do additional water filtration system necessary for discus breeding tank?

[Md. Shafiqual Alam]

Hi,

I am planning for a breeding tank setup with around 10 tanks (L24x H18xW12 = 21gal) with automatic (as much as possible) w/c. Planning for 80-20 ro(tds 20)-tap(tds 250) water mixing for keeping tds in between 30 to 60 And ph is 6.5 to 7.8 (max) and 2 x 150w heater per tank and 1 moon light per tank.

Do I need water filtration system(i,e,. sump/top-filter/back-filter/canister) in discus breeding tank or just a sponge filter is fine ?

[warblad79]

Sponge is fine.

[mmdiscus1]

For such a small tank u dont need two heaters.
Keep it simple, sponge is what u need.
As far as i know breeders tend to keep tds around 100, but again many successful breeders here keep it at different tds without any problem.

[Fishquake]

I keep TDS at 100 now. Too many issues with dropping pH at lower values.

[MadMatt]

Hi,

I am planning for a breeding tank setup with around 10 tanks (L24x H18xW12 = 21gal) with automatic (as much as possible) w/c. Planning for 80-20 ro(tds 20)-tap(tds 250) water mixing for keeping tds in between 30 to 60 And ph is 6.5 to 7.8 (max) and 2 x 150w heater per tank and 1 moon light per tank.

Do I need water filtration system(i,e,. sump/top-filter/back-filter/canister) in discus breeding tank or just a sponge filter is fine ?
I just went thru this entire new set up and this is what I have found.
TDS will hold your ph stable at nothing lower then 30ppm
You ph needs to be stable as a rock and above all your ph must be stable, no matter what it is keep at whatever it can be to be stable, the easiest is age your tap water in containers, then use that water after one day, blend with RO if you choose, you only need lower TDS for breeding to have higher fertilization rate, use zero chemicals.
For water changes, I would drill over flow bulk head then drip water continually for WC, I seen a guys set up in Toronto this is what he did, he was a teacher and had no time for water changes so this is what he did to change water and it worked great.
Your heaters are way way too much!.... If your heater screwed up and ran away you will have cooked discus in your tank. I would recommend matching your tank size with the heater type, you only need to keep your tank at 80-82 degrees. If you match your tank with a larger heater and it messes up you will have cooked pancake fish dinners in your tank.
Best to have only one heater 100-150watt, put digital thermostats on the tanks, if you have a heater fail and you look at all your tanks in the morning and night you will catch it in time before anything gets dead.
Best of luck!
:)

[Md. Shafiqual Alam]

i just went thru this entire new set up and this is what i have found.
Tds will hold your ph stable at nothing lower then 30ppm
you ph needs to be stable as a rock and above all your ph must be stable, no matter what it is keep at whatever it can be to be stable, the easiest is age your tap water in containers, then use that water after one day, blend with ro if you choose, you only need lower tds for breeding to have higher fertilization rate, use zero chemicals.
For water changes, i would drill over flow bulk head then drip water continually for wc, i seen a guys set up in toronto this is what he did, he was a teacher and had no time for water changes so this is what he did to change water and it worked great.
Your heaters are way way too much!.... If your heater screwed up and ran away you will have cooked discus in your tank. I would recommend matching your tank size with the heater type, you only need to keep your tank at 80-82 degrees. If you match your tank with a larger heater and it messes up you will have cooked pancake fish dinners in your tank.
Best to have only one heater 100-150watt, put digital thermostats on the tanks, if you have a heater fail and you look at all your tanks in the morning and night you will catch it in time before anything gets dead.
Best of luck!
:)

thank you very much for detail... :)

[nc0gnet0]

I just went thru this entire new set up and this is what I have found.
TDS will hold your ph stable at nothing lower then 30ppm

I am not even sure what this means to tell you the truth. I highly advise against anyone offering advice based on what they have witnessed with their water to someone that is obviously on a different water supply, especially when you start to get down into the extremely lower ranges of TDS. The components that make up User "a"'s tds might have entirely different buffering capacities than that of user "b". The best way is to slowly lower and monitor your tds/hatch ratio under careful monitoring until you get both a decent hatch rate and stable water.



You ph needs to be stable as a rock and above all your ph must be stable, no matter what it is keep at whatever it can be to be stable, the easiest is age your tap water in containers, then use that water after one day, blend with RO if you choose, you only need lower TDS for breeding to have higher fertilization rate, use zero chemicals.

huh?


For water changes, I would drill over flow bulk head then drip water continually for WC, I seen a guys set up in Toronto this is what he did, he was a teacher and had no time for water changes so this is what he did to change water and it worked great.

Not saying this wouldn't work, but definitely is not necessary at all. Problem with an overflow is the possibility of the fry getting flushed down the overflow tube. I prefer a simple 29/30 gallon tank, 150 - 200 watt heater and a sponge and a cone. Nothing else. I maintain my water change schedule just as I would any other day, eggs/fry or none. The only possible exception is the one day in which the fry have gone free swimming and are helter skelter all over the tank (before attachment). I try to anticipate this 12-24 time frame and stop feeding the parents prior (only 1 day) and do a minimal change that day by pulling the water out slowly through and airline with an airstone attached to the end and doing a slow siphon.

[MadMatt]

I am not even sure what this means to tell you the truth. I highly advise against anyone offering advice based on what they have witnessed with their water to someone that is obviously on a different water supply, especially when you start to get down into the extremely lower ranges of TDS. The components that make up User "a"'s tds might have entirely different buffering capacities than that of user "b". The best way is to slowly lower and monitor your tds/hatch ratio under careful monitoring until you get both a decent hatch rate and stable water.




huh?

.

Not saying this wouldn't work, but definitely is not necessary at all. Problem with an overflow is the possibility of the fry getting flushed down the overflow tube. I prefer a simple 29/30 gallon tank, 150 - 200 watt heater and a sponge and a cone. Nothing else. I maintain my water change schedule just as I would any other day, eggs/fry or none. The only possible exception is the one day in which the fry have gone free swimming and are helter skelter all over the tank (before attachment). I try to anticipate this 12-24 time frame and stop feeding the parents prior (only 1 day) and do a minimal change that day by pulling the water out slowly through and airline with an airstone attached to the end and doing a slow siphon.

The TDS thing is 100% correct (from Mr.Mud), from one water source to another, the buffering could indeed be different so one person might have good stable ph at 35ppm and another might be at 95ppm, the short of the story is you need stable ph.
The overflow part; I would recommend a screen over it and maybe a sponge to stop any little guys from being flushed, this was a good recommendation.

I wasn't making "necessary suggestions" but suggestions from my experience and what I've seen.

Best of luck and I love all the ideas and comments here!
:)

[Md. Shafiqual Alam]

i m impressing on your thought-process...
Appropriate...