Your system looks awesome by the way!!!
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Your system looks awesome by the way!!!
you don't have to feed BH. i do because it is inexpensive if you DIY and it seems to grow them out nice. flake only doesn't work for me, it all goes over the overflow. i just simply mix BH and Flake, and stick it to the glass. they peck at it there, and when it falls, they slowly finish it. Discus aren't fast eaters. People grow them out on all kinds of things. 20 year ago the experts told me to do it, and it worked then too : )
Thanks for the info!!
Just my experience with WL...I have a small outdoor goldfish pond. As soon as it turns green I throw in WL and almost overnight it is crystal clear and remains that way. The root systems of the WL get MASSIVE.
I gotta believe that WL is sucking up the nutrients and outcompeting even the algae!
After three months your Crypts should be settled in and attempting to take over the tank!
And so it goes. About the time you think you have it sorted out, they turn dark and belly up. Its quite sad actually, raised them from dime size.
I've raised the temperature, I've remove the water lettuce from sump, increased frequency of WC. No change, so they are currently on a course or metro BH food. I've lost two of them since last post. I'm not sure what is at play. From what i can read/tell, its bacterial, popeye is the most obvious symptom, the Blue diamonds are in a bad way, while the rest fish are fine, even spawning. one of my favorite Blues has a lesion/HITH i've upped my WC, but they are still not doing well. they are 6 days into the medicated food. i expected more than 3 years out of them.
Such a nice tank and it really gave me hope for my planted tank with Discus. Until that last entry. I'm so sorry and heartbroken for you. Hope everyone else pulls through this for you.:(
thanks for info Neptune, i've ditched it. it was making a mess in my sump, started growing BGA, there was even a small plague of glass worms that survived a clorox dip. they were wily, would hide when i search with a flashlight....nature is amazing. anyway, it added to maintenance, and didn't seem to help. right now crypts are holding steady, but i've notice the trident java fern is continuing to do well.
Since this is a tank log...not going to fakebook/highlight reel it.
Fella went from great to a bit dark over a day or two, then overnight went to bent body/pigment loss,bulging eye/swollen upper-body overnight. meanwhile others are doing fine.
i put it down.
he was the second. i think its bacterial as i see some signs of lateral line and/or hole in the head. and i don't know why, but the blue diamonds seem to be the ones more susceptible
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My current theory is that my DIY fertilizers leached into the water, combined with a decrease in WC along with EI dosing has allowed the nitrates to climb. They were off the charts high, i fact i've never seen them so high. I can’t find a definite answer if fertilizer nitrate is as bad as BB generated nitrate, but my hunch is that is it. With EI dosing when i did a WC, i then followed by dumping a more ferts in, i guess maybe adding back the problem.
The remaining ones are eating the metro laced BH great, but I can’t see that it has made any real difference. So when that course ends I’ll do some research on using kyamicin or not. But in any case, I’m done with DIY ferts and EI dosing until I see the water parameters become more favorable.
When mine was planted I was using the Greenleaf pps pro method. Had no issues. It's similar to EI but EI wants you doing a weekly wc. With pps pro you could do daily change and not have negative effects. It's super cheap and super easy. Dosing is the same everyday. Amount depends on lighting and plants.
I use it now in my planted all though my discus tank is no longer planted.
No more casualties. I could see no healing correlated to the metro. I did 2 courses of it. Some of the holes are healing, but it is slowly, and it continued at a rate similar to before and during metro use.
I’ve removed the bunch of matrix from the sump. I added it hoping I would see a drop in nitrates, I never did, all that I saw was lots and lots of mulm. Sump mulm: depending on what you read, it does everything from cause nitrates to remove them, such is the internet. I decided to take it out.
I read that HLLE could be nutrient issue too; I soaked my BH/flake mix with Zoe liquid vitamin per instructions on bottle.
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jack, do you run carbon or a similar product?