Old BH thread

[Vanman]

My water is very soft, but all tank water has been run through a calcite filter to raise the PH. I had the calcite filter to protect the heat exchanger in my geothermal heat pump that used to heat my hot water. I use water after the calcite filter , but before the water heater, in the tanks.

I feed BH mix twice a day, Tetra Bits once, and FDBW once.

Maybe I need to add a vitamin/mineral tablet to the BH mix. I did that decades ago but for some unknown reason did not add any to this mix.

I don't want this to happen to my tank of young Discus. Any ideas on how to prevent this?

Years ago I had a well 400 feet from the well I have now and did not treat the water other than running it through a large GAC tank.

[Vanman]

I also just remembered that I used to include a few shrimp shells along with the shrimp in the BH mix. I did not do that this time. It is time to make a new batch so I think I will get some multi vitamin/mineral tablets to add to the BH mix and include a few shrimp shells this time. Thoughts on this?

[brewmaster15]

Gary I think you should add crushed multivitamins and crushed calcium suppliments to your mix ..I used to add these to mine and found the fry grew better.

Normally a balanced diet and enough minerals in the water is alls you need to raise discus.. very soft water and feeding alot of protein....pushing growth can lead to skeletal deformities like these fins as well as floppy fins and short gill plates.

Another option which I use here on my grow outs is to add crushed coral or oyster shells to your filter.I use a nylon stocking. it will buffer your water a little and add minerals. You will get better growth.

Alternatively you can use calcium chloride which dissolves into water..I have used this as well .

[Vanman]

Doesn't the calcite filter do the same thing as adding crushed coral to a filter? It raises the PH and TDS to about 7.3 and approximately 100 PPM. I use sponge filters and change 2/3 of the water twice a day. What calcium supplement do you suggest?

[brewmaster15]

Gary, I dont have any practical experience with calcite filters... in theory yes they should increase hardness ..from what I read just now they are self limiting in how much.. but honestly I don't know...maybe its still not enough . Maybe its not the water but is the nutritional balance of your homemade beefheart and how much and how often you are feeding it. Something is out of whack nutritionally... and odds are its the balance between protein taken in and the fishes access to the right amount and kind of minerals and vitamins. I can suggest to you whats worked for me and others I have helped with similar issues but everyones situation is a little diffferent.

[brewmaster15]

raises the PH and TDS to about 7.3 and approximately 100 PPM

thats still low when power feeding protein and feeding alot and often. My tds is ~ 250ppm and have to add crushed coral here with 100 % daily water changes to get good growth when feeding alot. Ironically if I feed less its not issue and if I do two big waterchanges a day its not an issue. It comes down to balance.

[Vanman]

As soon as the roads are passable, I had to be pulled home today from the middle of a wet ice covered road today, I will get some vitamins and calcium supplements and make a new batch of BH. In the old days all we fed was BH and our water was very soft. We never had any problems like this.

[brewmaster15]

As soon as the roads are passable, I had to be pulled home today from the middle of a wet ice covered road today, I will get some vitamins and calcium supplements and make a new batch of BH. In the old days all we fed was BH and our water was very soft. We never had any problems like this.

Did you have a calcite filter or just do water changes? Did you do more water changes than currently?

If in the old days you had a system that worked for you Gary.. go back to it. I WOULD.

[Vanman]

In the distant past we did one water change per day. The water was aged overnight after being filtered through a large GAC filter. The filter was about 10 inches in diameter and about four feet tall. Now the water is calcite filtered and aged nine to fifteen hours.