Just got my first discus (in a long time)

[ChrisNif]

I'll consider myself a noob...it's been years since I was breeding discus and many things changed over those years (namely I don't need RO blackwater).

Anyway, I got four football/nickle size fish from a local breeder who is kind of using me as a guinea pig to see if these fish are as hardy as she'd like them to be...They were bred and raised in tap water, but her angels are so hardy the ones in my possession survived an accidental nitrate spike above 200 (I was using an automated dosing system and the pump went screwy and added too much fertilizers), so the hope is that these fish can survive and thrive in a tank with once a week 50% water changes (tap)...just your "normal" tank.

I am prepared for this to not work, I've got a 20 gallon bare bottom ready and a sponge filter in an active tank to keep seeded...but hopefully I wont need it :)

I guess I just wanted to post and say "HI" and hope for good luck

[Gillmann]

Congrats on getting back into discus. I have done the same after a 20 year break. We had moved to the country and our well water was great for african cichlids, but not discus. But now that we are back in the city - the fish room is up and active again!

[DLock3d]

Congrats and welcome. Or welcome back. A lot of people will say for proper growth that you need to do more water changes. It sounds like you're ready to try to beat the odds. Good luck, I'll be interested to see what happens. How many times a day do you plan on feeding them?

[ChrisNif]

Well I've been feeding the angels 4-5 times per day (microworms, fine flake <mix of kens and a few others>, finely chopped black worms, vinegar eels in that order, 5th feed sometimes is a bit of extra flake), so I figure the discus should be okay on the same schedule. On this schedule with once weekly water changes my angels are growing well and nitrates have never passed 5 (likely owing to the "weeds" in my tank, namely a few hygro species I won't mention).