New guy with a couple questions....

[brewmaster15]

Might be worth asking the seller if they have a cycled sponge they can include. Some sellers will do this on request.
Good luck.
Al

Ps..Becareful on comparing the Angels and Discus. Though they are similar in many ways, Discus are far less tolerant of poor water quality than Angels are.

[peewee1]

Hi Chad,



Unfortunately your tank is no where near cycled. The amount of waste a few sterbai and neons make coupled with daily water changes isn't enough to cycle the tank for anything except those small fish.I would suggest you take those small fish out and rehome to the 20 gal qt tank, then use clear ammonia to cycle. Your friend could supply more biofiltration media or use what they gave you already. If you add discus at this point you will have major issues and major ammonia and Nitrite spikes,

al

Al, because I am/was a discus breeder/hobbyist from way back I am wondering about all of the processes that I am now reading about on this most excellent forum. At the time I would drive 800 miles from my home to meet with Herman at Fairly Lake. Buy a dozen or so discus from him, put them in my trunk, and proceed to drive 14 or so hours to get back home. Using 20 gallon bare tanks with flower pot, tap water, peat moss in filter, and home made beef heart and very few water changes I could get a number of spawning pairs. I left the hobby 15 years ago but came back 5 months ago and a referral to Kenny. Knowing nothing else I set up the tank 2 days before the fish arrived then added the fish when they arrived. No chemicals, no testing, no cycling...just bare tank, tap water, 82 degrees, and fish. No peat moss but pretty much the old way.

From the forum I have found some wonderful foods, the black worms are the best. And because I read here that the water changes are good I have set up Sunday as water change day, 30%. The 5 fish are growing, have huge appetites, and are healthy. My question is, am I going to gain anything more by concerning myself with cycling, ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, and daily water changes? I have been thinking about this for several weeks. It slightly bothers me that I might be damaging my fish somehow. Great forum, great advice, I read threads daily. Thanks for all that you do for the discus hobbyists around the world.

[brewmaster15]

Al, because I am/was a discus breeder/hobbyist from way back I am wondering about all of the processes that I am now reading about on this most excellent forum. At the time I would drive 800 miles from my home to meet with Herman at Fairly Lake. Buy a dozen or so discus from him, put them in my trunk, and proceed to drive 14 or so hours to get back home. Using 20 gallon bare tanks with flower pot, tap water, peat moss in filter, and home made beef heart and very few water changes I could get a number of spawning pairs. I left the hobby 15 years ago but came back 5 months ago and a referral to Kenny. Knowing nothing else I set up the tank 2 days before the fish arrived then added the fish when they arrived. No chemicals, no testing, no cycling...just bare tank, tap water, 82 degrees, and fish. No peat moss but pretty much the old way.

From the forum I have found some wonderful foods, the black worms are the best. And because I read here that the water changes are good I have set up Sunday as water change day, 30%. The 5 fish are growing, have huge appetites, and are healthy. My question is, am I going to gain anything more by concerning myself with cycling, ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, and daily water changes? I have been thinking about this for several weeks. It slightly bothers me that I might be damaging my fish somehow. Great forum, great advice, I read threads daily. Thanks for all that you do for the discus hobbyists around the world.

Welcome back to the hobby ! Your question is a tough one. I know you can raise and keep discus without biological filtration, but to do so successfully you need to either do lots of water changes or have soft acidic water in which case you may be able to get by .. it really depends on your water and your goals in the hobby. Even if you have no biological filtration in the tank eventually you will have ammonia and nitrite consuming bacterial colonies form on the fish, the tank walls and tubing in even in the water column.

I can't comment much on what you used to do to raise discus If it worked for you, you may want to use that and see what happens. What I do know is for most people they will have the best chance of success with discus if they do learn about the nitrogen cycle and how it relates to husbandry and filtration.

Somewhere on Simply theres an experiment I did where I raised discus in soft acidic water no bio filter and documented the rise in ammonia and Nitrites and the relative little affect it had on the discus. It was interesting but it wasnt really reflective of what we have in our tanks water wise and fish number wise. It did illustrate the importance pH played.

al

[brewmaster15]

You know I like to mention where this forum excels and leaves facebook in the dust. Its the ability to look back on past discussions. The experiment I mentioned I did awhile back is here....
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...lp-me-out-here

We had a really good discussion in that one.

Al

[peewee1]

You know I like to mention where this forum excels and leaves facebook in the dust. Its the ability to look back on past discussions. The experiment I mentioned I did awhile back is here....
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...lp-me-out-here

We had a really good discussion in that one.

Al

Thanks, Al, I knew that you would not let me down with regard to my question. Thanks for the link to biofilter. I suspect that a good part of my so far success is that Kenny sent to me some very healthy and durable fishes.