New home, new water. Is it still ok?

Hey guys,

After posting the same on a german forum and getting no response I decided to post it here.
Sry for my english :D ill try my best.

So my name is Dominic im 24 & from Germany.
Im a student and its my first Discus tank.

At first I didnt plan to keep Discus at all,
But some friends of my family asked me if I can take care of their sons Fish, since he lost interest in them..
After like 2 weeks :flame:
So I added 5 very small Discus to my new and besides of some cardinal tetras and corys empty tank.
They are doing great and even the smallest one (didnt eat, had white poop, constanly hiding) is eating again and doesnt hide anymore.
When i got them they were really small and did almost show no color, but now they grew a lot and get a nice blue pattern :)
Ill try to add some pics.

Atm they live in 300liter (i think around 80 Us gallon)
With a ph of 6,8 (in the tank and soft water)

This will change soon..
Ill have to move and my water conditions will unfortunatly change.

The new conditions are the following


Calcium mg/l 56
Magnesiummg/l 18,7
Natrium mg/l 23
Kalium mg/l 5,2
Hydrogen-
carbonat mg/l 210
Sulfat mg/l 43
Chlorid mg/l 36
Nitrat mg/l 10
pH-Wert 7,76
Gesamthärte °dH 12,32 = 2,29 mmol/l total hardness? °dh = german hardness
Härtebereich 2 mittel --- hardness level 2 middle

I hope you understand this and especially the units.
1)
Are these waterparameters still okay?
I donr wanma breed them and hope i can keep them because they really have grown to my heart.

And since im a student i cant afford a osmosis plant and similar stuff like this! Hope thats the right word :D

i dont wanna mess with peat, because ppl here say a constant ph value is better than low but changing values.
+ I dont like the looks of black water.

Should I use Products like the seachem discus buffer instead?
Or is my tab Water good enough?

2)
I wanted to add some cichlids, like apistogramma (agassizzi, kakaduidis)
Is this possible with the water?
3)
And i wanted to rescape the tank and make it more discusfriendly.
I have a cycled 60 liter, 15 gal tank where i put my red cherry shrimps in, to protect them from.the discus.

How long can i keep my 5 discus there to rescape the new tank? (The are around 7cm/2,8 inches big now i gues)

Thank you so much for your help!!

Have a nice day Dominic

If anything is unclear just ask, ill try my best to explain it :coffee:


http://fs5.directupload.net/images/1...p/jyynyqbx.jpg

http://fs5.directupload.net/images/1...p/tbix7x2o.jpg

http://fs1.directupload.net/images/1...p/bdaptmku.jpg

http://fs5.directupload.net/images/1...p/jyynyqbx.jpg

Hi Dominic,

welcome to Simply. Don’t you worry, hier wird keiner ignoriert ;)

Your water is perfectly fine to raise and keep discus, also dwarf cichlids, preferably also captive bred, as they tend to be more sensitive when wild caught, depending on species.

I would suggest you either run your tap water through a carbon block filter or add a water conditioner with every water change to eliminate possible toxins in the water. Sera aquatan is a nice product in Germany.

No need to mess with peat, buffer etc. That’s just asking for trouble. Have a look at the last post in my wild greens thread what happens when you mess with the water. I was lucky. This time.

Given the size of your tank I would also suggest to add a few more discus to the group to keep aggression and skittishness down.

Any more questions feel free to ask and in the mean time have a look at the stickies in the beginners sub forum, there’s a wealth of information there.

Hi Dominic and welcome to Simply Discus,
I’m glad your discus are eating. I’m not an expert but I will get this started and let others chime in. Most people here don’t recommend pH down. Discus can thrive in various pH levels, the important thing is to avoid a swing in pH. If your pH swings more than .2, then you need to age your water.
It’s recommended to take a bucket of tap water, measure the pH, let it sit for 24 hours and check it again My Discus live in pH of 7.6. My water out of the tap is the same so I’m lucky. I still age my water to avoid micro bubbles that can affect their gills, but that’s easily solved by stuffing filter foam in your return hose when refilling the tank.
The most important thing Discus need is lots of clean water. The more water changes you do, the healthier your fish will be. This is especially important when raising little ones. I changed my water daily to get mine to their full potential. I maybe overdid it, changing 80% daily when 50% would have been just as good. I’m sure you know about using a dechlorinater when doing water changes?
The 3rd thing is substrate. Because Discus create a lot of poop, it is next to impossible to keep substrate clean enough for them when they are growing. Most people here who are growing up little ones will keep the tank bare bottom as it’s much easier to keep clean. Detritus builds up quickly with these beautiful but messy fish. I hope that helps and I hope others feel free to correct me if I got anything wrong or know a better way. Best of luck in school and with your school of discus.
Patty

Thanks Tobi and Patty for your response.
Im glad to hear that its fine to keep them under these conditions.
I will consider getting a carbon filter, but for now Aquatan is exactly what i use :)
Oh wow you have really beautiful fish!!!
But yes thats exactly the point why i dont want to mess with Ph levels and stuff...
Im glad your discus are still doing fine and i hope u figured out why this happened.

Thats nice to hear, the more discus the better :) I just realised there is a 5 instead of a 6 :D
I have 6 Discus, but I will get them new tankmates when i move and rescape the tank.
Adding 3 more Discus and im fine?


Yes same for me, i did 50+% waterchange each day (every 2 days at most) when they were small and i fed them a lot.
I asked a breeder on Ebay if he has some tips for me to grow them out haha
but now i slowed down and i am changing 50% every 4th day.

I dont know if Ph lvls change at my new home, when the water ages but i will find it out :)
I will start browsing the Stickies etc on here. This board is a lot more beginnerfriendly.

Thanks again for your help


Thats a video when i just got them.
The preowner already lost 2 of them and only 5 of 6 are eating, the 6th is hiding.

But as you see in my pictures they grew a lot in the past 4 Month.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPfGrdokxFs

Hi Dominic, welcome to Simply Discus from me too. Glad to have another European on board! By what you have written it seems you are experiencing the same decline of fishkeeping forums that I have noticed lately. I consider myself lucky to have found this forum that is full of helpful, knowledgeable and friendly people, together we do our best to keep it an interesting and pleasant place to be.
I think Tobi and Patti have covered most stuff. If I may add something else:
1) if you get new discus it would be wise to get them from the same breeder where these 5 came from.
2) before you move the fish can you get some of the harder water from the new place and bring it over to mix it as you do your daily water change (continue to use the dechlorinator).
3) I would wait to add fish of other species
Hope you will keep us updated with the progress

Hi Dominic and welcome to Simply. You have received some great advice. :D I would suggest on continuing with daily water changes. Your discus still have a good bit of growing to do and this is the time to take advantage of their ability to grow.
Pat

Welcome Dominic.
Since you are about to rescape the tank , the best thing you can do for your discus would be to get that substrate all out and leave them on a bare glass .That would most certainly , greatly improve their health , appetite, growth anx even their colours at this age .
Find a way to store and age your water for water changes and change it daily , the more the better if you want them to reach their full God given potential.

Putting five 7cm discus in 60 liters tank is walking on very thin ice and although doable I wouldn't encourage a discus newbie to try this out . BUT If you do it , be sure that the tank is completely bare, filters fully cycled , feed very lightly during that week and perform daily 90% WCs with aged water .

ON the water chemistry side I want to encourage you not to worry because Ive successfully raised and keep my Stendkers discus in my GH - 19 ; KH - 16 ; pH 8.2 tap water suitable only for Malawi cichlids :)
Here is a link of my tank journal and story if you want to read further :

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...t-thread/page4

Good luck Dominic and please share your scape change with us here once you're done .

Hey guys,
Just a quick Update.

I had some Up and downs the last month.
But i finally moved l.
The tank is now running for 2 hours and i cant say who was more stressed out, the discus or me.

A quick shot of my tank.

I will post more pics and explain what happened when i got more time.

http://imgur.com/gallery/jaWaPc0

The wood will be added when its finished.
The top bar needs more structure + the epoxy needs tondry for 7+ days

This was my old scape.
I liked it but it was hard to keep clean..

Attachment 119131


And one last thing for the moment.

My fish used to eat everything i threw into the tank.
But now the stopped eating: flakes, pallets, red mosquito larvae.

They only eat Artemia, the beefheart mix & clam meat.

Is there a way to retrain them to eat the other food?