Discus dealers

[AquaticRay]

I've been away from discus for at least 6 years. Mainly because my customers all wanted saltwater tanks so my tanks(display tanks) were converted to reef tanks. I need my planted discus tanks back. However, I have not kept up with dealers of quality discus.

These tanks are for my enjoyment and not for breeding discus. I've removed the reefs. I have the filters and heaters in them. I have the substrata and some plants in them. Will be getting the rest over the next few weeks. CO2 equipment is on order. Will get some wood decorations and more plants in a few weeks. Water here is pH of 7.8 -8.3. Use Muric Acid to lower pH and CO2 with pinpiont controller to stablize pH in 6.4 - 6.6 range.

My wholesaler will be able to supply farlowellas, corys and cardinals. But i need a place to get my discus. Can you all reccomend some good dealers of discus. I am lending towards either wild discus or Red Turquiose discus at the present time. Maybe one tank of each.

Thanks for and help.
Ray

[White Worm]

Check the sponsors section. Many here have quality discus for sale. You may want to also PM each with your exact needs (strains / colors) and see what they have available. Universal Discus, KC, Discus Dave, Gold Mountain, Gulf Coast, etc. I have heard nothing but good results from using the sponsors here. You may even find one local depending on your location.

[AquaticRay]

While looking over the sponsers and other discus sellers - I noticed that a large number now keep them at pH 7.3 to 7.8. What's up? I do not remember any having water with a pH over 6.8 years ago.

[Harriett]

Thru trial and error over a period of years we've figured out that discus can adapt and swim perfectly happily in water ranging from the historical 6. whatever up to for example Carol Roberts' 8. something if I'm not mistaken. In order to successfully breed discus you would still need to work with a lower pH, of course!
In the breeder/sponsor list you might want to also take a look at International Discus (Kenny) and Great Lakes Discus (Cary Strong), by the way! Whenever possible, of course, buy local and pick out your own fish--where do you live? Ask for feedback!
Welcome back to discus keeping and welcome to simply--glad to have you!
Best regards
Harriett

[AADiscus]

Welcome to Simply Ray! Do check out the sponsor section. Simply sponsors have alot of different strains to choose from. If you by from someone other than a sponsor make sure and do your home work on them. Can you post in reference to whoever it might be and see if others have bought from them along with there experience. Simply also has the Itrader system (similar to the ebay system). Good luck and keep us posted on what you get.

[AquaticRay]

Harriett thank you. I live in Blaine, Wa. right in the NW corner on the Canadian Boarder.

AADiscus -thank you. I will post on here. One I have been looking at is www.Utahdiscus.com

[Greg Richardson]

You can go hand pick from Jason, April, or Glen who live not even an hour from you in Vancouver. Look for one of April's posts or check her name in members section. She and Jason are next door to each other with Glen not that far away from them.

[Harriett]

Ray!
Consider going to the ACA in Sacramento next July! You will be knocked out at the discus for sale there, and a lot of the gang from here will be attending, so it's a great way to connect!
Best regards
Harriett

[AquaticRay]

Greg - Thank you I'll look for their post. I never go across the boarder, too much time usually. Only gone across it once in the last 10 years. Use to go across it once or twice a week. How times change.

Harriett - thanks - I need to join them again. As to Sacramento - I love it but not likely anymore. Can't leave my babies that long. I own a small maintenance bussiness. I see most of my tanks every week. Hate not seeing them. snowed in this week so going crazzy.

[Alight]

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...ainbridge+Mike

Check out the thread above for much info on people and dealers near you.

(The search function on this site is really great)

Al Light

[Alight]

I got my recent stock from http://www.macsdiscus.com/frames.htmla couple of years ago (but that was before I knew about Simply Discus). Nice fish. They had tapeworms, but alot of the asian imports do. Not a big problem, just treat when you get them.

Al

[Alight]

OOps, see you found that thread already! Didn't go to the end to find out. Looks like you are finding what you are after.

With a planted tank, water that starts out at 7.6-8.0 goes to 6.4-6.7 with
CO2 added (if the water is appropriately soft). Keeping Discus in 7.6 water that would go to 6.4 with CO2 is essentially the same. Discus really don't care much about pH. The amount of calcium (hardness) is another matter entirely.

[AquaticRay]

With a planted tank, water that starts out at 7.6-8.0 goes to 6.4-6.7 with
CO2 added (if the water is appropriately soft). Keeping Discus in 7.6 water that would go to 6.4 with CO2 is essentially the same. Discus really don't care much about pH. The amount of calcium (hardness) is another matter entirely.

The water is 7.6 to 8.3 out of the tap and fairly hard. I use the Murric acid to lower the pH to 6.4 - 6.6. I then use CO2 with a pinpiont controller to keep it there.

[Alight]

The water is 7.6 to 8.3 out of the tap and fairly hard. I use the Murric acid to lower the pH to 6.4 - 6.6. I then use CO2 with a pinpiont controller to keep it there.

If you mean by keep it there, keeping it from bouncing back, then you probably don't need the acid at all. When you add acid, you should add a bit, wait a couple of hours, then add more, etc., to get to the pH you want to hold the water stable at. The bounce can be pretty large. All you are really doing if you are adding acid to very hard water is lowering the kH. You are not changing the GH at all. If you lower the kH far enough, you can indeed use CO2 to lower it further with less CO2.

Not quite sure what you mean. How hard is your water? At 7.6 - 8.3 (is it variable or does it go from 7.6 to 8.3 with aging. At 7.6, if your water's pH is being controlled by calcium carbonate (which most water is) your water should have a kH around 4 and a GH around 5-6. 30 ppm CO2 would take it to around 30 ppm --just about perfect. At 8.3, your kH could be up to 12 or more, and your GH very high. Water that hard can still be used for Discus, but I prefer more like a GH of 6, so I mix with RO water. Then the CO2 can take the water to 6.6 or so without adding any acid.

Hmmm. Rereading that I suspect this may only confuse you. If you are interested, I'll try again when it's not so late here.

For my bare bottom tank, I just add a bit of muriatic acid (HCl) to bring the pH down to 7.2 or so, and also use a kH around 4-5 and a GH around 4-5 also.

Many South American plants, and other nice plants as well like softer water (GH of 6 or less) which coincidently is also best for Discus.

[AquaticRay]

The pH bounces out of the tap. They use 3 different(very different) water sources. They are no always mixed in the same amounts. One is an artisian well with very soft neutral water. Others are hard water with pH above 8.0 for one. I guess it is just a hang over from the old days. I keep my tanks at 6.4-6.6 because that is what I used when I breed Angels, Discus, Faelowellas and cories. Add to that all the trouble keeping Cardinal and neons alive; I wanted to see how cardinals do in more natural pH water.