Very High Nitrogen

[willslark]

I have a 55 gal with 5 med discus that were purchased about a month back
Water was about perfect at that time. I had cycled the tank with 2 small plecostimus and 5 tetras. Upon introduction of discus I gave away the agressive tetras and had no problem with the 2 plecostimus till lately. I had to remove one, as he started sucking on my discus.

The tank has been running for 4 months

My problem is getting a maintenance fish that can live in the warm waters. I bought 3 albino plecos and the died in a day or two. Then yesterday I bought 3 albino coreys and they stressed out the discus so bad, I removed them this morning. This discus are in corners and have been hiding all day. Will not come out to eat, usually all are waiting!

This leads to one of my main problems, my nitrate is 60ppm and I have been doing serveral major water changes and nitrate keeps at a high level.

I have read where a biowheel can cause something like this eventually??

Will the discus ever come back to where they were before corey introduction, it's been a day and no change in their timidness, plus I have been doing a lot of weater changes, 100% in the changes 24hrs

What else can be done?

What tank mates for cleaning are available?


I have 55 gal with an emporer Biwheel, LED lighting that comes with Kit
Tank is planted with low light plants ( Bought a new T5ho but not installed yet)

Ph 6.8
Am .25ppm
Nitrite .25ppm
Nitrate 50-60ppm
Temp 84-85F
Use 100% RO with nitrate testing at 0
Added a UV and ran 4 hrs back 3 days ago
Change 25% water every 3 or 4 days

Need to lower nitrate, need warm water tankmates for cleaning to keep my ammonia in check that will not cause stree to my discus, need discus to return to their normal state (is this normal and how long can it take, 2 of 5 are eating all hidding, Do I need to add salt back to RO system, heard never to yes always

[atitagain]

I'm no expert but the Cory's most likely aren't the problem, I have five in my tank and they are very active. If I had to guess I would say that your Nitrates being so high are what is causing the problem.

Is it a BB tank or a display with substrate?

I would suggest getting aggressive with the water changes if you are certain your tank/filter is cycled. I ran into the same issue and was doing a 50% water change once or twice a day until the nitrates became stable.

[willslark]

It only started yesterday when I placed the Cory's in the tank. Tank has had ever increasing nitrates for past 3 weeks.

How about the BioWheel adding nitrates back to system?

[willslark]

Oh yes a display with subtrate the ECO Complete by Seachem with gravel mix

[Cambik]

I have a penguin 350 on my 55g tank and have not come close to having 60ppm nitrate on mine. I would suggest doing the 1xday water changes of 50-70% to try and bring it down. Also have you checked your water source to make sure that it does not have Ammonia, Nitrite or Nitrates in it?

[atitagain]

I have a penguin 350 on my 55g tank and have not come close to having 60ppm nitrate on mine. I would suggest doing the 1xday water changes of 50-70% to try and bring it down. Also have you checked your water source to make sure that it does not have Ammonia, Nitrite or Nitrates in it?

+1

I have a display also and have to keep up with vacuuming the grave on every water change. As a lot of the folks here will tell you there are a lot of nasties that hide in the gravel. A good maintenance program will help keep the water in line. And like Cambik said check your water. If your tap is alright then the WC and cleaning your substrate should solve your problems.

[gerrard00]

Nitrite .25ppm

Doesn't the presence of nitrite mean that your tank isn't cycled?

[willslark]

I use Ro and have checked output all am, nitrite, nitrate are zero. I vacuum at every water change. The tank was completely cycled before I introduced Discus about a month ago.
I need maintenance fish to help in AM and Nitrite production I believe

[Cambik]

Then it sounds like you are just having a Mini-cycle due to the higher bio load that is being generated due to the new fish. It should go down. I would still do the extra water changes to supliment until you can get everything under control.

[atitagain]

Doesn't the presence of nitrite mean that your tank isn't cycled?

I once had a spike because I did maitenance on my filters and cleaned the tank the same day (rookie mistake). Aggresive water changes for the week and the cycle tightened back up.

Will maintenance fish or water changes both do the same thing, cory's will clean up the tank but nothing eats waste.

Again I'm not an expert but I would start doing aggresive water changes to get your cycle back in order and try the cory's again.

I run redundent filter on my tanks (strickly bio) so I can't really answer the question on your bio wheel. I also run a sponge in my tanks as backup.

And Cam is correct, when I add fish I almost always get a little bump and the WC solve the problem until the filters catch up.

The Discus most likely are hiding because of the bump in your levels.

[Cambik]

I also want to add that I also run two filters and will never clean them both at the same time. I will always clean or take one offline at a time. Then a few days later do the other. That way I never kill off all the bacteria and can get everything back to normal pretty quick....less than 24 hours.

[willslark]

I HAVE A FLUVAL fx5 CANISTER FILTER I PURCHASED WITH A 240 GAL THAT I AM CURRENTLY REFURBISHING TO SET UP FOR 10 TO 20 DISCUS. I AM IN PROCESS OF GETTING FILTER MATERIAL TO START RUNNING IN THE 55GAL TO ESTABLISH THE FILTER FOR MOVEMENT TO THE 240 GAL. WOULD YOU SUGGEST ANOTHER FILTER IN BOTH TANKS.

WHEN USING RO I HAVE JUST BEEN ADDING WATER TO THE AQUARIUM W/O ADDING SALT OR O2 DIFFUSED IN WATER.

WHAT IS IMPORTANT WHEN USING STRICKLY RO FOR ALL WATER CHANGES ????

WHAT IS BEST tEMP FOR DISCUS WITH TANKMATES?

WHAT IS BEST FOOD NOT TO FOUL TANK?

[strawberryblonde]

I'm not a water expert, but I just went through a long mini-cycle when I added 6 4" discus to my 54gal tank so I have some recent experience with what you are facing.

First, a mini-cycle is normal when you add a large bio-load to the tank. You're ammonia and nitrites indicate that that's what you are experiencing at the moment. The only way to keep the fish healthy until your bio media can take up the slack is to do a lot of water changes. If you don't do them, the discus are at risk of ammonia and/or nitrite poisoning.

If your nitrates are that high there is food waste in the water that isn't getting vacuumed out every day. That's another normal thing when you are used to handling other freshwater fish and then add discus and have to feed the higher quality foods more often. It makes a huge mess! LOL

Do you have a LFS that you trust, or a discus breeder near you, who can sell you a cycled sponge for a hydor filter? Grab a Hydor IV filter from them and ask for a cycled sponge. That will cure the current issues with the water quality in a big hurry.

The other thing to consider is whether or not your bio-wheel is functioning properly. I only mention it because my canister filter failed last week and it was only when I replaced with a brand new one (same model) that I realized that the old one had never been working properly.

Let's see, what else. Ohhhhh, do you have a pre-filter on your emperor? It's practically a must have item (yep, figured that out within a week of getting my discus) in order to keep food bits out of your filter where they just sit and rot.

The only other thing I'm wondering is why you are using strictly RO water for the tank. Tap water is usually fine for most people, but if you can't use tap and use RO, are you replacing the necessary minerals at each WC?

Adding cory's or any other bottom feeder won't help much with nitrates. The catfish still pee and poop and add to the bio-load. They are nice to have just as a clean up crew, but I wouldn't recommend adding any till the water quality problem has been resolved. And when you do add them, be sure to QT them first. Adding them straight to the discus tank is just asking for diseases.

You asked about foods. All foods foul the tank, but beefheart and any other frozen foods are the worst ones I've found so far. I only feed beefheart once a day and it's right before my WC so that any extra gets vacuumed out before it can sit there and deteriorate.

[willslark]

Thanx, I'll see about the spong filter. No more fish, simple blood worms for diet right now... beefheart so messy.

Med size discus need how many feedings daily? What do you use for vacuum?

How long to get Fluval FX5 running with biomedia in center canister tray, adding it to my existing filtration.


Thanx all of you for your suggestions and comments!!!!!!!!

[atitagain]

I HAVE A FLUVAL fx5 CANISTER FILTER I PURCHASED WITH A 240 GAL THAT I AM CURRENTLY REFURBISHING TO SET UP FOR 10 TO 20 DISCUS. I AM IN PROCESS OF GETTING FILTER MATERIAL TO START RUNNING IN THE 55GAL TO ESTABLISH THE FILTER FOR MOVEMENT TO THE 240 GAL. WOULD YOU SUGGEST ANOTHER FILTER IN BOTH TANKS.

I run an FX5, make sure you add a prefilter to your intake or food sucked into the filter will create problems. I run the FX and a 2080

WHEN USING RO I HAVE JUST BEEN ADDING WATER TO THE AQUARIUM W/O ADDING SALT OR O2 DIFFUSED IN WATER.

You need to add trace elements for your fish. I use RO and a tap mix which is working out well for our fish some folks use the Kent additives when running straight RO. I also age my tap and add Almond leaves for the tannins and color. I can tell you that reading as much as you can here will help educate you on some of the challenges you have with your tank.

WHAT IS IMPORTANT WHEN USING STRICKLY RO FOR ALL WATER CHANGES ????

Trace elements and TDS

WHAT IS BEST tEMP FOR DISCUS WITH TANKMATES?

I use A JBJ and my heat runs from 83 to 85 and that works for my loaches, cory's and tetras.

WHAT IS BEST FOOD NOT TO FOUL TANK?

Everything fouls the tank so that's why you will read here WC......WC.....WC

And will take a look at Seachems Stability, you can use that to help jump start your cycle and bio. You can pick it up on line and get your FX going.