Discus still skittish after first month

[Phillydubs]

And no way to age.... even 50%... cant stash a garbage can heater and pump near the tank?

[ncognto]

Would complicate things a fair bit but I could. But will ageing help with the nitrates and ammonia?

[Ryan925]

Would complicate things a fair bit but I could. But will ageing help with the nitrates and ammonia?

Unfortunately aging will not help with chloramine or nitrate

[ncognto]

I didnt think it would thats why I didnt think ageing my water would change the issue.

[Ryan925]

I didnt think it would thats why I didnt think ageing my water would change the issue.

I think what Phil was getting at is that possible ph swing is stressing them also. Have you done am aged water test. Some of us are fortunate to not have to age but others are forced to due to ph swing

[ncognto]

I havent but can tonight. I do know its a tad higher than 7 coming out and ends up around 6.6 the next day before the water change.

[ncognto]

So I pulled the wood out when I got home and that already seems to have made a big difference, They are still a little shy and I did have one showing stress bars and doing the up and down the glass thing on the back glass for a while. Now they seem to have settled down and seem a lot more relaxed after figuring out there isnt any place to hide. They also arent panicking when I come in the room now.

I have left the two plants for now and they huddle a bit around the one where the wood was when the light in the room first goes on but come out shortly afterwards. I left a glass of tap water out for testing tomorrow but just did my daily water change and dont see any signs of distress. They dont usually show much change good or bad after the water change though.

[Phillydubs]

Another idea... are you overfeeding or leaving left over food. That could cause the ammonia. But you say it's out the tap??

Still puzzling to
Me

[ncognto]

Yes its fairly high out of the tap right at 1.0ppm. When I test the next day right after water change I am showing just a trace...maybe .25 but I always put it down to the Prime false positive as I get that on all of my tanks if I test within 24 hours of using Prime.

[ncognto]

Sorry that should be testing right before water change not right after.

[ncognto]

Little update and a couple more questions.

I took out the wood, changed the light to a dimmable led and dimmed it down a fair bit. I also started ageing my water 24 hours in a 32 gal brute with a heater and powerhead. They are definitely less shy and more out and about but still easily spooked.

Still having water issues. Now that I am going straight cold water into the ageing barrel (bypassing the hot water heater so to speak) I am not seeing much if any nitrates in the tap water but still seeing 20ppm after 24 hours in the tank. Ammonia is still 1.0 out of the tap and still showing about .25ppm after 24 hours in the tank. Ph is over 7.0 in the barrel but down to 6.0 after 24 hours in the tank. I am only feeding a thimbleful of hans mix, a pinch of tetra bits, pinch of sera bits and a cube of fdbw early mornings and late afternoons then some more bits and worms in the evening and nothing is left after they are done eating. Prefilter sponges are squeezed out daily during water changes and filters are a ac110 and ac50 with those sponges and a hydrosponge 2 squeezed out once a month or so.

Should I use aragonite or crushed coral in one of the filters to buffer the ph or leave it alone? They are growing fast and look great but I am worried about the ph crashing. Also wondering if I need carbon or ammo chips in the filters for the trace ammonia. Its reading .25 on the api kit but I also got one of the in tank monitor cards and that shows clear. Cant think of anything to do about the nitrates other than daily water changes which I am already doing. other than the filters and heaters the only other things in the tank are the two plants in pool filter sand in drinking glasses.

[ncognto]

Figured I would do another update on the tank with some pics. They are out and about much more but still easily spooked. As stated previously I started ageing my water for 24 hrs due to microbubbles. The ph stays the same before and after standing for 24 hrs but the fish seem happier with the aged water so I stuck with it. Cant get nitrates under 20ppm but they dont go over either and I cant do better than daily water changes so it is what it is.

I have had them just over 2 months now and they have gone from 2.5 to 4+ inches in that time. Another couple of months and they will go into a 75 gallon and the daily water changes will probably drop to every other day.

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[Kyla]

Just a thought re: nitrates, you could try to root a whole bunch of pothos vines in the tank and let them suck up
some of the nitrate. It won't be perfect, but it can't hurt either. The more pothos the better... I root it in my tank and it grows like mad, even tho there is hardly any window light in the basement...IMG_1089.JPG

[Kyla]

I also use a little baggie of aragonite in all my tanks because our kH is really low, as a precaution against ph crashes, it works great for me, just make sure you don't add so much that it raises ur ph, I only need a very small bit for my tanks

[Kyla]

If u eventually cut back ur wc to 1x/2days maybe u could even run a filter on ur aged water to convert the ammonia to nitrate or root a ton of pothos in ur barrel under a grow light? I had tanks so heavily planted they never showed nitrate results so if u really plant them heavily it would be neat to see if it lowered the nitrate in the aged water