My New "to me" Discus setup

I posted my info on another "Sticky post" but was informed would be best if I made my own post.

My Experience with fishkeeping has been mainly cichlids and community tanks since around 1990ish.

I recently as of about 4 days ago purchased a tank setup with 6 5"-6" Discus and have been trying to crash course myself with information mainly on SimplyDiscus and some Youtube.
Previous owner raised them from quarter dollar size

Tank is Bare Bottom 110 gallon drilled Bowfront with 40 gallon sump, sump has 3 sections drains into filter media and sponge/Bio Balls and air stone /Return.
air sponge in tank,. Green Kiling maching UV sterilizer .1 main heater 1 backup heater both in the overflow section of the tank and Inkbird controller

Currently feeding beef heart frozen cubes 1 cube 2x daily. sometimes freeze dried bloodworms (they dont seem to like as much)

Current Tank Water parameters;
Temp 82
PH 6.8 (TDS 315) (hauled water in Brute cans when purchased previous owner used straight Tap)
Ammonia reading 0
Nitrite reading 0
Nitrate reading 25 was 50 right after the move and before the 2 WC's


Tap Water parameters; (Not aged or dechlorinated)
Ph 7.8
TDS 150
KH 80
TA 180
GH 25
Chlorine 3.0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0

My Municipal water from their website
Calcium ppm 2.191
Iron ppm 0.05
pH units 8.55
Sodium ppm 226
Total Hardness ppm 8.781


75% RODI / 25% Tap mix Water parameters;
PH 7.3
TDS 37

100% RODI with Seachem Equilibrium, Acid and Alk buffers
PH 6.8
TDS 150

Water changes planned percentage and how often are yet to be determined I Have done 2 water changes since purchasing and moving, First WC was with the 100% RODI with Seachem Equilibrium buffer . Second WC with RODI/Tap mix.

I do plan on aging water with heater and powerhead but not yet determined if I should use straight tap ,tap/RO or Seachem Equilibrium,Seachem Acid,Seachem Alk mix.


Currently crash course researching what my safest ,best procedure, percentage, schedule and water parameters (Use tap, RODI/Tap mix or RODI Seachem buffers) need to be so I dont screw up.

Should Heaters be kept in the return section of the sump?

Should I just stick with straight tap water changes from here on out to keep consistency and not have to deal with buffers and RO water?

will the fish be ok with the jump of water parameters between thier current and my straight "aged and warmed up" tap water ?

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Nice looking discus.I guessing between 4.5” and 6”. So these are grown discus. You’re useing ro water so that why it’s 6.8. Do you know what the ph was from who you got them from? Your tap at 7.8 should be fine. But let it sit for 24hrs and test again . See if the ph goes down. If it does it would be better to age your water before using. I’d do 2 50% water changes a week to keep them healthy.

What did they eat before you got them. The beef heart does foul the water so it’s better to move them off that. Now a pic of the whole tank.

I brought most of their water with me in Brute cans when I picked it up once I got it all set back up I added approx 20 gallons of the RODI Seachem mix water. The 6.8 PH is what the water was that they were previously in tested before the first water change. The previous owner said he used Tap water Im guessing his municipal tap has a lower PH than mine so I was using a RO mix to try to stay at 6.8 but if my Tap water will work I will stop using it.

The previous owner told me that he fed them 1 cube 2-3 times a day mostly beef heart and they like bloodworms but he didnt say whether the bloodworms were the frozen or freeze dried . when I put a pinch of dried bloodworms they dont seem interested.

Should I cut power the the sump pump to prevent waste being sent to the sump or just let it be ?

p.s. there is a small Eel living in the sump

https://youtube.com/shorts/FauwYjjnHs8?feature=share
Hitchhiker in the sump

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The Stand needs a little touching up

Try aged tap water. Beef heart is ok if you plan on changing water every day and more filter maintenance. In the other thread, you mentioned high nitrates. I think most of that was from all the old water you used from the other setup. The old water was just that old water. Now that there are settled in if it were me I'd be changing greater volumes of aged water til your nitrate get down <10 ppm. I wouldn't go changing large amounts of water without aging, especially if you see a lot of micro-bubbles. Most of us can't get away with anymore than 25-30% straight from the tap. Remember beef heart or any raw meat will drive nitrates higher than a good store bought food.

the sump answer is an interesting one. Forget to turn it back on and it is off till next feeding. Leave it on and you are paying to feed your filter to some degree. My tentative plan is to time the lag with feedings then get an electronic count down timer. If I forget to turn off the sump runs, if I remember when feeding (highly likely, but not guaranteed) then it automatically turns back on. I would on occasion forget that and the way I am set up with air pump driven moving media filter in one of the sump chambers, that would be a bad thing.

Cool looking eel. Years ago I kept a tire track eel with my discus. He was a great fish that thought he was a discus.

The hygger return pump you’re using is it a dc pump with a controller? It looks similar to my jebao. Mine has a feed button. You hit it and the pump stay off for 10 min then comes back on.

I would retest your tap water after letting it sit for 24hrs.it may be lower.

Yes it is a hygger. I was like most and going off old information I read about discus years ago with the RO stuff but after reading and researching here the last few days it looks like my tap will be fine . I do plan on aging the water especially for temperature but also in hope the PH will drop but even if not it should be fine ?

Should I net the eel and try to put him back in tank or leave him in sump ?

It’ll probably be fine down there till it grows but you’ll have to feed it. It’s small but I don’t think the discus will eat it. So it should be fine in the main tank. But I keep shrimp in all my sumps and baby bn plecos.

Is the hygger a dc pump?

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Yes it is DC

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dspeers

the sump answer is an interesting one. Forget to turn it back on and it is off till next feeding. Leave it on and you are paying to feed your filter to some degree. My tentative plan is to time the lag with feedings then get an electronic count down timer. If I forget to turn off the sump runs, if I remember when feeding (highly likely, but not guaranteed) then it automatically turns back on. I would on occasion forget that and the way I am set up with air pump driven moving media filter in one of the sump chambers, that would be a bad thing.

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The pump is a Hygger HG-915-4000 it has a 10 min pause feed mode

That’s a good pump I’m using the 3000 from jebao at 17 w in a 90g tank. I’m moving around 600g an hour. Your pump being a 4000 will move 1000gph at 24w. Hygger seems to be a good company. I’m using there heaters and lights. Jebao is selling some great dc pumps at affordable prices. Hygger is using there pumps. Im using 3 of there pumps now and have another as a backup. There that cheap I bought a backup :). Attachment 133835Attachment 133836

Here’s some of what works for me as a hobbyist:
Don’t worry about water parameters and focus on making frequent large water changes. I’d throw out the R/O and salts, and do daily WC from tap. You can’t do too many. They will adapt if the water is warm and clean. I use Seachem Safe/Prime and try and match the temp of water coming in. I run my tank at 85. I only test for ph very rarely and just so I can get my co2 dialed in for the plants. Nitrates over 20 would indicate to me a need for bigger/more frequent WCs, but ymmv.