Bio-wheel filter and feeding amount

[msn]

Hi Guys,

I have some concern on my Discus tank on the topics of filtration and feeding.

1) For the past month I have been relying on a sponge filter and do water changes daily but the ammonia content is still very high 4ppm.
Heard bout bio-wheel filters very effective for biological filtration. Any advice whether I should purchase the Marineland bio-wheel filter?

2) My 3 turquoise Discus has been around for 5 months but they are not growing any larger. I have been feeding them 2 or 3 times daily and for each feeding, I will either have a cube of frozen bloodworm or mix with beefheart? Any advice on how to enhance heir growth?

Thanks.

[White Worm]

Hi Guys,

I have some concern on my Discus tank on the topics of filtration and feeding.

1) For the past month I have been relying on a sponge filter and do water changes daily but the ammonia content is still very high 4ppm.
Heard bout bio-wheel filters very effective for biological filtration. Any advice whether I should purchase the Marineland bio-wheel filter?

2) My 3 turquoise Discus has been around for 5 months but they are not growing any larger. I have been feeding them 2 or 3 times daily and for each feeding, I will either have a cube of frozen bloodworm or mix with beefheart? Any advice on how to enhance heir growth?

Thanks.

The more filtration, the better. I like to over-do it because it keeps the tank spotless. I like to use a canister 2x the required size for large tanks and just have the sponge filter going in the smaller tanks.
Feed them more often. 6X a day and maybe a little more each feeding. Clean water and plenty of good food is the key.

[digthemlows]

Agreed on the "more the better". My 125 gallon has a Fluval 405 canister filter, a sponge filter, and 2 AquaClear 70s........

[Apistomaster]

I believe you may have missed your opportunity to grow normal sized discus.

They need to be fed 4 or more times a day when you have bought juveniles. It is those first weeks and months of life that have the greatest influence on discus size at a particular age.
After that initial period of their lives they rarely grow as large as they could/should.
Begin feeding them four times/day. Allow no waste food to accumulate.

RBC's are just another way to expose nitrifying bacteria to oxygen. It has little to do with the growth problems you experienced.

[Brian Mc]

I do recommend the marineland bio-wheels, they survive power outages better than a canister will. You can't buy one too big, I like to take the carbon out of the filter pads and run just the floss. I would keep the sponge, always good to have redundant systems. HTH.

[jnguyen4007]

Hi Guys,

I have some concern on my Discus tank on the topics of filtration and feeding.

1) For the past month I have been relying on a sponge filter and do water changes daily but the ammonia content is still very high 4ppm.
Heard bout bio-wheel filters very effective for biological filtration. Any advice whether I should purchase the Marineland bio-wheel filter?

2) My 3 turquoise Discus has been around for 5 months but they are not growing any larger. I have been feeding them 2 or 3 times daily and for each feeding, I will either have a cube of frozen bloodworm or mix with beefheart? Any advice on how to enhance heir growth?

Thanks.

What size tank do you have? I used the Emperor 400 and 800 on all of my tropical fish tanks and an Eheim canister filter. I like the canister filter a bit more because it requires me to do few filter maintenance than HOB filters do. Other than that, I love my Emperor. They haven't failed me yet.

[msn]

Mine's a 20G tank. Anyway, I just ordered from Amazon a Marineland 150 bio-wheel. Though some review says it has problem for its noise, power and wheel, I am willing to try it cos it has good biological filtration.

[jnguyen4007]

Mine's a 20G tank. Anyway, I just ordered from Amazon a Marineland 150 bio-wheel. Though some review says it has problem for its noise, power and wheel, I am willing to try it cos it has good biological filtration.

The marineland brand is supposedly a low end version of the emperor line. my relatives who used the emperor HOB filters for years recommended them so I used them and it turned out, they worked great. Never had problem with them. I did have problem with a used marineland filter that came with a tank that i bought. even after I replaced the impeller and a new intake tube, it still struggles with pulling water in, made a lot of noise and it didn't filter as well. After a few days, I pulled the plug and replaced it with an emperor. Ofcourse this is just based on my personal experience and it could very well be the exception to the norm.

[White Worm]

Sorry I didnt pick up on this earlier. Your tank is pretty small and most likely not cycled. How much water do you change daily? If you have ammonia showing, you need to do a large w/c. I would do 80%. Keep ammonia levels and Nitrite levels at 0 if possible with the discus in the tank. Under stress, your discus will not grow as they should. What are your nitrate readings?

[msn]

Hi Mikscus, My nitrate readings for the past 2 weeks is around 4 - 6ppm. Gosh, I did a 60% WC, take immediate ammonia readings but still showing 4ppm. I am using single sponge filter.

[White Worm]

CHeck the water straight from the tap. What tests are you using.

[msn]

Am using Aquarium Pharmaceuticals NH3/NH4 test kit. Tested tap water its 0ppm.

[bearcat]

Do you use prime in your storage water,this will give you a false reading (higher) when you tested for amm.
If your fish do not show signs of stress and you are using prime I have found that if you don't add prime to your storage until you are ready to put that water in your tank then the amm readings will drop to 0.
Hope this helps.
Rick

[bearcat]

Sorry me again ,this procedure is done if you have chlorinated water because the prime bines to the chlorine in the water to make it harmless ,the end result is a higher reading.
But some the more expert discus breeders can explain it better.
Rick

[msn]

Sorry me again ,this procedure is done if you have chlorinated water because the prime bines to the chlorine in the water to make it harmless ,the end result is a higher reading.
But some the more expert discus breeders can explain it better.
Rick
Hi Rick, I did not use Prime and the test was done from direct tap water without stora. I did an 80% WC this morning and clean the Spone Filter with my aquarium water. Immediate reading after the change was 2ppm.

[bearcat]

Well with the 80% water changes and amm at 2ppm, you are going in the right direction,but I would put the Bio-wheel filter on, as this will help with your present problem and allow you to increase you feeds.
I have 4 filters on my 65 gallon, the more the better and as brain said take the carbon out of the floss filter that is in the marine bio- wheel unit.
Have you checked the nitrite level in you tank because it will go up sometimes as well.
Remember amm is caused by fish waste and has to be controlled with water changes and filtration .
Rick

[kaceyo]

If your sponge filter isn't cycled, which is what this sounds like, adding another uncycled filter isn't going to help lower the ammonia at all. My advice would be to start doing two large wc's daily to keep ammonia levels down and start adding either Prime, AmQuel or AmmoLock (or equivilent) to your tank at each wc to detox the ammonia. Feeding more will make the problem worse unless you're keeping the ammonia under control.
What is the pH of the tank and the tap water? The lower the pH, the less toxic ammonia is. Unfortunetly it sounds like the fish have already been stunted.

Kacey

[bearcat]

Can you get your hands on some cycle in your country,this product has a large amount of bacteria culture in it to help seed your filter.
May be someone else can suggest another product that you can get in your country.
Or maybe you can get some filter medium form a friend that has some to spare.
Good luck.
Rick

[msn]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all the useful info, I just got my Bio-Wheel flown and am excited to use it!!
But I have a problem of maintaining the filter cartridge since the Bio-Wheel is not available in my country, Singapore. Can I use other media instead if relying on the Rote-Size cartridge? Thanks for any help.

[kaceyo]

The cartridges that come with the bio-wheels are in my opinion too small and thin to be of much use. What I do is put a prefilter sponge over the intake strainer and fill the whole compartment up with something like ceramic rings or very small bioballs.
If you want a cartridge you can reuse the plastic frame they come with by removing the old carbon and matting from it and sewing on a new and thicker filter matt.
I really prefer the AquaClear filters as they are designed so the entire filter box can be filled with media.

Kacey

[msn]

Thanks Kacey for the info. On the other hand, I thought ceramic rings or bio balls are suitable for biological filtration and this is already provided by the bio-wheel?

[kaceyo]

Thanks Kacey for the info. On the other hand, I thought ceramic rings or bio balls are suitable for biological filtration and this is already provided by the bio-wheel?

That's true but in my opinion more is always better when it comes to surface area for bio-filtration.

Kacey

[Cosmo]

The Emporers are good filters, too big for a 20 gal tank IMO and they area a PITA during a WC cause they tend to suck air long before the water level has reached the end of the intake tube. They do make cell pore inserts that increase the bio dramatically - you can get them at drsfostersmith.com

Personnally, I prefer cannisters with prefilters
Jim

[msn]

Thanks for all the precious advice. The Marineland bio-wheel have been working great for
the past 2 weeks. I really tested it - power on and off and on and off and on again and it is still working perfect unlike some buyers' comments. The wheels are spinning smoothly and the ammonia level is maintained at 0ppm even after 1 week of no WC ... but of course I did a 20% WC every week. I also did as what Kaceyo said i.e replace the cartridge with ceraming rings and they are great as well. Thanks guys!