D'bunk... brother... I'd pass you a few fireball shots to shoot & chill with me. And I need to teach you how to knock on wood -- because if I said I never had a discus die on me then all of mine would die that day.
I was checking on past experiences and eager to watch your current thread with that beautiful group of juvies grow that you have. Look, if you show us your success as you grow them, it'll be awesome & most of us will be jealous yet cheer for you (the better you document, the less nay sayers... but there will always be skeptics with all the proof in the world). If it fails, we'll still be here for you (at least I will...). So try to stop going for the throat and just show us. 10 years ago I swear there was a "hit squad" here. There's still those who'll oppose any who go against the grain, but that's healthy... keeps it balanced. On the other side, if we don't have those who go against the grain... we either learn nothing or don't have current lessons learned (I think I'm VIP in the "lessons learned" group, unfortunately).
-Elliot
It'll eventually clear up. Did you find it or buy it? I go out and find mine. TOTALLY love collecting my own... I'm surprised I've only had 2 bad pieces I shouldn't have put in but nothing devastating.
Can't wait to see latest on the blue squad!!!!!!!
-Elliot
Ok D’bunk you’ve got some good points. I too don’t follow the pack and have grown out my first tank of new discus in a planted 125. Elliot they were bought at the 2.5 size. They’ve grown into 4-7” discus. Lost 2 along the way. One couldn’t seem to digest beefheart (I tried it late in the game they were 4” than). The other was a red cover that I bought at 5” to match the ones I had growing. It just up and died about 2 yrs in. But I tried again with a new 125 and growing out this second group in smaller tanks with much more water changes. These all seem to be around 5-6” fish. Which are fine for me. But I’m happy with all.
D’bunk sorry in your first thread it just seemed like what I’ve read on many forums. Somebody just trolling and stating he’s done everything the wrong way with great results. Hopefully that’s not what your doing. I read many threads not just discus threads like that and they get annoying. On Facebook it’s a daily occurrence. They brag how great there fish are for a month or so than just disappear. Next you get many newbies with problems saying they read that they didn’t need water changes on the site why are their fish dying? What works for one may not work for others. But good luck!!
Oh and Elliot just wasn’t game for that speedo thread .
What do you mean I wasn't game for that thread? I totally came through! LOL
I'm just very curious if Dbunk has the type of water I've mentioned before... when 2 different people I knew had water that grew everything night *** hell yet hardly ever changed water. If I hadn't seen that (twice now... and I was helping each of them set up tanks so when I would pop in and see see how their tanks were doing after hearing that they weren't changing the water, I was furiously jealous TC fish & plants in their tanks humongous). Those people had well water... but although Dbunk says he's using tap, it's not U.S. tap parameters (so that could be in his benefit). Only time & posts will tell. He is adamant and that mirrors what the two people in the past have been. Because they never had to deal with the pain of constant water changes and water conditioning. One of those places I still have access to and I wish I knew how to dissect water because I am sure there's stuff in that water that over the counter test kits can't account for.
-Elliot
No one mentioned fry below 2.5 inches so here goes. F2s at nine weeks old. These guys do not grow as fast as domestics.
Your discus are talking to you....are you listening
Those fry looking good
Grasshopper
Francis
Just another note on nitrates. Most literature says up to 40 ppm nitrates will be ok for fish. Whereas 80 ppm becomes toxic. Stendler is in the business of fish, the more they sell the more money. I don't know where they came up with numbers like that but it is poison at those levels. By the time it reaches those levels, your tank has old tank syndrome.
I’ve never bought into the nitrate thing. Been many study’s on nitrate with results up to 200ppm and no problem with fish. Thing is people have major problems when told their nitrate is way to high they need to change massive amounts of water. This in turn kills the fish. Thus blamed on high nitrates not the fact that the drastic change in water shocked them to death. If the water is changed out slowly there would have been no problem. For years there wasn’t even a nitrate test in the api kits. Kind of funny the nitrate test appeared around the same time matrix appeared. Than as we all know a great salesman promoted his amazing product that produces nitrate eating bacteria that will remove those nasty nitrates. Yes bio-home media. Come on all of you are using it! I admit I’ve got about 5lbs of it( Hey it’s still a media). But in reality to grow this bacteria you need total darkness and very little oxygen. So once you clean your canister filter (only place it will grow) you kill off most of it and than it takes months to regrow. All grown just in time for a cleaning. On another forum a guy did a year long study. Yes within 6 months his nitrate did start to reduce. This tank had a dedicated canister with a prefilter sponge. It was never opened. After the 6 months and peaking the nitrates started returning.
Tom, that just may have answered why my sucky canister cleaning regime in the past would (at a point in time for a long duration) do "wonders" (although I was thinking at the time, "this is awesome... but I feel like I'm going to pay for this )
Pat, any left over from the early May batch? If so, how are y doing?
-Elliot
Yes Elliot I did the same back in the late 80s early 90s. But my canister was just full of sponge. Had it running with a wet/dry filter and the water was probably the cleanest water. I used to drink it to prove how clean it was. Not sure I’m no scientist but I believed that the oxygen rich bacteria in the wet/dry and the oxygen starved bacteria in the canister created a great balance in that tank. It was a 200g fully planted discus tank with 14 discus and about 10-15 dither fish.