Gravel for 75 Gallon Discus Tank??

[goblin321]

Hi All!

Right now I am new to Discus but I am soooo addicted. Right now I have 7 Discus which 3 are 2.5" and the others appox 4-5" in a 50 Gallon but am now starting up my 75 gallon to transfer them so they have more room. I have 40lbs of Eco Complete at the bottom and lots of plants. I was having trouble getting my PH to stay lower so I hooked up an RO under our kitchen sink. Mixing half tap and half RO is now giving me a 6.8ph which is soooo much better. I was reading online that eco complete causes the PH to say in the 7's for a few months and I am wondering if that's a good idea or not to put in my new tank. I already bought 4 20lb bags and the 2 20lb bags i already have will go in as well if I decide.

Questions for my new tank.

Eco Complete for Planted tank Black gravel? Will it be too hard to clean?

UV sterilizer? Hearing some say its useless becasue it won't kill any bacteria on the fish (but I was thinking if there is bacteria at least it wont spread)?

Carbon in filter or not? I have a canister Etheium 2217 for the new tank have never used a canister before.

What algae eaters can stand the heat with the Discus? Right now I have 3 snails and a upside down catfish. They all seem to like the 84 degrees and have been in there for about 3 months. Although the catfish looks fat, I'm wondering if I am overfeeding or if he is sick? His stomach looks bloated. maybe he's eating too many black worms and algae discs lol

Cycling Tank: Is tetra safe start something I should use? Or just transfer my water from old tank and some media? Will that give me enough beneficial bacteria? If I do decide to use Eco Complete it says it already has some bacteria on it.

After reading... I am going to either use a lower light wattage or get some floating plants so my Discus have some shade.


Any suggestions would be wonderful!!! Going to start cleaning the glass of the new tanks and I am going to the Hardware store to get a barrel so I can start to store some water. Going to attach an aerator and a circulator with heater so get the water ready. If I aerate do I still need to use chemicals? Stress away?


Sorry for all the questions!!!! Just want to have it perfectly running!

~Robin

[DLock3d]

Hi Robin,

There are probably about a hundred people (or more) on this forum who are more knowledgeble than me regarding these situations. From my experience, it's much harder on the fish to move from a high ph to a low ph then it is for them to move from a low ph to a high ph. Having said that. I wouldn't recommend a change of more than .5 - .7. What is your ph in the 50 gallon? Also, did Eco Complete mention that the ph would fluctuate a lot or hold steady? All in all, it might just be worth the wait for the ph to stabalize.

[goblin321]

Right now my Ph in my 50 gallon is 6.8. I should call Eco Complete and see what they say.. can't always trust what people say online although it does make me wonder!

[DLock3d]

Honestly, I'd probably wait the few months. You'll enjoy cultivating the planted tank and getting it just right for when the ph is stabalized and you're ready to move them over. That's just me though. HTH

[goblin321]

Thanks! I guess I'm just excited about getting them over to the new tank! But, I want the healthiest water conditions Step by step and I will eventually get there. I'm going to start soaking a huge piece of driftwood and adding some boiling water to it to get rid of any tannins! They are going to love it!

[greengreen84]

if you can get ADA Amazonia I or II do it! buffers your water to 6.4ph and has kept mine at that level for 5 months which is perfect for plant growth and breeding discus, in the first week can be dramatic with ammonia spiking and ph droping to 5.4 so no fish or plants in there, but water changes will fix it and level it out after 4 or 5 tanks of water changes, but if you heavly plant it should be cycled as soon as you start to see some growth and all the other parameters have stabilized so in all 2 or 3 weeks you have a cycled tank

i'm putting a UV on my new tank 5x2x2(120gallons) for the pure reason that I don't do many water changes to keep any floating nasty's down to a minium, well that what I hope anyway, and if you are doing a planted tank don't put active carbon in, it will suck out all the nutrients in the water for the plants.

and when you transfer the discus over try and get a 4 or 5 gallon bucket fill half full and put the discus in with their normal tank water and get a bit of air line and put a air flow valve on the end so you can control the amount and slowly drip it in needs to be inbetween a drip and a stream of water is good pace and a heater to keep them warm and fill the bucket 2 times with a half water change each time do this over an hour if your doing a 0.5 ph change or little more i had to drop 1.0 ph in two hours and the discus were fine just go slow and even slower if there small.

[goblin321]

okay I will do that Thanks

[ericatdallas]

Carbon in filter or not? I have a canister Etheium 2217 for the new tank have never used a canister before.

No carbon unless you want to remove medication. There's debate on if it's good or bad normally, but I'm in the camp of "Why pay more if you don't have to?"

What algae eaters can stand the heat with the Discus? Right now I have 3 snails and a upside down catfish. They all seem to like the 84 degrees and have been in there for about 3 months. Although the catfish looks fat, I'm wondering if I am overfeeding or if he is sick? His stomach looks bloated. maybe he's eating too many black worms and algae discs lol.

I have had success with otocinclus at 84F but I think they prefer a slightly lower temp. I've also kept them as high as 88F. Plecos seems to tolerate it with no problems but they grow large. I grow them to a certain size and then give them away. I can buy them on sale at Petsmart for $1. I'm considering keep the ones I have until they reach full size but they really eat too much. I also have corydoras aeneus which tolerate it the higher temps very well. Not sure if they're happy about it though (kept them as high as 90F). I've kept nerite snails but they lay eggs everywhere. A lot of people have luck with shrimp and BN plecos.

Cycling Tank: Is tetra safe start something I should use? Or just transfer my water from old tank and some media? Will that give me enough beneficial bacteria? If I do decide to use Eco Complete it says it already has some bacteria on it..

I would use media from the old tank. Another effective method is to start a sponge filter in the 50G and then transfer that to the 75G. I've had a lot of success from just taking the filter over to the new tank. You might need to monitor ammonia for a while and be ready to do lots of PWC. When I've done this I did have mini-spikes.

I've never used the products that help with cycling. I think they're gimmick. Although others here have had success.

After reading... I am going to either use a lower light wattage or get some floating plants so my Discus have some shade.

Be careful, if you start messing with the lighting your plants could start dying - increasing rotting bio-matter and hence ammonia/nitrates/nitrites. What are you currently using? I didn't have a problem getting my discus used to high light. It just takes a while. But that's usually true of any new transfers.

Also, I use water straight from the tap (sink to tank) and I add dechlorinator (sodium thiosulfate). What are your parameters out of the tap? After 24 hours of aging? It may be okay to use it directly.

[goblin321]

My tap is around 7.0 after aging. I mixed with RO to get it to 6.5. I heard that if you keep it in the 6 range their colors develop better. I also heard that discus prefer mucky water like that of the Amazon where there from so driftwood tannins are okay. They have big eyes so see through mucky water and prefer shaded areas. I was thinking of adding a pink light for plants and a lower wattage (not so bright like mine now) so it doesn't hurt there eyes. But if the tank doesn't look so pretty I will just make some shaded areas for them.

[TURQ64]

My tap is around 7.0 after aging. I mixed with RO to get it to 6.5. I heard that if you keep it in the 6 range their colors develop better. I also heard that discus prefer mucky water like that of the Amazon where there from so driftwood tannins are okay. They have big eyes so see through mucky water and prefer shaded areas. I was thinking of adding a pink light for plants and a lower wattage (not so bright like mine now) so it doesn't hurt there eyes. But if the tank doesn't look so pretty I will just make some shaded areas for them.

I don't believe there's an accurate statement in this paragraph!....major misinformation.

[Skip]

Discus prefer good clean water.. i think you are trying to do too much to start.. you are very new to discus.. and you are talking about adding lots of Variables into the system... just age the tap water if you want.. mine goes straight in... but i would stay away from all those other things you are trying to do all at once.. Keep It Simple