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Thread: 110gal Rimless

  1. #31
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    Default Re: 110gal Rimless

    Quote Originally Posted by Clawhammer View Post
    The huge quantity of water in the Amazon basin has unfathomable dilution power and the naturally low pH keeps organic compounds and bacteria to a minimum. Doing large daily water changes and cleanings is the only way to approximate discus' natural ecosytem unfortunately.

    I came from planted tanks too, and it also took a while for it to all sink in / make sense to me as well. Discus simply have different needs and #1 and #2 are clean water and large amounts messy food.

    Good luck, I look forward to future updates.
    The whole "there's so much water in the Amazon" explanation never quite did it for me, considering all the other fish I've kept from the Amazon were cool with monthly water changes in a tank filled with gravel. But I'm happy to just listen to the collective wisdom that says discus are different. Maybe at some point in the future I'll do an experiment and set up a sump that's packed with plants and inverts and see what I can get away with. But for these guys, I'm going by the book and will keep up my daily water changes. They were too expensive for experimenting on anyway ;-)

  2. #32
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    Default Re: 110gal Rimless

    Quote Originally Posted by Phillydubs View Post
    I was thinking and echoing similar sentiments earlier today... I like the word "quest" because I often feel like I am on one to cure or help one "problem" only to harm something else. I even tried to say, well if you let those bio-balls go it would have been total disaster, which is also probably true, doesn't mean don't clean them and do it the right way, just slowly! I think patience is the key word here and the willingness to learn as we grow and suffer from mistakes to better our future as a keeper.

    Sometimes as we try our darnest to assist we end up hurting the cause. I myself am often brash and just plunge rather then step back and think it all out. We tend to react quick in this hobby and often times to our own demise.

    You still have a lovely group and you have to carry on for them. Losses happen, you live and learn I suppose right!
    Yes, patience is a struggle for sure! When I first saw what was growing in my filter I had to resist the urge to just immediately scrap it, which would almost certainly have left me worse off than where I am now. We see something going wrong and it's hard not to panic and overcompensate. At this point I'm thinking I'll set up a sponge filter and let it run in the tank for a few weeks to let it get established before switching over. I love my canister, but they just are not user friendly if you need to clean them out frequently. Live and learn is spot on

  3. #33
    Registered Member Phillydubs's Avatar
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    Default Re: 110gal Rimless

    I think you are headed the right direction with your thoughts.

    I've always been a fan of a sponge and an efficient hob. Maybe you go that route??

  4. #34
    Registered Member farebox's Avatar
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    Default Re: 110gal Rimless

    Hey guys we all have some issues with these fish from time to time, it's an on going adventure to have a tank full of healthy fish all the time. Any one thing can upset these to guys and boom, sick fish. Now I'm at the point of just going back to kept it simple, feed, water changes, bare bottom (siphon crap out), and add no new nothing to the tank. After a bout with some "parasites" in my tank, finally got all good again, going to stick to what I just said. I love discus fish but they require some extra effort all the time. Good luck to all and enjoy the hobby. P.S.- General Quick Cure is the bomb, I dosed my whole 125G with this med x 2 and cleared up what was ailing my guys.

  5. #35
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    Default Re: 110gal Rimless

    I'm actually looking in the tank now and I don't know if I'm imagining it or not but one of the remaining fish looks a little bloated. I haven't fed them in at least 4 hrs, so there's no reason for his belly to be so full. I started a thread over in the disease section.

  6. #36
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    Default Re: 110gal Rimless

    Ok he looks better now - cleared out his belly overnight. But I'm feeling very uncomfortable with the possibility that these guys are just seconds away from bloating and dropping dead. Here's my disease thread: http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...lt-didn-t-help

  7. #37
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    Default Re: 110gal Rimless

    It seems like things are calming down. I added a HydorIV on Weds and have been meticulous about keeping feeding time tidy. I opened up the canister last night and it looked fine. A few of the fish still have swollen looking gills, but I think they just need time to heal completely. There was salt in the tank for a week, but none for the last few days.

    This is my 4 week update:

  8. #38
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    Default Re: 110gal Rimless

    Not much to report. I'm still not happy with how the gills look on one fish in particular, but it might just be scar tissue at this point. They all seem to be growing and doing pretty well. This is my five week update, a day late.


  9. #39
    Homesteader Filip's Avatar
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    Default Re: 110gal Rimless

    Hi Kesley and congrats on your new Stenker Tefes .I hope theyll grow to look round and coloured in a couple of months .

    I just went through your whole thread. Your tanks looks awesome.

    You got most of the aspect of succesfull discus keeping covered from what ive read through.

    One thing that I'm suspicious or concerned about is your Big 90% WCs with straight tap water , ,sometimes even multiple . How do your discus react after a 90% straight tap? Can they eat I.e. 20 min after it or are they huddled in corner for an hour or so ?
    Tap water may have different PH from your tank and even more importantly it contains a ton of dissolved gasses AKA Microbubbles that irritates fish gills and may cause severe stress to discus .

    Another thing about canisters . I use canister filter and I clean it every 4-5 months or so . When I open it after 4-5 months there is barely any debris to clean in it.
    I only clean the prefilter filter floss / or sponge daily and that keeps the filter squicky clean. I shut off the filter during feedings too, to make discus easier to feed from bottom .Just clean your prefilter regulary and stack your canister with biomedia , taking out the fine mechanical filtration from it.

    Good luck with your Tefes and keep us regularly posted .

  10. #40
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    Default Re: 110gal Rimless

    Quote Originally Posted by Filip View Post
    Hi Kesley and congrats on your new Stenker Tefes .I hope theyll grow to look round and coloured in a couple of months .

    I just went through your whole thread. Your tanks looks awesome.

    You got most of the aspect of succesfull discus keeping covered from what ive read through.

    One thing that I'm suspicious or concerned about is your Big 90% WCs with straight tap water , ,sometimes even multiple . How do your discus react after a 90% straight tap? Can they eat I.e. 20 min after it or are they huddled in corner for an hour or so ?
    Tap water may have different PH from your tank and even more importantly it contains a ton of dissolved gasses AKA Microbubbles that irritates fish gills and may cause severe stress to discus .

    Another thing about canisters . I use canister filter and I clean it every 4-5 months or so . When I open it after 4-5 months there is barely any debris to clean in it.
    I only clean the prefilter filter floss / or sponge daily and that keeps the filter squicky clean. I shut off the filter during feedings too, to make discus easier to feed from bottom .Just clean your prefilter regulary and stack your canister with biomedia , taking out the fine mechanical filtration from it.

    Good luck with your Tefes and keep us regularly posted .
    Thanks for your comment Filip. I'm very lucky in that my pH is stable right out of the tap and there are not visibly any microbubbles, especially now that we're in the dog days of summer. The fish are happy and begging for food during and immediately after water changes. When the weather starts getting cold I will most likely need to adjust my routine, but I'm hoping that by November they'll be big enough that I can transfer them to the big tank and cut back my percentages.

    Your canister experience matches up to mine. I have mine stacked with Fluval Biomax in all three compartments, and just the standard wide-bore foam pads. Adding the pre-filter sponge and turning the filter off during feeding time seems to have solved my problems.

  11. #41
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    Default Re: 110gal Rimless

    Here's my 6 week update.


    I think I've found equilibrium with the filters, but I'm afraid there was some permanent gill damage. It's been 3 weeks and some of them still look flared all the time. I guess I'm just hoping they will grow into them so they don't look quite so bad as adults.

    In the main tank I've been battling algae and cloudy water, which is gradually starting to improve just by turning down the lights and doing water changes. But I'm getting a little impatient so I might try Acurel water clarifier to speed things up. Other than not looking so awesome, the tank is doing great. The plants are growing and my six rams have all paired off. I'm getting new clutches of eggs every few days, but so far the parents eat them every time. I saw one clutch that was definitely fertilized with visible embryos, but they were gone the next morning. I might try pulling some eggs soon and seeing if I can raise them artificially. Here's how the tank sits today, looking much clearer than it has in the last few weeks:


  12. #42
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    Default Re: 110gal Rimless

    Double posting but wanted to document. I'm still trying to figure out whey their gills aren't improving. New disease thread here: http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...01#post1269001

    Yesterday I pulled the canister filter because I was still getting some slimy mold looking stuff. I kept all the bio-media and put it in mesh bags in the tank so as to avoid a mini-cycle. I'm going to add a second sponge filter because I'm not happy with the performance of just the one - the water clarity and flow are not where I want them to be. Once the second sponge is in the tank I'm going to gradually remove the bagged biomedia, and will eventually just be running the two sponge filters. I also pulled that clump of Java fern and scooped out about 80% of the snail population. The discus kept blowing food under the fern, and the snails were getting out of control as a result.

    I've been feeding them nothing but Al's discus chow for the last food days since I'm introducing it as a new food. They seem to be eating it pretty well, so I'll be using that instead of Colorbits from now on. I wanted to get away from dyes.

    Here's how things sit today. Still tentatively making progress.

    Last edited by Demosthenes; 07-24-2017 at 11:14 AM.

  13. #43
    Registered Member Phillydubs's Avatar
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    Default Re: 110gal Rimless

    How about a simple HOB for your filtration needs??

  14. #44
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    Default Re: 110gal Rimless

    Quote Originally Posted by Phillydubs View Post
    How about a simple HOB for your filtration needs??
    No real reason not to, I just like the idea of keeping it cheap. I'm hoping this tank will only be running for another 4-5 months before these guys go into the display tank, so I'm not really trying to invest in new equipment. I do have a little tiny HOB sitting in my basement that hasn't been in use for years, but it's barely enough filtration for anything more than a 15gal tank. I might just pop it on for today to get a little more flow while I wait for Amazon to bring me another Hydro IV.

  15. #45
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    Default Re: 110gal Rimless

    Quote Originally Posted by Demosthenes View Post
    I might just pop it on for today to get a little more flow while I wait for Amazon to bring me another Hydro IV.
    Scratch that... it won't fit. The tank is too close to the wall, and I'd have to cut more holes in the tank cover.

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