Stendker guidelines is 3 meals a day and 30% water change and I have been strictly follow their instructions without any issues. High % water change swings the PH not advisable for stendker discus and how they are grow in stendker farm, here my water parameters ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 20 GH 14, KH 6. I
2 Fx6 canister filter running and I use eheim pre filter and those pre filters will be cleaned twice a week so the debris won't get clog inside the canister and because of this your canister won't become a house of nitrate.
I'm not trader or seller I'm hobbyist I'm 37 yers old I have been keeping aquarium since I was 8 years old and I had other discus more than 5 years I used to change RO water daily 90%, Now I have been into Stendker discus more than a year and i follow stendker guidelines strictly.
Bappu I’m guessing you bought from Stendker direct. Your discus do look great. I can’t do mine that way. If I miss a water change mine will get pimples on them. Once I’ve done a few changes the pimples go away. This happens with both the Stendker and Asian discus I have. Not sure why. But I also don’t feed beef heart. Just to messy. How are they growing? I’m guessing since mine have adjusted to my water changes now? If I ever do another discus tank (2 now) I will try Stendker directions.
Not trying to make waves, but realistically having nitrates of 20 with a heavily stocked tank getting 1 x 30% water change weekly and feeding BH 3 x daily...yea nah, simply not possible...
Dan a little while ago I would have believed the same thing. But lately I’m seeing some pretty shocking things. On another site a guys got a 125 with 12 discus 12 angels and other fish. Great looking fish and at it for over 3 years. 2 30% changes a week.
lminit yes it's from direct stendker and I every week do 30% water changes without fail and yes you're right those are nitrate pimples, As I mentioned in the above I'm running my 2 FX6 with pre filter and I wash my pre filters weekly twice sometimes every alternative days and every month I just change the wool filter inside the canister and never touch the other sponge and media, beleive me every month when I open canister without any debris or clog it runs wells and the bacteria inside the canister remains there and rest the bacteria in the sand bed can take care And I never touch or disturb the sand bed because of anerobic bacteria.
Dan I'm not trying to make waves here, earlier I use to not believe this, but I read about beneficial of aerobic bacteria and anerobic bacteria so put the sand in my aquarium and still I'm learning , even though I kept aquariums past but I never learned such things however in past one year Im learning and exploring myself and it works. I'm novice and I keep on learning from others and im keeping Stendker discus just a year not expert like you. Sometimes my nitrate spike to 40 to 50 however I learned how to bring it down.There are so many nitrate remover resin in the market I beleive you aware about those.
Interesting nitrate pimples! I take it for something else. Though I don’t know what. Nitrate is never above 5. It’s a planted tank with 3 50% water changes a week. My tanks are 125s. That tank has a fx6 and another filter. Fx6 cleaned every 2 months. Also has a pre filter on it. Sorry I’m not a nitrate chaser and have been through the anaerobic bacteria thing. It’s just to sell product. Nitrate is made out to be much more than it is to sell product. Best way to remove nitrate is water changes.
Bappu I am no expert w discus I assure you, lol, though I have kept them a number of times. I have however kept cichlid's for 40 years and have had some college level education in aquaponics production, so I do know water and how bio-load (stock density, feeding regimes & the like) affect it's quality, and subsequently, fish growth rates and health.
I have read a little on anaerobic nitrate removal but have never tried it, nor been convinced by what I have read. It also takes a long time to get properly established. Simply having sand in your aquarium won't provide the proper environment for an anaerobic filter bed to establish, especially since it has to remain undisturbed. I have tried some nitrate removal resins but they didn't really work effectively in my experience.
Here's my problem with threads such as yours, as it turns out, you mentioned only part of your water quality regime in the original post. For people reading your post it is misleading in the sense that they would think that you have achieved your water parameters by the 30% water change weekly only. Stendker make this claim and it is a well known part of their marketing strategy. When I asked Hans (Stendker USA) directly about it, he said to me "well 2 is better". I am very certain that they have additional very expensive high-end nitrate removal processes that allow them "truthfully" claim they only do 30% water changes. But I believe there is a lot more to their filtration and water clarity processes than just that 30% water change, so making their claim misleading.
Many folks are looking for the minimalistic/ easy way to keep discus and sadly buy into these claims. Here at SD we see them show up with sick, stunted, and dying discus all the time, and 98% of the time it's a water parameters/ quality issue that have arisen for small once weekly water changes. It's bad for the hobby, and it's bad for the discus.
So in saying all this I do not mean to pick on you or try to discredit you, but please, when making public comments about your processes in water quality, tell the whole story
Dan your concern is a about my 30% water changes only every week then sure I can't help it, because that is true and i strictly follow stendker guidelines and I have only Stendker discus and they do good. No hiding or lie I'm doing here. The same water parameters what Stendker recommended same I'm following here and we have groups of fiends we all following the same and here in GCC PH is exact 7 and 0 nitrate in water and KH is 4 but GH is very less so I add minerals and nitrifying bacteria on every week after 30% water changes and this is the true whole story and nothing doing under the table.