Strange discus behaviour

[axl10]

i Guys,
its been a while since i have posted on here, so here i go. I have got a 6x2x2 planted discus tank with the following specs

6x2x2 tank
co2 incjected with ph controller
ph 5.9 by the end of the night
temp: 29 degrees
ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0
nitrate - roughly around 5 to 10ppm for plants
wc every 2 to 3 weeks of 30% ( have been told by a discus expert that discus don't like to many changes to there water and im only using straight tap water.
2x 300w eheim heaters
1 x eheim 2217
1 x eheim 2280 pro 3
1 x uv sterilizer,
lights: 2 x 1500 led lights with only 3 rows going at the moment, each row has 39 x 3w cree leds in there

This setup is only 5 months old and currently has got 6 discus in there and roughly 100 cardinal tetras, with various catfish. My issues are that the discus are always hiding and come out every now and then, they have good color and eat mainly dried aussie worms from mal. 1 of the spotted reds has always got his stress bars showing and i don't know if it is because of the co2?. All the cardinal have great color and swimming around good and the discus just hide behind the driftwood with them coming out every so often. Whats the go??

I had trouble with hole in the head due to buying 2 turqs with this at the start but are now over this.
I ran out of co2 the other month and they were eating a lot better it think and swimming around heaps when this wasnt going, could this be the case that co2 is causing this. I would love some help on this issue.

There not lacking oxygen because the solenoid is hooked into the light timer so it goes off at nights, plus there is no sign of them breathing heavily during the day , both filters are creating surface agitation, in the morning the fish don't have there stress bars showing. There is minimal ph change when the co2 is off the ph is 6.3 and when co2 is going its 5.9 by the end of the day. Ph doesn't swing to much when doing water changes because I'm only doing 30% at a time so it dosent go up much



Cheers Axl

[Trier20]

What size are the discus? Is your tank heavily planted? IMO I would definitely up water changes to 50% daily or every two days at least. Do you have pre-filters on your filtration systems?

[axl10]

What size are the discus? Is your tank heavily planted? IMO I would definitely up water changes to 50% daily or every two days at least. Do you have pre-filters on your filtration systems?

Hey,
there around the 12cm mark and the tank is fully planted with various fast growing plants. There all out swimming around now but some have got there stress bars showing, and this morning they were all good swimming excellent no signs of stress, eating awesome and this is when the lights are off and the co2 is off. Not sure what you mean by pre filters but im running a eheim 2217 and a eheim 2280 pro 3. Would 50% every 2nd be to much change for the discus, that's what a discus expert here said in Australia.

[John_Nicholson]

There is nothing unusual about what is happening. This is what discus do when you have them in a marginal environment. You can either step up your WC's or watch your discus deteriorate.

Good Luck.

-john

[TURQ64]

ph 5.9 by the end of the night
nitrate - roughly around 5 to 10ppm for plants
wc every 2 to 3 weeks of 30% ( have been told by a discus expert that discus don't like to many changes to there water and im only using straight tap water.

could this be the case that co2 is causing this. I would love some help on this issue.

Ph doesn't swing to much when doing water changes because I'm only doing 30% at a time so it dosent go up much




These seem to all point to healthy plants, not your fish...The wc regimen is absolutely not good for Discus. combined with that much light, and ph shifts in several directions, my fish would be stressed too....somewhere you may need to delineate your hobby until you've mastered both a planted tank, and Discus fish.....JMO, Gary

[Jeff O]

Hey,
there around the 12cm mark and the tank is fully planted with various fast growing plants. There all out swimming around now but some have got there stress bars showing, and this morning they were all good swimming excellent no signs of stress, eating awesome and this is when the lights are off and the co2 is off. Not sure what you mean by pre filters but im running a eheim 2217 and a eheim 2280 pro 3. Would 50% every 2nd be to much change for the discus, that's what a discus expert here said in Australia.

I'm not sure who told you 50% every day or even second day would be too much... I used to change water in similar patterns to you (every second week) I ended up with stunted discus that where not very attractive. In my personal experience 50-75% daily Water changes gives you the best results. Discus NEED clean water to thrive 2 week old stale water isn't very clean considering that it has not only discus but tetra and catfish that all produce large amounts of waste. I think you should take a look at the other experts on here who do the daily wc's and the quality of there fish. IMO
-Jeff

[YSS]

50% weekly water change would be sufficient for 180G tank with 6 small discus and cardinals.

[axl10]

I'm not sure who told you 50% every day or even second day would be too much... I used to change water in similar patterns to you (every second week) I ended up with stunted discus that where not very attractive. In my personal experience 50-75% daily Water changes gives you the best results. Discus NEED clean water to thrive 2 week old stale water isn't very clean considering that it has not only discus but tetra and catfish that all produce large amounts of waste. I think you should take a look at the other experts on here who do the daily wc's and the quality of there fish. IMO
-Jeff

Thanks for all the info guys, I had a feeling this was causing the problem. I will do a 50% wc on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Hopefully the discus will start to improve from this new wc scheudle. I have spent a lot of money on buying them so it pays to look after them

[John_Nicholson]

I bet you see a big improvement in a short period of time.

Good luck.

-john

[Trier20]

I would clean the filters too and look into some pre-filters. Just rinse your pads and media in tank water you've syphoned out. Do a search for pre-filters on here to get some ideas for them.

[axl10]

I would clean the filters too and look into some pre-filters. Just rinse your pads and media in tank water you've syphoned out. Do a search for pre-filters on here to get some ideas for them.

Righto will give the filters a good clean and I tried to search for pre filters but couldn't find anything. Have you got a link handy on what you mean.

[axl10]

I bet you see a big improvement in a short period of time.

Good luck.

-john

Thanks John, will every 2nd day be enough to improve my discus

[Trier20]

Type "pre filters" into search. Two threads to look at is "pre filter sponge" and "not convinced about pre filters" sorry cant supply links on my phone. Hope that helps

[John_Nicholson]

Thanks John, will every 2nd day be enough to improve my discus


It can. Discus are all about water quality and food.

-john

[axl10]

Type "pre filters" into search. Two threads to look at is "pre filter sponge" and "not convinced about pre filters" sorry cant supply links on my phone. Hope that helps

Hey,
had a look at the pre filter and they look like a good idear, quick quesiton do they just cover over the strainer part of the intake on the eheims? I reckon a sponge filter is to big and wouldn't look that attractive in my planted tank, any other suggestions on what sponges to use for a eheim intake tubes???

Did my first 50% wc this arvo, so Im back into the swing of the water changes

Cheers Axl

[Trier20]

Hey,
had a look at the pre filter and they look like a good idear, quick quesiton do they just cover over the strainer part of the intake on the eheims? I reckon a sponge filter is to big and wouldn't look that attractive in my planted tank, any other suggestions on what sponges to use for a eheim intake tubes???

Did my first 50% wc this arvo, so Im back into the swing of the water changes

Cheers Axl

You can get factory made ones that look nicer that using a sponge filter. These also come with a few attachments for different kinds of filtration systems. In the states we have drs foster and smith that carry them. Not sure what you have in Australia but I'd imagine there is something similar to that. Here is a link to what I'm talking about.http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=21426

[Susie]

I really like the pre-filters. They catch so much "stuff" and are so easy to rinse out.

[jerman]

My 2 cents . The ph of 5.9 can indicate too much co2, which is also displacing the oxygen in your tank and stressing the fish... Also it sounds like your ph is fluctuating throughout the day as it decreases to 5.9 at the end of the day. You really want to try and keep the ph stable. If your ph is decreasing throuought the day it can mean that your plants are not using up the co2 and it's staying in the water column, and can afford to decrease the co2 without affecting your plants.....I have gassed my fish a few time and woke to them floating due to a failure in the co2 system. Nothing a6 am water change couldn't solve. I now keep an air stone in the tank to run whenever I see signs of stress. Keep in mind when u trim your plants u decrease your co2 consuming biomass and this is when you can see an excess of co2 as well. When I do a big trim of the plants I'll run the airstone for 2 days to help offset the co2 injection. As a quick test you can run an airstone for a day or 2 to see if the fish seem to relax. This is usually easier than messing with trial and error with the co2 injection levels and help pin point if it's a co2 issue