What temperature do you keep your tank?

[JoeBanks]

I am really wondering as to how low I can go with temperature and still keep my discus healthy. I've noticed that with lower temps, my plants do much better, my water is clearer, and I have less algae. Keeping my discus tank at 82F has been a challenge. Has anyone had any positive experiences keeping discus at around 78F or is this too low? How low can I go?

[White Worm]

IMO 82 is lowest and normally used for breeder pairs, 84-86 is proper temp range for most. try less light for algae problems. Get some plants that can handle higher temps. Not good to put the discus at harm for some plants or an algae problem. I think it would be easier and cheaper to look into why you have algae or change up the plants a little.

[AmberC]

I've got mine at 86

Amber

[JoeBanks]

Found on the web describing the natural habitats of discus: "Discus are found in warm water with a temperature of 77-84°F".

Why are we limited to the upper portion of that temperature range? Is it specifically to supress parasitic infection in the fish or is there another reason?

[diablocanine]

Higher temps = plants need more food & light. What kind of plants are you trying? Some do better than others at higher temps.....DC


I am really wondering as to how low I can go with temperature and still keep my discus healthy. I've noticed that with lower temps, my plants do much better, my water is clearer, and I have less algae. Keeping my discus tank at 82F has been a challenge. Has anyone had any positive experiences keeping discus at around 78F or is this too low? How low can I go?

[Dissident]

I keep may planted discus tanks @ 82-84F.

[wolfbane]

Mine is 84 degrees. Definitely check into plants that tolerate higher temps, its not worth the hassle to force cooler water plants to tolerate the heat. Also, I have from some that temps below 80 can allow ich to gain a foothold.

[pcsb23]

Found on the web describing the natural habitats of discus: "Discus are found in warm water with a temperature of 77-84°F".

Why are we limited to the upper portion of that temperature range? Is it specifically to supress parasitic infection in the fish or is there another reason?

Joe,

Temperature is an interesting topic. The Asian breeders use temps around 80 - 82f, most people on here recommend 84-86f. I've also read a number of works by various authors, some respected discus breeders who use temps in the lower ranges.

I also have planted display tanks a well as other tanks. From my emperical tests of running tanks at different temperature ranges I have settled on aiming at 84 to 86f for my planted and other tanks (except breeding and qt/hosp tanks). My reasons are simple and not very scientific, the discus do better at these temps in terms of colour, appetite, activity and health (although the last one is difficult to assess accurately). I took great care and a long time adjusting temps and used similar groups of discus when I did the tests. I also made sure the tanks were treated identically, excpet for ferts which were reduced in the lower temp tank.

For completeness, I had no significant difference in algae between the two tanks, the plants grew quicker in the higher temps too. I fedd the amount the discus would eat in a five to ten minute period. Tankmates were same number and same species between the two tanks. One tank was kept in the 84-86 range, the other was kept in the 80-82 range for 4 months, later I took it down to 78-80F. Water was tested each week to ensure it was as near as possible the same. All discus started out the same size, growth rates were slower in the lower temps.

I had no disease outbreak in either tank. I have seen ich or white spot when temps have dropped due to heater failure and the fish getting stressed.

Long reply I know but wanted to explain why I keep mine at the temps I do, which are 84-86f

hth,

[AmberC]

Well I can honestly add that they dont like 70-71. :o After my w/c last fri night, I forgot to plug my heaters back in. They went all fri night, all day Sat and until Sun around noon with NO heat!!!!! Lucky for me it only dropped down to 71. But they were all quite sluggish, hiding and just didn't look happy with me.

Amber

[tpl*co]

I keep mine around 84-86 range too (close to 30 C). I just get plants that will take the temps. No use trying to fight it. Riccia, Crypts, and swords are in one tank (and I have a madagascar lace that I'm trying and is doing well so far), and I have java ferns in the lower light one. Was going to put other things in there but I ended up liking the simplicity of just different varieties of java on wood :).

Tina

[Alight]

My tanks are 82-86. My planted tank is 84 F.

I should ask, what plants are there that don't do well at 84 F?

The only plant I've seen, so far, is a subspecies of anacharis, which I wouldn't want anyway.

Every plant I've tried to grow has done well. On the other hand, I've only tried plants that were recommended for Discus tanks by others.

I've found that Discus don't mind bright lights, so high light plants are OK which is contrary to what you might read on some sites.

Al Light

[ItsGeoff]

my tank is 82-84 most the time.

discus tank at work is 90

my friend who is a breeder had one pair breed and have healthy babies in 76* water.

[lhforbes12]

Joe,
I believe the information you got on the web isn't too accurate. While temps can get fairly low during the rainy season, during the dry season they can get into the 90's F. But far more important is the water chemistry that they live in. The water typically has no hardness (GH) or KH and is just about as sterile a place as can be found in the wild. This means that discus immune systems tend to be almost non-existant. That said, not many people actually raise wild discus anymore and breeder's discus immune systems are much better. I used to keep my discus at 80F and never had a problem and also bred them easily at that temperature, but that was 30 years ago. I'm finding now, possibly because of so much in-breeding, that discus are no longer as robust as they once were. Like most of the other repliers I now keep my tanks at 84F.

[lhforbes12]

Oh, I forgot about the algae! As someone who used to have just about every algae known to man, and who now has virtually none, I'll give you the "secret" to an algae free tank. Following a water change run either a UV or diatom filter on your tank for a full day. As it was explained to me: most water has high amounts of CO2 in it. Algae can make use of this "extra" CO2 much faster than "higher" plants, and will quickly send out spores. The special filters will kill or remove them. I'm not positive that this is the actual mechanism that is at work but I am very sure of the results. Since I began following this advice, using a diatom filter, I really do not have algae anymore.

As to plants, I can grow just about any plant in my discus show tank that I can in my other cooler tanks, I would look to another cause if you are having that much trouble.

hth,
Larry

[JoeBanks]

The plants I was having trouble with in my discus tank are rotala, ludwigia and micranthemum species. Crypts and aponogetons do just fine. Hairgrass and glosso are so-so. I moved my discus to another tank and lowered the temp to 76 in the planted tank. Suddenly all the plants started growing beautifully. Nothing was changed other than the temp, and the bio-load that the discus were adding to the tank.

As for the idea of running a UV filter to control algae, one thing to watch out for is the fact that the UV will oxidize all the iron in the water and there will be none left for the plants. When the UV is turned off, you will need to add the iron back in.

I really enjoy both discus and planted tanks, but in regards to planted tanks, I don't want to be limited to specific warm water plant species - I want to be able to use any plant. I guess my best option is to have a no-compromise non-discus planted tank, and a second planted discus tank using warm water plants only.

Now all I have to do is convince my wife. :o