Charcoal faced-dark fin RGD

[memphistriathlete]

I just got some discus in a couple of weeks ago and they are all doing fantastic. However, the Red Golden Diamond was orange with a very light face and light fins when I got him. He now has almost a charcoal face and dark fins and his body is a much darker orange. This happened on day 4. The other discus have had no reaction at all but I have no other RGDs.
I am pretty sure he is not sick. He is one of the more outgoing of all of the discus, eats great, and does not tuck his fins at all. He is acting VERY healthy. He is the only fish showing any signs that he might not like the tank.
I want to see if this is because I have dark substrate (eco complete) and painted my back glass black. In other words, is this because of my environment? I have a bunch of swords planted in there right now but they are just starting to grow so the vegetation is pretty sparse.
Next, is this a problem? If I eventually get pigeon bloods will this mean that they will pepper?
Lastly, how difficult is it to remove Krylon paint from acrylic?

[Rod]

I just got some discus in a couple of weeks ago and they are all doing fantastic. However, the Red Golden Diamond was orange with a very light face and light fins when I got him. He now has almost a charcoal face and dark fins and his body is a much darker orange. This happened on day 4. The other discus have had no reaction at all but I have no other RGDs.
I am pretty sure he is not sick. He is one of the more outgoing of all of the discus, eats great, and does not tuck his fins at all. He is acting VERY healthy. He is the only fish showing any signs that he might not like the tank.
I want to see if this is because I have dark substrate (eco complete) and painted my back glass black. In other words, is this because of my environment? I have a bunch of swords planted in there right now but they are just starting to grow so the vegetation is pretty sparse.
Next, is this a problem? If I eventually get pigeon bloods will this mean that they will pepper?
Lastly, how difficult is it to remove Krylon paint from acrylic?

Yes he has a darker face because of the gravel and background. Some golden based discus show this feature in this type of enviroment. It is the same with pigeon blood discus, they will also tend to show more dark features. Many modern pigeon strains are pretty clean anyway and should still look nice, but some strains will freckle quite a lot.

Rod:)

[memphistriathlete]

Thanks for the reply. Now that I know that he is ok, I am wondering if I should try to strip off the krylon black background and go with something lighter or even leave it clear.
I have black substrate but I also have hair grass planted that will eventually carpet the bottom so it wont be that dark. I guess it is a gamble to see if it will make him lighter. Want to put some red dragons or something like that in there and I dont want them to pepper.
Anyone have any experience getting krylon off a tank?

[April]

i also find that canister filters make them go dark. they do better in a tank with just hydro sponge and very clean water. i had the same with my ghosts. canister filter..black body. i was gonna donate them to the guy who wants to make black discus..moved them..clean shiny and white. : )

[memphistriathlete]

i also find that canister filters make them go dark. they do better in a tank with just hydro sponge and very clean water. i had the same with my ghosts. canister filter..black body. i was gonna donate them to the guy who wants to make black discus..moved them..clean shiny and white. : )

Would not know why this would be the case. Canister filters do an excellent job of keeping the water clean. My guess would be that you had a canister filter AND a dark background or substrate and the canister was just used with it. Then again, I am new to all of this.
Anyone else experienced this with canisters.

I am in the middle of scraping the black krylon background off the back of my tank. My tank is 6 inches from the wall and 6 foot long. So I have got to figure a way to get the razor blade to the middle of the back somehow. Even though there is still 3 foot in the middle that is black, this has lightened up the tank considerably. I was even thinking about doing white paper on the background temporarily to see if I could brighten up my RGD.

[Apistomaster]

There is no way I know of to remove acrylic paint from plexiglas. It is easily scraped from glass but it bonds with plexiglas.

Regarding canister filters.
They are excellent filters but due to their design, much oxygen is removed from the water by the nitrifying bacteria during it's flow through the media. It is always a good idea to use an air stone with a canister filter or a spray bar discharging on to the water's surface.
Those who use them in planted tanks equipped with CO2 often try to preserve CO2 by minimizing aeration. This may cause the tank to have a high CO2:O2 ratio and any discus will respond to the stress of low oxygen levels by turning dark. I think you will find an air stone will improve the way you discus look and act. Everyone's tank is different and most people don't overdose their CO2. It is something to pay attention to because there is an optimum balance to be achieved.
I use wet/dry filters on my planted discus display tanks in conjunction with a canister filter.
I use low light plants and no CO2.
I use 2 sponge filters in my discus and other hatchery grow out tanks where one is run in the normal air lift mode while the other is driven by a small power head.

[memphistriathlete]

There is no way I know of to remove acrylic paint from plexiglas. It is easily scraped from glass but it bonds with plexiglas.

Regarding canister filters.
They are excellent filters but due to their design, much oxygen is removed from the water by the nitrifying bacteria during it's flow through the media. It is always a good idea to use an air stone with a canister filter or a spray bar discharging on to the water's surface.
Those who use them in planted tanks equipped with CO2 often try to preserve CO2 by minimizing aeration. This may cause the tank to have a high CO2:O2 ratio and any discus will respond to the stress of low oxygen levels by turning dark. I think you will find an air stone will improve the way you discus look and act. Everyone's tank is different and most people don't overdose their CO2. It is something to pay attention to because there is an optimum balance to be achieved.
I use wet/dry filters on my planted discus display tanks in conjunction with a canister filter.
I use low light plants and no CO2.
I use 2 sponge filters in my discus and other hatchery grow out tanks where one is run in the normal air lift mode while the other is driven by a small power head.


Thanks, that is great information and I would be glad to put an air stone the tank. I will do that tonight and see if it helps.
I did want to tell you that the Krylon paint that I put on the back comes off pretty easily with acetone but also I can take it off with a razor blade as a scraper. I make sure it is at a low angle so it doesnt scratch the glass. When it comes off with acetone it comes off in almost sheets but with the razor it crumbles and looks like black glitter. So it is pretty much all over my house like glitter and still on the back of the tank in the middle where I cant reach it.
Again, thanks for this information.

[memphistriathlete]

Just in case you were curious about it, the Red Golden Diamond is finally lightening up and turning back to that beautiful orange/gold color. I removed the black paint from the rear of the tank and planted some more plants and put in an air stone. When he is back to his normal color I am going to remove the air stone to see if that was helping or not. I will post my findings.
I had to figure out how to get the krylon paint off of the back of a 6 ft long 2000 lb tank that is 6 inches from the wall. I got acetone and yes this works when you scrub it but my arms are not 6 ft long so this got rid of the first 5 inches of paint. So then I got out a scraper and that fixed the next 2 foot because I could reach behind it that far. Had to get creative so I got basically a mop handle and stacked 4 pieces of double sided tape on each other catercorner a razor blade on it and double taped it down so that it was at a 45 degree angle on the end of the pole. If it is straight, you have no scraping power because you are at too narrow of an angle but if the razor is at a 45, you can scrape it right off. No damage to the tank and all of the Krylon is in a fine black powder on the floor in the back of the tank. I have got to get back there with a shop vac and clean it up.

[memphistriathlete]

Well it just happened I have a rash of fish that are not eating so I put them into a quarantine tank. The RGD happened to be one of them. In 1 day he turned from a light red with dark fins to orange with white fins which was his original color when I got him. So it is DEFINITELY the dark bottom.

Ok, now that I know what is causing it, how can I change it. I have Eco-complete in a heavily planted tank so I cant remove this because it is needed for the plants. Could I put a layer of white (play sand) on top of what is there? Will this look totally weird once it gets mixed because there is no doubt that it will with all of the trumpet snails I have in there?