kensacco
04-09-2012, 09:32 PM
Please don't flame me for any of the following!
So, I purchased a 'slightly' stunted, but still young enough (3.5-4") PB from a Petco about a month ago. No, I couldn't resist the urge to save him, and I haven't had discus in about 15 years. At any rate, he's doing very very well - super active, eats like a champ, and he's definitely growing well now and rounding out a bit more too. The tank he is in is a 46 gallon with 3 GB Rams, small pleco, five ghost shrimp and fifteen assorted tetras (neon, bleeding heart, columbian). For substrate I have a half river stone, and half aragonite sand - depths ranging from 1.5" on the sand side, up to 5" on the stone side - blended in the middle. It's really quite beautiful to see! I also have three large pieces of Mopani wood, five pieces of Lava rock, and am fairly well planted. This tank used to be an African Rift lake tank, so the aragonite was being used as a PH buffer against the Mopani. I generally do a 30% water change every other day, and have never had any issues with mysterious fish die offs (other than the Africans mauling each other - which is why I switched to something more peaceful). Anyhow, I've always tested my Ph (6.8), Nitrite (0), Ammonia (0), GH (225 - even the Mopani hasn't helped this), KH (50), Chlorine (0)., but hadn't really tested my Nitrate. After I bought the Discus, knowing how finicky they can be, I tested Nitrate, with a result over 200ppm! I increased water changes to 60% daily, but that hasn't helped at all. I know when Aragonite goes to freshwater, there's a bacterial die off, but that switch was made over a year ago, and should be long since done with. I always use Prime during water changes as well. Filtered with a Biowheel 200 and a temp of 82. Yes, I vacuum the sand and gravel, but on the deep gravel I don't dig down too much so as not to release any of the anaerobic bacteria. 30 odd years of fishkeeping and I'm vexed! I test with EasyStrips, but also use API liquid dropper kits from backup when the strips report out of whack. Also, water from the tap, pre-Prime reads at:
NO3 -0
NO2 -0
GH - 150
Chlorine - 0 (this is odd, as I'll smell chlorine when I run the water hot, and otherwise, what else would they treat it with)
KH - 20
Ammonia - 0
Ph - 7.0
Any ideas? I'm loathe to do too much tinkering with the water chemistry, as all the fish are doing well...but that 200 just bugs the crap out of me!
P.S - I know many on this board are very much against planted and substrated tanks, so I put this post off for two weeks, but I'm really striving for a beautiful, natural looking tank!
So, I purchased a 'slightly' stunted, but still young enough (3.5-4") PB from a Petco about a month ago. No, I couldn't resist the urge to save him, and I haven't had discus in about 15 years. At any rate, he's doing very very well - super active, eats like a champ, and he's definitely growing well now and rounding out a bit more too. The tank he is in is a 46 gallon with 3 GB Rams, small pleco, five ghost shrimp and fifteen assorted tetras (neon, bleeding heart, columbian). For substrate I have a half river stone, and half aragonite sand - depths ranging from 1.5" on the sand side, up to 5" on the stone side - blended in the middle. It's really quite beautiful to see! I also have three large pieces of Mopani wood, five pieces of Lava rock, and am fairly well planted. This tank used to be an African Rift lake tank, so the aragonite was being used as a PH buffer against the Mopani. I generally do a 30% water change every other day, and have never had any issues with mysterious fish die offs (other than the Africans mauling each other - which is why I switched to something more peaceful). Anyhow, I've always tested my Ph (6.8), Nitrite (0), Ammonia (0), GH (225 - even the Mopani hasn't helped this), KH (50), Chlorine (0)., but hadn't really tested my Nitrate. After I bought the Discus, knowing how finicky they can be, I tested Nitrate, with a result over 200ppm! I increased water changes to 60% daily, but that hasn't helped at all. I know when Aragonite goes to freshwater, there's a bacterial die off, but that switch was made over a year ago, and should be long since done with. I always use Prime during water changes as well. Filtered with a Biowheel 200 and a temp of 82. Yes, I vacuum the sand and gravel, but on the deep gravel I don't dig down too much so as not to release any of the anaerobic bacteria. 30 odd years of fishkeeping and I'm vexed! I test with EasyStrips, but also use API liquid dropper kits from backup when the strips report out of whack. Also, water from the tap, pre-Prime reads at:
NO3 -0
NO2 -0
GH - 150
Chlorine - 0 (this is odd, as I'll smell chlorine when I run the water hot, and otherwise, what else would they treat it with)
KH - 20
Ammonia - 0
Ph - 7.0
Any ideas? I'm loathe to do too much tinkering with the water chemistry, as all the fish are doing well...but that 200 just bugs the crap out of me!
P.S - I know many on this board are very much against planted and substrated tanks, so I put this post off for two weeks, but I'm really striving for a beautiful, natural looking tank!