Advice on recently set up discus aquarium

[NDI85]

I do have another question. I've never heard of feeding black worms until after I joined this site. I fed discus with beefheart (I hate), discus pellets, live and frozen brine shrimps, flakes, dried blood worms (were not successful getting them to eat, so I stopped), and frozen blood worms. Are black worms healthier than blood worms? I feed mine mostly frozen blood worms and flakes. Once in awhile, I toss in a cube of frozen brine shrimps only because I bought 3 packs of them and wanted to use them up.

[Kyla]

I too was worried when I heard that heavy metals could build up in the hot water tank. To fix this I started draining my hot water tank periodically. It was really easy - I watched a couple videos on YouTube about how to do it safely and now I do it on a regular basis even tho I don't use hot water for water changes any longer.

My discus like the freeze dried black worms more than any other food I give them so I have made it a staple in their diet, although I still feed a variety of other foods as well. My favourite thing about them is how "clean" they are - my home made food and the pellets that I feed make a mess in the tank, but the FDBW are completely eaten up with no mess at all.

[NDI85]

I too was worried when I heard that heavy metals could build up in the hot water tank. To fix this I started draining my hot water tank periodically. It was really easy - I watched a couple videos on YouTube about how to do it safely and now I do it on a regular basis even tho I don't use hot water for water changes any longer.

My discus like the freeze dried black worms more than any other food I give them so I have made it a staple in their diet, although I still feed a variety of other foods as well. My favourite thing about them is how "clean" they are - my home made food and the pellets that I feed make a mess in the tank, but the FDBW are completely eaten up with no mess at all.

Yeah, I'm not exactly handy with things such as plumbing. Don't think I want to mess with the hot water heater especially with the cold weather coming on. Don't need my wife and daughter to give me a hard time for not having water hot water because I did something St Upid. Might have to get my father in laws to show me how to do it when he is able.

I will have to order black worms and give them a try. This link here: http://www.aquaticsuppliers.com/main.sc has several different types. Is there one that you prefer over the other or are they basically the same?

I noticed that some of the food get suck into the filtration or attached onto the filtration intake tube. Do you turn off your filter during feeding time? I used to do that years ago until it became too much of a hassle.

[Kyla]

I was doing it for quite a while, and it really helped with keeping the filter clean, buy after I forgot to turn it back on a couple times I stopped doing it. I've read some posts on here about how to rig up a reverse timer that u can press when u feed the fish and then it shuts off the filter while it counts backwards for 20 minutes and then it automatically turns the filters back on, but I'm not handy enough to cross the wires and make one, so it's still on the wish list.

I get the cubed ones and the loose ones, both with spinach. I feed the cubes ones by hand, by pressing them against the tank glass so they stick under water. I put the loose ones in my eheim auto feeder and it is set to feed them little bits of food multiple times a day when I'm at work. I have really seen an improvement in their overall health and vigor after setting up the auto feeder.

[White Worm]

I like the cubes. You squish them against the wall under water inside the tank and they stay there until eaten. No mess! I found that you have the chop em up pretty fine to get a consistent feed from the auto feeder.

[NDI85]

I was doing it for quite a while, and it really helped with keeping the filter clean, buy after I forgot to turn it back on a couple times I stopped doing it. I've read some posts on here about how to rig up a reverse timer that u can press when u feed the fish and then it shuts off the filter while it counts backwards for 20 minutes and then it automatically turns the filters back on, but I'm not handy enough to cross the wires and make one, so it's still on the wish list.

I get the cubed ones and the loose ones, both with spinach. I feed the cubes ones by hand, by pressing them against the tank glass so they stick under water. I put the loose ones in my eheim auto feeder and it is set to feed them little bits of food multiple times a day when I'm at work. I have really seen an improvement in their overall health and vigor after setting up the auto feeder.

Kyla, I connected my filter along with the heaters and lights to my multi-function DC adaptors unit. I forgot that I had 2 of those from years back when I had a reef tank running. Anyway, with it, I'm able to switch filter on and off at will, the same with lights. I put a light timer on it so that the lights turn on and off at specified interval. I tested it with the HOB filter and it worked too. In your case, you could get a light timer that has multiple time on and off and set that at the same time as your feeding time. That was what I did years ago back when my aqua controller was working.

I would like to get the eheim filter, but I don't know if that will work with my acrylic hex aquarium. I have a 4-5" X 12" opening on top where the light normal sits over. When I feed, I move the light out of the way to put the food into the opening. If the eheim can sit on top of the aquarium with part of it hanging over the water surface, it would work. Come to think of it, I might be able to get it to work by attaching Velcro to the feeder and the aquarium top. That should keep it from falling into the aquarium. Hmmm... it's something to think about.

Thank you for the food suggestion.