Daily water changes.

[TroyL]

I currently have a 240 gallon discus tank. Currently I have been doing weekly water changes. I currently change 50-60% of the water weekly. I have noticed that by the end of the week my levels are fine with the exception of nitrates. Being the last of the cycle they for some reason always are elevated by the end of the week. Usually they read about 40-60ppm which is way to high.. I do feed beef heart to them along with tubefxworms. I know i am no longer over feeding as my MTS population has died off by about 1/2.
So here is my question If I were to do a water change daily on this tank how many gallons would you think would keep the levels down to zero. There is no way I can do a 50% every day. I don't have the time with my work schedule. Would doing 35-40 gallon w/c a day keep them down where they need to be?
In all honesty I have no idea why they are so high. I have 2 gallons of k-1 kaldness media going in the sump in a fluidized moving bed filter. With this I also have about 2 gallons of bioballs in a 2 static chambers in my sump. No clue why this much media is unable to keep up with the bio load in this system. I currently have 7 discus in this tank.
Suggestions would be great.

[Second Hand Pat]

I think this is something you will have to play with since multiple things come into play, water volume, source water, bio-load etc. Start with a 10% daily and see where it gets you. Also see if there are nitrates in your source water.
Pat

[pitdogg2]

None of that media is made to deal with nitrates, so in that regards it seems to be doing its job very well. If you're feeding a lot of beef heart you are putting a lot of bio-load for the bacteria bed which the end result is going to be nitrates. If you are really feeding tubifex worms I hope for your sake that they are from say Hikari as they are known to introduce heavy metals and parasites into the fish from eating them. Many here shy away from those because of the way they live in sewage effluent in most cases. Freeze dried blackworm are a better and safer choice to feed. This is my .02 I would do large every other day water changes and suck up any uneaten food everyday. you also should get a nitrate test kit to test your water from the tap it may be elevated and that would not help. this way at least you know what you're starting with.

[TroyL]

I have checked nitrates out of the tap and Nitrate and nitrites are both 0 of taken and tested right away.. Test takes 5 minutes to do.. Not sure how long it would take to stand for everthig to settle out and show up.
I will try that and see. I used a w/c calculator and it said if i change 30-35 gallons daily at the end of the week its like 60.3 gallons worth of water.. That was using a drip system tho. Guessing it would be the same if your doing the same amount of gallons a day just doing them all at once.

[TroyL]

pitdogg2 Thanks for that info. I had no idea they were that bad. I just started feeding them about 10 days ago. I will defiantly check into the freeze dried black worms. As far as over feeding I only feed what my discus will eat in about 2 minutes. Its frozen and it floats for a while as they start picking at it.. I have noticed very little hits the substrate. cleaning substrate is hard to do since they are in a fully planted tank. I do have 5 cory cats in there along with 1 albino BN placo. I did have more placo but they have died off here and there. I tend to like cory cats better. They don't seem to be as messy of fish to keep. Not sure how many is a good number tho for this big of an aquarium.

[pitdogg2]

fully planted tank with substrate....there is where the nitrates are coming from. Too much fish waste in the substrate as you said yourself "cleaning substrate is hard to do" YES it will be a nitrate producer in that regard. I know many do not like a bare bottom tank but it is the easiest to clean quickly. I like plants also even though they are not common where Discus live. I put my plants in clay flower pots and fill the pots with flourite from SeaChem. I have several very large Anubias yet still have a bare bottom tank. Many here paint the outside bottom of the tank so it is not clear glass. These are options but with such a large tank I understand that you will not want to jump into this. With a bare bottom tank it is very easy to see what your fish are producing in waste DAILY. Once you see the amount of waste it will be much easier to manage with daily water changes.

[bluelagoon]

You also mentioned a die off of MTS recently.That end product would be nitrate too.

[atlantadiscus]

How often are you cleaning/replacing your mechanical filter material? In between doing that,all waste it traps is contributing to the deteriorating water quality.

[TroyL]

How often are you cleaning/replacing your mechanical filter material? In between doing that,all waste it traps is contributing to the deteriorating water quality.
I change that media 1-2 times a week. When ever I notice it getting dirty.

[atlantadiscus]

I change that media 1-2 times a week. When ever I notice it getting dirty.

Great.I also change mine 2X/week.Have you given the substrate a good vacuum to remove excess detritus recently? With that size tank and relatively small amount of fish I would think you could manage low nitrates with 2X/week 50+% water changes.Your plants should be utilizing some of the nitrates also as long as you are not dosing fertilizers.

[TroyL]

Great.I also change mine 2X/week.Have you given the substrate a good vacuum to remove excess detritus recently? With that size tank and relatively small amount of fish I would think you could manage low nitrates with 2X/week 50+% water changes.Your plants should be utilizing some of the nitrates also as long as you are not dosing fertilizers.

I currently use osocote fertilizer gelcap about every 2.5-3 months.. When the plants start looking a little faded I know its time to put in 5-7 capsules throughout the tank.. It takes very few to get the plants growing again. I think 3 m months ago when I put them in I only used like 5 with in the entire tank.
I know they also will raise the nitrates a bit.. Its a better option for me right now then getting a co2 setup. My wife would kill me if I went that brought right now.LOL

[Ryan925]

I currently use osocote fertilizer gelcap about every 2.5-3 months.. When the plants start looking a little faded I know its time to put in 5-7 capsules throughout the tank.. It takes very few to get the plants growing again. I think 3 m months ago when I put them in I only used like 5 with in the entire tank.
I know they also will raise the nitrates a bit.. Its a better option for me right now then getting a co2 setup. My wife would kill me if I went that brought right now.LOL

Co2 setups really aren't that expensive but not great for discus tanks as they fluctuate your ph daily (I was running one) no longer do.

I also have removed all plants and gone to a hardscape. I was doing WCs every other day and deep vac'ng gravel each time. I thought it was clean but was astonished to see how much was in there after removing the gravel.

When I was dosing ferts I found the pps pro method to be a really good one. Was super easy to dose the ferts. The idea behind the process is that you are only dosing enough macro and micro for the plants to utilize in one days photo period. Super cheap and super simple.

You can get the kit of dry ferts for like $30-$40 from green leaf which will last you probably over a year

You can also dose excel in occasion to give your plants some much needed co2

It's a tough balance in a planted. You want plants that grow fast enough to eat up nitrates but can't have plants that grow fast enough to require high light and co2. It's really a give and tank but it truly is difficult to keep nitrates down as the gravel and root systems of the plants trap so much debris.

If you have some slow flow areas of your sump try something like the brightwell no3 plate to help to manage the nitrate levels

[TroyL]

I actually have fairly decent flow in this tank. I can't remember but the pump runs wide open and If not mistaken it turnS ABOUT 600gal an hour
Thinking I may put a couple Potho plants in it and see how they do with keeping the nitrates low.. I have heard great things about doing that.. I can grow those in my sump with no issues at all