purgin carbon phosban

[Trueblackpercula]

New to discuss but have been keeping salt water fish and reef tanks for over 30 years, decided to get away from all that madness and enter the wonderful world of discuss madness LOL.

Hi all I have set up a 120 cube in wall and have a 30 gallon sump that was a reef tank prior. I have been doing a lot of reading as I am going from reefkeeping to discuss everything has been flushed out with many water changes. I placed large amounts of carbon to filter the water only to read that carbon does harm to discuss is this true? So with that said how much resigns should i be using? I also would like to know is it better to run through a fluidized filter ( would love to make my own if you could point me in the correct direction) or is it better to use the pre-packaged ones? The tank has been set up for 40 days only with cori cats in it as i don’t want to lose any discuss to cycle out the tank for now. In addition the tank still has that bacterial bloom present and I hope it clears up soon.
I change 20 gallons a week and vacuum the sand
View attached picture
Water test last light shows
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Ph 7.8 but my profilux says 7.97
Is it better to use purigen or carbon or both and can I use phosban to remove phosphates as I don’t like algea or is that a bad idea is I plan on keeping some moss and of course have some really nice pieces of wood,
Equipment
120 gallon cube with overflow
30 gallon sump by Precision marine
Iwaki xrlt 50 Jap motor
Mitras lx6100
Profilux mini controller wti temp controller and PH probe <<<< love this
Vortex power head on slow speed
4 bags of sand in the main display tank
6 pounds of biohome ultra big filter media from ebay
IMG_7986.JPG

[Jack L]

haven't used carbon in 20 years with any type of fish all FW

i just toss bag of purigen in flow zone of sump and that works fine

if you are going to grow them out in there, just be ready to keep up with your WC

[Filip]

Hi and welcome to our forum and keeping discus .

I think that you are over thinking it here T.B.Pericula which , coming from the marine world is quite understandable .
Keeping discus is a lot different than marine tanks and really it all comes down to changing a lots of water on a daily level and keeping your system(sand, filters , glass decor) very clean and low on bacterial counts, by efficiently removing DOCs (debris sludge, rotten stuff ) .
Carbon , purigen , phosban and all the other types of chemical filtration are only a fine tunning or if not ,completely unnecessary in your discus tank.
Focus on daily changes and cleaning routines and your discus will thrive .

As for the carbon harming discus - it is a nonproven belief , a myth .Some stick close to it while others consider it as a complete mislead .

I would change those lights to more natural daylight appearance . Something more 6500k and 80-90% CRI range . But that's just my anesthetic opinion .

Good luck with your new discus journey and I wish you good luck .