Very High Nitrogen

[Darrell Ward]

You definitely have a mini cycle going on, plus, I suspect the high nitrate reading is probably from trapped crud in the substrate the plants are in. Small tanks like this make lousy planted tanks, especially for the novice discus keeper.You have real problems here. Forget about adding any more fish of any kind. I hope you are adding minerals back to that RO water. If not, you need to do so at once. Daily large water changes are needed until your ammonia and nitrite levels go down to zero. Your discus have probably already been stunted because of ammonia, nitrite exposure. Good luck.

[strawberryblonde]

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!!!!!!!!

By medium size I'm assuming you mean 3-4" in total length? If so, they need 4-5 feedings a day if they are going to grow to normal adult sizes.
You don't need to just feed one food. Discus will eat flake food (buy one made for discus) and pellets without any problems. By feeding them the flake foods during the day, you can then do just one nighttime feeding of beefheart or some other high protein frozen food and then do a WC with a good vacuuming.

Doing it that way is what I've found to be the easiest with a smaller tank (mine is 54 and pentagon shaped, so not easy to vacuum).

Be sure to buy a pre-filter for your emperor intake tube when you buy the hydor sponge filter. The only other option is to turn off the filter each time you feed the beefheart and that's just a pain in the patoot!

You can also remove any mechanical filtration media from the emperor filter and fill those spots with more bio media since the pre-filter will do most of the mechanical filtration for you.

Buy Discus Trace Elements for your RO water. Oh wait, you didn't mention whether or not you absolutely must use RO. Is there something about your tap water that's a problem?

For vacuuming I use a Python type syphon and dig into the gravel around the plants, then swish it in a circle above the plants in order to force any hidden food or poop up into the water column where I can then syphon it out. There are other vacuums you can use if you don't use a standard syphon system for water changes. I know Eheim sells one called the Sludge Extractor. And I have a small battery operated one that I use on my mini fry tanks.

[Dkarc@Aol.com]

By using straight RO, you have essentially zero alkalinity. No alkalinity = very little to no nitrifying bacteria activity. The bacteria require not only the presence of ammonia/nitrite in the water, but also alkalinity to do their job (convert ammonia/nitrite into the end product, nitrate). It seems like there is some alkalinity getting in there somehow since you have nitrite and nitrates present, but it is most likely in very low amounts. You must add "trace elements" or a certain percentage of tap water back into the tank. Otherwise you will constantly have these issues (and pH issues as well).

-Ryan

[willslark]

I'm doing a 100% water change today with 20% tap (tap is 7.4 ph and hard)(RO is 6.4 and very little gh & KH).

Think this will help?

[atitagain]

Will, my tap is 7.4 and 8.6 after aging. I aged mine because of the consistent PH swings of adding the tap directly into my tank.

Now I age the tap and do a 75% RO - 25 % aged tap and end up with a PH of 7.4 and consistent TDS.

The PH swing in my tank before I started aging was stressing the fish.

Adding the tap will add the trace elements you need and should get your KH in it's sweet spot.

Once I started this water regime my tank really leveled out and the fish are doing great. Getting that gravel clean is also huge if you have a display tank. Most of the guys here have BB because gravel can be a challenge if you don't have a good WC/cleeaning program in place.

[willslark]

I checked my tap water this morn 7.4 to 7.6... I have aerated and added dechlor for 6 hrs and its reading something higher very blue. My tank is 6.8 - 7 very little gh/kh if any... I need to change water for nitrates still... My ready RO is 6.4.... would you mix or add trace elements now???

Thanx, I'm Trying

What is the most important no nitrates 10-20, ammonia which is very little now, or PH

[Melissa]

The nitrates can wait my friend! They are NOT the immediate danger to your fish right now.

Ammonia is a major problem, but how big of a problem depends on your PH as ammonia is not toxic at the lower PHs... Now your problem is unstable water. I guarantee you, using straight RO water is your problem. I would not recommend an RO/tap mix at this point, you need to get your water stable as quickly as possible. What is happening that you cannot see is the PH is fluctuating and stressing the fish... RO water has no buffeting capacity. Your next water change should be 100% tap water.

[Melissa]

Btw, didn't say... Start small. Do a 30% WC with treated tap water to start, wait a few hours, do another one etc.

[willslark]

thanx in process