Seastep
02-22-2008, 09:46 AM
It's been quite a while since my last update, so it's high time that I let everyone know what's going on. I'm a stay-at-home Dad of a two-year old and I'm working on my Master's Thesis, so time is always in short supply! My Discus maintenance doesn't suffer, but unfortunately updating the folks at Discus does!
They're growing like crazy and are great eaters. I feed about six to eight times daily. The staple food is frozen beef heart mix and I throw in some Color Bits, Tubiflex Worms and New Life Spectrum Discus Formula for variety. They'll eat anything! They sometimes take nibbles of my forearms when I'm doing my water changes.
Compared to my Competition Colleagues, I am probably a bit of a water change heretic. I do a WEEKLY 85% water change. I know other folks do lots more, but I think it's more important to minimize distruptions and shoot for stability rather than going for ultra-pristine water. So far, I've noticed nothing to convince me more water changes are required. I have the luxury since I'm home all day to do numerous small feedings that minimize the amount of uneaten food waste that is in my tanks. I can also monitor my water quality carefully... I shoot for stable parameters: 86F, Hardness of 125 ppm, and Nitrates 0-10. Once that Nitrate number heads up above 10, I do my water change. So far, my weekly changes keep that number well below 10.
Anyway.. Here are the pics! I think my biggest problem is getting good pictures. These are better than I've done in the past, but they hardly do these guys justice. (They're afraid of the flash!)
They're growing like crazy and are great eaters. I feed about six to eight times daily. The staple food is frozen beef heart mix and I throw in some Color Bits, Tubiflex Worms and New Life Spectrum Discus Formula for variety. They'll eat anything! They sometimes take nibbles of my forearms when I'm doing my water changes.
Compared to my Competition Colleagues, I am probably a bit of a water change heretic. I do a WEEKLY 85% water change. I know other folks do lots more, but I think it's more important to minimize distruptions and shoot for stability rather than going for ultra-pristine water. So far, I've noticed nothing to convince me more water changes are required. I have the luxury since I'm home all day to do numerous small feedings that minimize the amount of uneaten food waste that is in my tanks. I can also monitor my water quality carefully... I shoot for stable parameters: 86F, Hardness of 125 ppm, and Nitrates 0-10. Once that Nitrate number heads up above 10, I do my water change. So far, my weekly changes keep that number well below 10.
Anyway.. Here are the pics! I think my biggest problem is getting good pictures. These are better than I've done in the past, but they hardly do these guys justice. (They're afraid of the flash!)