WATER CHANGES!!!!! and BB

[diskboy]

Ok, I want to know for sub-adults what should be the water change regamin? also is keeping them BB still a good idea?

[Kindredspirit]

Hey Kev ~ you should search this issue up on top ~ there are so many threads on this ~

BB is always best ~ remember that ~ with daily wc ~


Marie ~ :angel:

[Green Country Discus]

Well said Marie ;) .

[CARY_GLdiscus]

I like Bare Bottoms Myself!

But W/Cs Would Depend a lot on Your water Chemistry, The size of Your tank and the Occupants. Filtration You are using and the foods you will feed.

hth
Cary Gld!

[Kindredspirit]

Well said Marie ;) .


Thank Ya Andrew! I learned from the best:)

[architect1]

I like bb tanks for growing out and cleaning. other then that they suck.

[phalough]

Remember where they are from, and that they are not as weak or as diffucult as many make them out to be. Good luck.

[hexed]

Kevin,
A little bit more info is needed to answer that question: How many are you talking about? Tank size and what kind of filters are used? Feeding them what kind(s) of food and what else do you have in the tanks with them?
Cary already said this LOL!

[Evan]

It's already been said but just find the right amount for your tank and fish.

If your fish are swimming/eating well, the water is clean (no particles floating around) and there are none of those planaria or whatever they are around then I find that is enough maintenance.

[diskboy]

the tank is a 55 gal.
feed colorbits around 6:30am
flakes around 12:00pm (auto feeder)
freeze dried bloodworms around 2:45pm
and color bits b4 bed.....9:30ish

at the moment all i have for a filter is a hang on filter.

all thats in it is 3 discus, 1 red eye tetra, 1 bn plec, and a blue ahli

[MiamiDan]

the tank is a 55 gal.
feed colorbits around 6:30am
flakes around 12:00pm (auto feeder)
freeze dried bloodworms around 2:45pm
and color bits b4 bed.....9:30ish

at the moment all i have for a filter is a hang on filter.

all thats in it is 3 discus, 1 red eye tetra, 1 bn plec, and a blue ahli

Let me take a crack at this
too much feeding for the amount of fish you got there
too little filtration for a 55g
bare bottom helps, without changing any of the above parameters, 25% wc every 3rd day would be good, 10% daily even better.
========
I got a 180 gal bb...it is practical, almost no furniture. It reminds me of a jail. It has no soul. In 2007 I will put substrate, plants, rocks, make it look for real & deal with the extra cleaning & care...after all, this is a hobby.:D

[White Worm]

Ok, I want to know for sub-adults what should be the water change regamin? also is keeping them BB still a good idea?

You may want to wait a little while longer until they have done most of their growing before you change the environment. When they are adults, its not as important to have BB tanks.


Let me take a crack at this
too much feeding for the amount of fish you got there
too little filtration for a 55g
bare bottom helps, without changing any of the above parameters, 25% wc every 3rd day would be good, 10% daily even better.
========
I got a 180 gal bb...it is practical, almost no furniture. It reminds me of a jail. It has no soul. In 2007 I will put substrate, plants, rocks, make it look for real & deal with the extra cleaning & care...after all, this is a hobby.:D



I hate to disagree Dan on a couple points, but........It depends on how much you feed at each time. If you dump in alot each time, yes, it is too much (make sure they all get their fair share). If you give them just enough to eat that it is gone in a few minutes, not so bad. They are still growing and it doesnt hurt to feed them 3-5 times a day.

However, diskboy, you are using all the foods that will dirty the water. Try some fbw cubes and thaw them first to get rid of the red juice and feed just the worms. They love it and it is pretty clean. If you are sick of the BB look, your next option may be sand. I did it and it is still easy to clean and looks alot better. Nothing wrong with plants and decor if you keep them clean also but remember, you give a discus a place to hide, they will most likely use it which now makes your hobby a tank full of water with some nice rocks, plants and substrate. Filtration will depend on amount of media, fish stock, water changes and size of hang on back filter. Maybe add a sponge filter with some air for a little extra. I would say there is more benefit to 2-3 large w/c's a week than small ones each day. Keep an eye on the nitrates, that will let you know if the water changes need to increase. I try to do 50% every other day. I would do every day w/c's with fry or young juveniles up to sub adults or highly stocked tanks. Just some ideas.

[MiamiDan]

If you are sick of the BB look, your next option may be sand. I did it and it is still easy to clean and looks alot better. .

Mikscus; how do you keep your sand clean? I had fine sand & found it to be a royal pain in the neck...anything would disturbe the sand, it will become airborne & ruin the impellers of my filters. I ruin 3 filters that way. Trying to clean with a python was also difficult, you would end up sucking up a lot of sand that had to be replenish. That's when I went bb & now I'm thinking some kind of substrate, but definetely not sand.

[rcdg]

I too switced to sand from bb after mine got to sub adult. The sand I used is heavy enough that I can skim the top with a vacuum and pick up the duke but the sand stays behind. Stays nice and clean with everyday vac.

[White Worm]

Yep, ditto. I use PVC pipe so my hand and arm stay out of the tank attached to flexible drain hose. The end of the pvc is smaller with a greater suction and I can get very specific where I vacuum. I just hold it above the sand and everything gets cleaned. Sure, I will lose a little sand over time but at $3 for a 50lb bag, I can afford it. I started with about 1.5 inches and I have a few light areas that may need some added soon. After a while the sand will compact and act like a BB. I just rinse the sand real good and add when needed. If you dont do alot at one time, it wont even cloud the water. The initial addition of sand clouded a bit but the fish managed to be fine. I did small sections each day to keep the tank clean. I guess it depend on the type of sand you get because the only time I see it disturbed or waterborne is when a discus turns on the thrust for a moment. Even then, it just settles back down with no problems.

[MiamiDan]

humm...maybe that was my problem. My tank was full of big plecos...albino sailfins, Royal Plecos, Gold Nuggets,etc...these guys would re-decorate the aquarium at night. So what kind of sand do you get for $3/bag? hardware type, the one you mix with cement? I heard some people using pool filter sand, you guys might just convince me to go back to sand. Will this be a good substrate for plants?

[White Worm]

I dont know too much about the plant thing. I tried it but they didnt grow much. I was too worried about adding things (fertilizers, etc) to the water that are good for plants but not discus, lol. Yeah, plecos will make some messes of your substrate regardless of what you have. I had a pretty large chocolate pleco that would dust the whole tank when he whipped his tale. He was probably 5" long. He was traded to lfs for supplies. I used monterey silica sand from home depot. 50lb bag cost $3. I rinsed it really good before adding it to the tank. It comes in two grains, I went with the finer grain. I think you could do plants, you would just have to use fert tabs under the plants and probably have to add to the water just like other substrates. I will find my pic somewhere here.

[White Worm]

Heres what mine looks like

20173

20174

That is a real plant but they never got much bigger and the discus and angels kept snacking on them and pulling them out little by little so I got rid of them (the plants). If you look close at the last pic, you can see the waste sitting on top of the sand cause I hadnt vacuumed yet.

[MiamiDan]

Heres what mine looks like

[That is a real plant but they never got much bigger and the discus and angels kept snacking on them and pulling them out little by little so I got rid of them (the plants). If you look close at the last pic, you can see the waste sitting on top of the sand cause I hadnt vacuumed yet.

Yeah, I see some poop in there, LOL. :D I had one pleco that was close to 12", they are gorgeous monsters! My avatar is a Gold Nugget (not mine). Thanks for the info. I will probably try both planted & potted plants..see what happens. As far as plecos is concerned, ...nothing bigger than bristlenoses for now.
Dan

[White Worm]

Yeah, small BN for me too, I just cant seem to find them locally at a good source yet. Big plecos cant seem to ever move slowly. They always have to move at 50mph or faster, destroying anything in their way. I would find everything that was anchored down the day before, floating at the surface the next day. Destructive when they are big, they will harass the other fish and they do like slime.
I think I may go with potted plants next so I can set them deeper in the substrate so they cant be pulled out so easy.