Need Help

[david patterson]

Hi SD,
I am having some trouble with my tank. I have 120g tank with 6 adult discuses. The tank has been running for 2 months before I put the discuses in. The first problem is with my fish. They are turning dark and I see some slim coming off of them. But they are still eating well. Does anyone think that the hardness is a problem? My taps kh is 3 in my tank it raises to 6-7.
My other problem is with algae. At first I had a lot of brown algae so I increased my light, problem solved. Then I was getting a lot of green spot algae on my anubias. I know this is common but it covers the whole leaf. So I thought it was too much light, so I backed the light off. Now the brown algae are coming back. So I put the light back up. I have never had these problems with my 40g. Any suggestion? Need help?


My tanks parameters are:
Tank 120g 60x18x26
Ph 6.6-6.8
Kh 6-7
Temp. 29
Light 4x65w 6700k on for 11 hours
Substrate, eco-complete
Eheim filter
Co2 injected
Fertilizer- seachem Iron, flourish, potassium and some pmdd. The seachem products every water change, the pmdd every day
Water changes once every 2 weeks

Thanks David

[digthemlows]

How much co2 are you injecting? Are the fish getting enough oxygen?

[DiscusKeeper403]

Sometimes extra slime can be a sign of external parasites. Do you ever see the fish scratching against objects?

[david patterson]

Thanks 4 replies,

digthemlows, Right now I am injecting 29ppm. I might have to raise the ph slightly.

DiscusLova, no the fish are not scratching. They hide and only come out when no ones around or to eat.

Any ideas? All the fish came from a bare tank. They have always looked and acted healthy. It just confuses me. Do you thing it could be Kh being so high? They have always lived in low Kh, around 3. I will take some pictures, maybe that might be a little more help full.

Thanks David

[david patterson]

Here's some pic of the fish. Sorry about quality.

[alron2]

What are the water parameters especially amounium (sp)? Do you really only do water changes every two weeks? If so, I would start doing 25 % water changes daily. I would not play around with the PH, hardness unless they are really out of line. What do you think?
Ron

[judy]

Cut back your hours of lighting to ten, with a two hour dark break midway through (I assume you have them on a timer). As well, discontinue the Flourish general fertilizer. It contains phosphates which strongly encourage algae growth. And discontinue all your other ferts EXCEPT the iron, and dose that in small amounts every third day or so. Discus are very senstive to high iron levels, and most plants don't need a lot except for Amazon swords and they would do fine on a twice weekly dose of iron.
If you want to use a general plant fertilizer, try Kent Plant-Pro which has no phosphates.
Change 50 per cent of your water once weekly. Check your nitrate levels, they are likely building up too much.
And dose your tank with Flourish Excel, daily.
These measures should clear it up for you in a few weeks...maybe longer depening on how high those nitrates have gotten. With discus, you never want to see them over 10. Less than 5 is ideal.