1 noob question 1 WC question

[H&K.45]

First off i would like to say that after countless hrs of lurking/reading this site and everyone here has provided a wealth of knowledge and help. OK time for some brain picking

1) I have read repeatedly read not to use carbon filters as they make discus prone to disease, but what about useing the amonia rocks (white stuff next to the boxes of activated carbon at the LFS) is that ok to use? I dont have any amonia probs but it wouldnt hurt to pull as much out/keep it as low as possiable right? or just avoid it all together?

2) I just got my new (to me) 90g tank about 2 1/2 weeks ago and it is just about settled in and cycled to where it is stable enuff to go hunt down some nice WC blues/royal blues. i currently have 3 long fin BN pleco's, 6 coreys (forgot their name but they are orange with a black stripe over their eye and one down their back), a mob of 18 rummy noses tetras and a little female beta (im a sucker for a good lookin lady ) i seem to frequently running into storys about WC discus murdering/bullying every other fish in the tank, however my buddy has a community like this with domesticated discus and it works great, should i be conserned about getting WC's for a community? or should i just get domesticated ones so my other fish dont get merced?

[rickztahone]

First off i would like to say that this site and everyone here has been a great help and provided a wealth of knowledge and help. OK time for some brain picking

1) I have read repeatedly not to use carbon filters as they make discus prone to disease, but what about useing the amonia rocks (white stuff next to the boxes of activated carbon at the LFS) is that ok to use? I dont have any amonia probs but it wouldnt hurt to pull as much out/keep it as low as possiable right? or just avoid it all together?

2) I have just got my new (to me) 90g tank settled in and just about cycled to where it is stable enuff to go hunt down some nice WC blues/royal blues. i currently have 3 long fin BN pleco's, 6 coreys (forgot their name but they are orange with a black stripe), a mob of 18 rummy noses and a little female beta (im a sucker for a good lookin lady ) i seem to frequently running into storys about WC discus murdering/bullying every other fish in the tank, however my buddy has a community like this with domesticated discus and it works great, should i be conserned about getting WC's for a community? or should i just get domesticated ones so my other fish dont get merced?

1) i wouldn't even bother. if you have a fully cycled tank you shouldn't have any ammonia problems at all.

2) dither fish do well with discus and the only time i've heard of them attacking dither fish is when they have been really tiny and can fit in the discus' mouth. WC's need to be done quite frequent if you want to grow healthy discus, at least 3x's a week

[rickztahone]

oh yeah, i would get rid of that beta asap

[H&K.45]

thanks, yea i planned on pulling the beta before i got the discus, unfortunately my space is limited atm so i just went for the planted/display tank and i plan on getting adult fish, none the less i have a system set up for doing a 45% water change every other day so hopefully that will be sufficent, if the fish dont agree then i will up the WC's lol.

[erikc]

Effcetively,

1)If your tank is cycled, don't bother. Carbon does have it's uses but never on a permanent basis, so you are correct in not using it.

2)Again, ok, but you do have to dump the betta (sorry !)

Could you answer a few questions in return, this is so we can help you along with your tank ?

a) It would be good to know what are your water parameters (Ph, hardness, etc.). this is very important espaecially if you are planning to keep WC's.Do you have a RO unit or are you planning to use tapwater ?

b) What kind of substrate do you have (gravel, sand etc.), any other decor ?

c)What do you plan feeding them to begin with ?

These questions are really just to help you along

[H&K.45]

My Ph is @ 6.4 amonia is 0-.25 ppm nitrites are very low an nitrates are 5ppm and idk my hardness...(i had the LFS test it for me as i wont have my own kit untill next week and the LFS guy said it was relatively low) So all my paramiters are spot on for discus and he said my water looked good, so i bought five Stendker discus from AquaTeK today (they are an autherized Stendker dealer here in TX and its all they sell), 2 blue diamonds 2 cobalts and one red scribbelt. All are about 5 inches, I also have an RO unit that puts out about 20g a day and after the new fish settle im going to do a 35G a day mix of 20g RO and 15g tap, ( after messing with it for a while i found that blend puts the Ph spot on at 6.4) I did pull the betta and set her up with a pretty little 5g hex on my desk but i was wondering why everyone was so adimate about pulling out the betta? is it b/c they are dirty fish and could disease the discus? I know its not behavior, the discus are FAR more agressive than a female betta. Just curious.