my introduction questionare

[blueluv]

1) Please Introduce your self and tell us what your experience is with fishkeeping, give us as much information as possible as to how long in the hobby, what you have kept in the past and what you currently are working with. Hello, my name is Christopher, I'm 33 years old. I had discus last year, but sadly my first experience with discus was awful, long story. I gave up and sold everything. I couldn't say away from discus, so got back into it in February. My absolute favorite discus is the blue diamond.

2) If you have no previous experience with keeping discus, have you done any research to properly prepare yourself, e.g. have you read any Stickies in this section of SimplyDiscus, or other material?I've done research here and on line.

3) Describe your tank, its size and dimensions, breeding or display. Include how long it has been setup or if it is still being cycled. My tank is glass, 150 gallons. Dimensions are 72', 27', 18'. Display. Tank was running for about a month and a half, with two good nugget plecos and 12 neon tetras. Then added discus.

4) Describe the décor for the tank; type of substrate or bare bottom (BB), whether the tank will be planted or a biotope. Tank is BB. Right now I don't have plans on making it planted or otherwise. Maybe in future.

5) Describe your water changes planned or practiced, percentage and how often. Include if you age your water and use of tap/RO or mix. I change my water about 3x's a day , about 75% each time. I use a GAC system for my water changes. I don't age my water.

6) Describe the type of filtration planned/used for the tank; sponge, HOB and/or sump. Also include the other equipment you are, or will be, using in your tank, e.g. heater, lighting, etc. 2 hob's, 2 sponges stacked and 2-300 watt heaters. Two led's

7) If the tank is already setup and running, include the water parameters;

- temp _____88ºf

- tank ph _____ 8.2

- Ph of the water straight out of your tap _____6.8

- ammonia reading ____0

- nitrite reading ____0

- nitrate reading ____40!

- well water ____no

- municipal water ____yes


8) Describe your current or planned stocking levels; number/size of discus and number/type of dither fish. Where did you get your discus from or do you have a proposed source for getting your discus? Currently I have 6 and plan on adding 6 more. 4-5', 1-4.5 and 1-3.5

9) Describe your planned or existing feeding regimen. Include what and how often you are feeding on a daily basis. 8 am, 11 am, 2 pm, 5 pm and 8 pm. M, W, F consist of sbhf in morning, bh mix and tetra bits. Tuesday's and Thursdays are sbhf, fdbw's and tetra bits. Saturday and Sunday, strictly flake and granule.

10) What are your goals in this hobby? For example are you looking to keep discus in a planted community tank, or do you hope to become a hobby breeder of Discus? Do you want to raise Discus with the hopes of competing in shows? My hopes are to become a hobby breeder and compete in shows.

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi Chris, while reading through your questionnaire I saw one possible red flag. Are the tank and tap Ph's readings correct? A jump from 6.8 to 8.2 is pretty big. How are your fish behaving after a WC? I would definitely suggest aging your water with aeration.

[blueluv]

Hmm? Well I use an api test kit.I tested water from tap with and tank with regular ph solution. Then tested ph with high range ph. My fish act normal, sometimes they'll scratch but after each water change they'll eat.

[discuspaul]

Great sized tank for keeping discus - it's interesting that you're keeping that large a tank bare-bottom, and doing 75% wcs 3 X a day with so few fish.
Can't imagine the discus having anything to complain about, though.

I think your temp @ 88 F is somewhat high - you might consider lowering it to 84-85.

You may have a problem with your nitrate test, so check it out. Unless you have high nitrates straight out of the tap (and I'ts hard to believe your municipal water would have nitrates as high as 40 ppm. With the WCs you're doing, nitrates in your tank should be '0', unless you have some nitrates in your tap water.

I also find it a bit strange that your tank pH is 8.2 when the tap water is 6.8 and you're doing 3 large wcs a day.
Once again, your test kit may be out-dated, or you're you're not using it correctly.

Otherwise, your discus should be A-OK, but you may not need to feed those big guys as often as you do every day.

[blueluv]

Cool beans, Thanks paul. Every time i approach thank, they beg for food. How many feedings would suggest? I fergot to mention that I have a 75 gallon water storage container in wich i put water in, with two large air stones. The water goes thru a GAC system.

[discuspaul]

Assuming your discus are in the 4" -4.5" range, and you'll be adding more of the same general size, it would be sufficient to feed them twice, or perhaps 3 times a day. They really don't need anymore than that - as you likely know, discus will always appear to be begging for food, no matter how much, or how litlle, you feed them. LOL

Not sure what type of water storage system you're using, but to me it is still very mysterious that you have 6.8 pH out of the tap, you're doing 3 X a day 75% wcs, and you have 8.2 pH in your tank.
Must be a problem with that test kit - otherwise, that large of a true pH difference/change when doing wcs would have more than a minor detrimental effect on the discus.

[blueluv]

That is so true. Thanks, I think I should invest in a ph test pen instead. Well I've never physically taken them out of the tank to measure them. I'm going by what the guy that sold them to me said about their size.

[strawberryblonde]

Hi there!

Actually, the nitrates isn't a huge surprise to me. I had a big nitrate spike when I first started keeping my discus because I didn't have a pre-filter on my canister filter and didn't realize how much beefheart was getting into the filter media. It was disgusting when I pulled it all out after a month...ewwwwww!

So, double check your filter media to be sure that you don't have something rotting away in there.

For pH, it's a big shift over 24 hours, but so long as you are aging it, it's gonna be 8.2 going into the tank, so no worries about bothering the discus.

Food: If your discus are still under 6" don't worry about overfeeding them, or changing water too much. I fed mine when they asked, about 6 times a day, and changed water twice a day and they grew big and fat and healthy.

You could probably drop back to twice a day WC, 50% in the morning and 80% at night once you figure out where the sneaky little nitrates are coming from.

Oh and welcome to the forums! =)

[strawberryblonde]

Found this tidbit that might explain the nitrate problem:

"Can granular activated carbon (GAC) filtration systems trap nitrate and then download it at high enough concentrations to be of concern?

Yes, it is possible. Research confirms that GAC filter systems can take up and hold (adsorb) nitrate during treatment processes to remove certain organic chemicals. Then at some unknown frequency, the carbon releases the nitrate into the treated water. This has proved to be a problem with some California water systems using GAC filtration to remove dibromochloropropane (DBCP) from ground water supplies. Modification to the GAC systems may be necessary to prevent this storage and release of nitrate."

[blueluv]

Thank you all for your comments and making me feel welcomed. I now feel more at ease about keeping discus.I can't wait to place my first order with Kenny. I'm kinda bummed that I missed out on those blushing red's. As for those nitrates, I'm going to start adding prime to the water storage container.

[discuspaul]

blueluv -
Following up on Toni's comments regarding GAC systems trapping nitrates, I did some research on those systems and she is correct - it is possible, and that could be your explanation for the presence of nitrates @ 40 ppm.

These systems may also have the effect of raising pH, but in the case of both the development of nitrates, and the increasing pH, the one research article I read indicated that this result was due to the GAC system not being used, or operated, properly. Although there was no elaboration on how it was being misused, nor how to correct it.

It seems to me that it may be worthwhile, if only as a test, to simply use water straight out of the tap @ 6.8 pH (conditioned with Prime of course, and aged as you do), and by-passing, or not using the GAC system, to determine whether that results in a good stable pH being maintained in your tank, and no nitrates.
Just a suggestion.