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Long Time Reefer Turned to the "Dark Side" :-)
Hey All,
I am a long time reefer and took down all my tanks when I moved last March and decided a little while ago that I will make the plunge into Discus. Beautiful fish with amazing personalities. I took a lot of flack from my fellow community reefers because they said you could never get a tank as pretty as a reef! I set out to prove them wrong!
I am starting a bit "slow" and low tech, currently using my 4' 120g converted reef tank with coast to coast bean animal overflow and a 40b sump. Running 4L of matrix, 1-2L ceramic rings, and 4lbs of lava for BIO. Purfilirum, ChemiPure, and Zeovit for chemical filtration and a few almond leaves.Had to down power my return so decided to go with the new Jebao DCP-8000 sine return pump running at around 50-60%. Went bare bottom with a few med vertical standing pieces of driftwood and some slate for aesthetics. Planning to do either 60g water changes 2-3 times a week or 20-40g 3-5 times a week.
Stock so far, 10 Discus ranging from 2-3" and one ~5" along with a few Corys, a pair of pearl guaramis, and just a couple platys (for now... they keep finding their way to my sump so they may find a new home in another tank).
I have been lurching in the community and absorbing everything that I can but finally decided to register and get as involved as I have been in my past reefing groups
Re: Long Time Reefer Turned to the "Dark Side" :-)
Hi and a warm welcome to Simply Discus. Coming from the salty side you are not new to fish that can be uncompromising with their requirements. Larger volume water changes (even if less often) tend to be more effective (but not as effective as big water changes even more often - sorry but I have a bad case of the water changing syndrome).
Anyway post us some photos and most of all keep us up to speed with the progress, every new member on this forum adds to the shared knowledge and experience
Last edited by Paul Sabucchi; 11-08-2018 at 02:52 PM.
Re: Long Time Reefer Turned to the "Dark Side" :-)
Thanks Paul! Fine tuning and getting on a water change schedule is going to be the tougher part for me. I only changed my water in my reef once a month because running ZeoVit ULNS system... just replaced nutrients and whatever was taken out :-P Had to dose nitrate lol.
Re: Long Time Reefer Turned to the "Dark Side" :-)
G'day Zyvo and welcome to SD mate. Glad you joined up.
Sounds like you have plenty of surface area with the media you have in your sump. By Lava, do you mean lava rock? I could be wrong, but my understanding is that lava is not inert and will gradually raise your pH. In a reef system or African cichlids tank that is desired, but not so in a discus set-up (unless your tap pH is <5.5). With the stocking density and the amount of media you have I don't think it would be problematic to remove the lava to resolve this potential situation.
Looking froward to seeing pics of your set up and fish! All the best,
Danny
Re: Long Time Reefer Turned to the "Dark Side" :-)
Hey Danny,
Thanks for the welcome! Yeah I use lava rock, which is intert. I even did a test with muriatic acid to make sure there wasn’t any reaction with what I got then. My ph in the tank is a stable 6.8 and hasn’t moved a bit.
Re: Long Time Reefer Turned to the "Dark Side" :-)
What is your pH straight from the tap?
Mama Bear
Re: Long Time Reefer Turned to the "Dark Side" :-)
You got me with your subject line!!!
. . . but now that I read it, I think you mean a different type of reefer :-D
Re: Long Time Reefer Turned to the "Dark Side" :-)
About 7.2-7.4 give or take. I add neutral regulator and discus buffer and then age it out with aggressive air stones for 24-36 hours before doing a water change. I am probably going to bring my RODI unit back into play and trace it. I am pretty sure I have chloromines and I test ammonia (0.25ppm) straight from the tap so I need to fix that. Though at 6.8 ph at 84 degrees that 0.25ppm total ammonia (nh3/4) is something like 0.0014ppm toxic nh3. Not a huge issue but I don’t like it.Originally Posted by LizStreithorst
Re: Long Time Reefer Turned to the "Dark Side" :-)
Hahaha yeah not since college on that one
Re: Long Time Reefer Turned to the "Dark Side" :-)
It's been a while for me as well, never really got the madness.
Re: Long Time Reefer Turned to the "Dark Side" :-)
Sounds good mate. Looking forward to tracking your your new set up. Got any pics you can post? Cheers
Re: Long Time Reefer Turned to the "Dark Side" :-)
Why not simpy skip the chemicals, put the tap water in a container and stick in an air stone? That's the way most all of us do it here. There's nothing magic about a pH in the 6's.
Last edited by LizStreithorst; 11-09-2018 at 04:12 PM. Reason: typo
Mama Bear
Re: Long Time Reefer Turned to the "Dark Side" :-)
Mostly because of the total ammonia/ammonium that I have in my water from the tap. PH + temp effects how ammonia is ionized into ammonium. Now even ammonium is toxic but about 100x less toxic than ammonia. So a bandaide is do lower the PH to sub 7.0 to reduce the toxicity.
-84 degrees @ 7.4ph (avg ph off tap) with 0.35 total ammonia (my avg from tap) = 0.006475ppm Toxic Ammonia with the rest converted to ammonium
-84 degrees @ 6.8ph (what I regulate/buff to) with 0.35ppm = 0.001652ppm Toxic Ammonia with the rest converted to ammonium
Plus with frequent water changes I end up just adding ammonia to the system frequently. Sure my biofilter would catch up but I would rather not introduce it in the first place. Which is why I will probably go RO.
Re: Long Time Reefer Turned to the "Dark Side" :-)
I am repainting the back of my tank today... it was black from when I had it as my reef and decided to go to something lighter. Once I finish it up and clean it all up I will get some pics out there :-)
Re: Long Time Reefer Turned to the "Dark Side" :-)
That was pretty much over my head, I'm afraid.
Mama Bear
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