ANYONE Share: Raising 2.5-3.5" to +6" fails & success

[bluelagoon]

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.

I don't think blame is all on the nitrates itself. But when there are high so is all the other crap. Thus lays the issues. No where I haven't found any studies saying that fish can tolerate nitrates at 200ppm. BB grows on all surfaces of the inside of the tank and all of it's objects not just the filter. And need O2 for aerobic bacteria that converts ammonia to nitrites and to nitrates. That's why the filters should be cleaned every now and then to remove the O2 blocking sludge. Large frequent WC's are more stable than larger irregular WC's for sure, that's why it is important to do it frequently. I have no issues with rinsing my sponges in tap water with chlorine, especially tanks more than 6 months cycled. The BB by this time should be tough like tooth plaque, not just cycled but established. I don't think it's the best idea to have anything removing the nitrates but WC's cause it won't remove the built up urea, pathogens, harmful bacteria and depleted water. Folks that live on farm land have high nitrates and over come this by installing RO system for their discus. I have also had SW tanks and nitrates in those has to be kept very low or the corals start to bleach and die. Another thing I've read about Stenkler discus; they add hardeners(buffers) to their water because their well water is low ph and so it not really straight tap water from the tap.

[bluelagoon]

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.

You always do good with your fry. What's your secrete?

[bluelagoon]

That's fine. Just to mention. When most discus tanks get that high in nitrates, it general means that the water is depleted due to ion exchange and full of other DOC and can easily ph crash. Or tank syndrome. Your water would have to be very hard to avoid a crush if waiting for nitrates to get that high. The water might look clear but my no means pristine.