Discus Wanted in Clinton, Utah

[Jayy]

I don't know the source of Discusdadys fish at this point. Mine are off spring from Discus Hans Stendeker fish. The simply discus sponsors all have really great fish, and you should look at their stock lists, as you will find they have a great assortment. You may find that they will have the specific strain of discus you really want, while other local discus breeders will not. Their prices are very good as well, particularly for the small fish. You should not buy and discus that are less than 2 inches, and they should preferably be at least 2.5 inches. I don't sell mine even to Mike Dennis (who holds them a while longer) until they are at least 2 inches.

You can buy the bacteria for fishless cycling at Fish 4 U in Holiday. Their biospira worked great for me. Good prices, nice owners. Don't get your discus there, though, they have never believed that bare bottom tanks and frequent water changes are needed. They are. Again, I will PM you later today about other stuff.

What's your water like? Most in Utah have very hard water, some so much so that you are likely to need an RO unit.

Al Light

I fully intent to pay Discusdady a visit and check out his stock. I appreciate all views expressed here, and I am going to look at sponsor's stock lists especially when looking for a specific strain, but I also know that local hobbyists can have great stock and usually better prices. It will be a while before his fry are big enough to purchase and that's fine, my aquarium still needs to cycle. I have some Seachem Stability on it's way from amazon to help with the cycle.

I haven't tested the water yet. My old test kit from when I ran a reef tank was expired and I have a new one on order as well. I do actually have a RODI unit in storage from when I ran a reef tank so if it's too bad I can hook that up again and buy new filters for it. I hope to be able to use treated tap water though.

[rickztahone]

I fully intent to pay Discusdady a visit and check out his stock. I appreciate all views expressed here, and I am going to look at sponsor's stock lists especially when looking for a specific strain, but I also know that local hobbyists can have great stock and usually better prices. It will be a while before his fry are big enough to purchase and that's fine, my aquarium still needs to cycle. I have some Seachem Stability on it's way from amazon to help with the cycle.

I haven't tested the water yet. My old test kit from when I ran a reef tank was expired and I have a new one on order as well. I do actually have a RODI unit in storage from when I ran a reef tank so if it's too bad I can hook that up again and buy new filters for it. I hope to be able to use treated tap water though.

Tap should be fine. Tell us the parameters when your test kit comes in. You got a FW testing kit right? Not SW?

[Jayy]

Tap should be fine. Tell us the parameters when your test kit comes in. You got a FW testing kit right? Not SW?

Yep I ordered the API master kit for freshwater, and also the API DH\KH kit. I have a PH tester already.

[rickztahone]

Yep I ordered the API master kit for freshwater, and also the API DH\KH kit. I have a PH tester already.

Cool. the DH/KH isn't very important unless you start getting in to possibly breeding. Tap is fine so long as your nitrates aren't high out of tap and your pH is in good range and not way over pH8. Do you know if your pH is stable after 24hrs?

[Jayy]

I finally got the tank setup and filled. Here are some photos:

IMG_20160317_153415.jpgIMG_20160317_153434.jpgIMG_20160317_153455.jpgIMG_20160317_153529.jpg

As you can see it needs to heat up quite a bit still. Once it gets warmer I'll drop in a hunk of shrimp or something and add seachem stability to get the cycle going.

[Akili]

Looks like you did good job with the silicone .............. Good Luck !!

[Jayy]

Looks like you did good job with the silicone .............. Good Luck !!

I assume by good job you mean rather sloppy but adequate haha. So far so good, it's been up several hours and not a drop of leaking to be seen.

[rickztahone]

You didn't wait till the weekend! I remember being that impatient.

Just hope that it doesn't spring a leak when you least expect it. Silicone needs a good cure time, especially in our applications. Remember that the instructions on the bottle are not specific to the application WE use it for. These silicones are used around the house. We use it underwater to hold panels together. The longer cure time allows the adhesion to take full effect, and that doesn't happen in 48hrs.

[Jayy]

You didn't wait till the weekend! I remember being that impatient.

Just hope that it doesn't spring a leak when you least expect it. Silicone needs a good cure time, especially in our applications. Remember that the instructions on the bottle are not specific to the application WE use it for. These silicones are used around the house. We use it underwater to hold panels together. The longer cure time allows the adhesion to take full effect, and that doesn't happen in 48hrs.

Well, I sealed it the evening of the 13th, so it had almost 4 days to dry. And I had a day off work today so I went ahead and filled it. Also contributing to my decision, the last parts I needed for my lights and my seachem stability showed up today.

I can't believe how long it's taking to heat up this water. I have two 300 watt heaters in the tank and it's still barely at 57 degrees. I'll have to see how well they hold the temp overnight once it's up to temp I may end up getting a couple 500 watt heaters.

[rickztahone]

4 days should be fine I think. I really thought you only had 2 days. Good luck Jay.

[Akili]

Jay, how come you did not use warm water from the Tap? No fish in there that chlorine would affect them

[Jayy]

Jay, how come you did not use warm water from the Tap? No fish in there that chlorine would affect them

The biggest reason being that I don't have a hot water faucet I can hook a hose to and no way I was going to bucket in that much water. I just brought my garden hose in through the back door and filled it. The water was actually about 48 degrees right out of the tap.

[Akili]

At this point a few buckets of hot water can help raise the temperature.

[Jayy]

At this point a few buckets of hot water can help raise the temperature.

My other heater was finally delivered today. I'm at 70 degrees now and it's climbing a lot more rapidly.

So now that the water is (almost) where I need it I tested the PH. It's reading 8.1, which is quite a bit higher than what I want. I have two somewhat large manzanita stumps on their way which I understand can naturally lower the PH. I'll probably pick up some peat moss and add it to my filter today. I don't want to dose the water with chemicals.. What other techniques can I use to stabilize the PH at a lower point?

In my saltwater tank I used to have the opposite problem, too low a PH. I used a calcium buffer and calcium bicarbonate to adjust PH higher. I'm not very familiar with how to lower it other than what I've mentioned already.

[Jayy]

OK I did some basic reading on PH and turns out my problem is hard water from the tap. Too much dissolved minerals in my water.

So now my question is, do I need to setup my RODI system to strip out the minerals to soften the water? How about using a standard home water softener system? Or, could my discus adapt to harder water and a PH of about 8? I don't want them to just survive, I want them to thrive. I want as much growth as possible, vibrant colors etc. At some point down the road I'd like to breed and be able to raise up the fry successfully as well.

So the real question is, how high a PH is "too high" for discus to thrive?