyway the other thing that struck me in your post is that you have a new tank with old decorations and old hardware that have calcium deposits on them?. Warning bells are ringing for me as this could mean that you have PH altering decorations as well such as sea shells and coral etc? not sure if you do but I am not sure if this is a good idea as this will cause the PH fluctuations in your tank (maybe that is why is raises to 7 after awhile) and what is worste, in the wrong direction! up instead of down. I would suggest you figure out what is happenning there as discus prefer consistantly low PH water. Basically in the Amazon, the surrounding plant matter serves to slowly leech PH lowering tanins into the water, to the point where the ph is slightly acidic. If you have calcium based decorations etc, this will serve to raise PH.

Bascially you say you have had ltos of experience with hard water biotopes, this is the exact opposite! Soft acidic...

Also there is an issue of temperature. Not sure what temps the current inhabitants prefer but I am guessing that for many of them, soft, acidic, 84-86 deg F water is not exactly ideal for them as it is ideal for the discus.

As for the cannister.. hmm not sure about that, esp with the calcium additives... I am not sure if you can avoid not having to replace some of your harware for more suitable stuff such as filtration materials etc.

Please don't take it the wrong way, I am writting in the hope that it may help :) :thumbsup: Good luck with whatever you decide to do! :thumbsup:

Chong