Week #1: The first water change!

[Chad Hughes]

Well, as you all well know, I dont' change water that often. Today was the 7th day that I've been raising the challenge discus and they are doing great!! I took some readings prior to the water change and it looked like this:

TDS: 160 ppm
KH: 50 ppm
GH: 85 ppm
Ph: 6.8 (CO2 influenced)
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Phosphate: .50 ppm

As you can see, the readings were pretty much spot on.

Todays water change was 60 gallons. The tank is a 110 gallons minus the 4" substrate comes out to a bit more than a 50% water change. This was all new to the babies in the tank. LOL! They thought their world was coming to an end. They simply manned their hiding places while everything was going on. I just don't have my hands in the tank unless I'm feeding, and they like that!

The parameters that I am getting after a week of not touching the tank, other than 4 to 5 feedings a day, are so good that I will stick with the 50% water change weekly throughout the duration of the contest. I had initial concerns that there might be too much debris accumulation, but I had very little today. I was pretty pleased with that. 7 days, nothing but feedings, and a whole lot of enjoyment! ;)

After the water change was complete, they got some home made beefheart and boy did they tear that up!

Video #1: Eating out of my hand! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxSPLSrERR8)

Video #2: Feeding frenzy! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00ETwUcSRsE)

Notice how well the beefheart stays together! It's a pretty good recipe in my book! Anyway, enjoy the pics, videos and the update!

Best wishes!

[Scribbles]

Looks like the discus and tank are doing great. Your BH mix does hold together well. I bet that cuts down on the mess in the tank. Keep up the good work.

Chris

[Eddie]

Looking good Chad, great videos!


Take care,

Eddie

[fish4fun]

what kind of substarate are you using in the tank? looks great

[gotfish?]

how much BH do you feed daily/weekly?

[calihawker]

You're making it look way to easy Chad! Great videos!!:D

[MRQuad]

that's a nice one..

[Mr Wild]

Looking fantastic Chad!

Love the music to the the feeding frenzie video, makes it all the more scary!!!!!

[zn394]

Love your setup. I am a planted tank lover myself. Can't wait to see how these guys do compared to the bb setups.

Funny how a discus bully is more concerned with keeping the others away from the food than eating it him/herself :). Imagine the amusement watching the same behavior in my tank with the bully being a 2 1/2" runt chasing 3 & 4" fish all over the tank!

[Chad Hughes]

Looks like the discus and tank are doing great. Your BH mix does hold together well. I bet that cuts down on the mess in the tank. Keep up the good work.

Chris

Thanks Chris! Yeah, not too much mess. It holds up nicely!



Looking good Chad, great videos!


Take care,

Eddie

Thanks Eddie!



what kind of substarate are you using in the tank? looks great

That is quickrete play sand from home depot. It's cheap and it looks great!



how much BH do you feed daily/weekly?

They get two beefheart and two seafood feedings daily. I'm not sure on the weight/quantity though. I'll have to weigh one of the feedings to tell you for sure. I feed bloodworm as snacks.



You're making it look way to easy Chad! Great videos!!:D

Steve,

Getting started was the hard part. I'm just enjoying the year now! In fact, I'm on my way to Las Vegas this morning! LOL! Should be a fun weekend!


that's a nice one..

Thanks Marvin!


Looking fantastic Chad!

Love the music to the the feeding frenzie video, makes it all the more scary!!!!!

Thanks Kath! I was trying to find the jaws theme, but no luck. LOL!


Love your setup. I am a planted tank lover myself. Can't wait to see how these guys do compared to the bb setups.

Funny how a discus bully is more concerned with keeping the others away from the food than eating it him/herself :). Imagine the amusement watching the same behavior in my tank with the bully being a 2 1/2" runt chasing 3 & 4" fish all over the tank!

This will be a good test of methods. I too am curious to see the results. It is funny watching them eat. The bully that you see will eat his share and then hover of the food like he dosen't know when his next meal is going to come from. It's funny to watch!

I'm sure you're little one looks crazy chasing all the big guys away! LOL!

Best wishes!

[Larry208]

Chad:

The fish look to be nicely settled in and that tank looks great. So play sand, I will have to keep that in mind when I get around to doing a display tank. The fish look to be doing great, it will be very interesting to see how they do in comparision to the BB tanks. Week one and all is going well!!:)

Larry

[zn394]

So Chad, How do the plants do with the sand? I use flourite and their root sytems are tremendous! I thought sand would be too compact and make it harder for the plants to develope healthy roots. I really like your setup.

[Armandi_Fishcarer]

WoW Chad, I can see how well your Food Mix really does bind together well with no gelatine.
Your w/c ritual should pay off if your tank is keeped in such a fab condition.
You have a bully although the others don't seem to really mind as they are getting in their food intake.
Love the sounds you produce in the vids! :D

Regards
Ahmed ;)

[Chad Hughes]

Chad:

The fish look to be nicely settled in and that tank looks great. So play sand, I will have to keep that in mind when I get around to doing a display tank. The fish look to be doing great, it will be very interesting to see how they do in comparision to the BB tanks. Week one and all is going well!!:)

Larry

Larry, thanks you for your comments and kind words! I too am looking forward to the final scoring of the fish to see how they rate against standard methods.

Best wishes!


So Chad, How do the plants do with the sand? I use flourite and their root sytems are tremendous! I thought sand would be too compact and make it harder for the plants to develope healthy roots. I really like your setup.

ZN394,

Thanks! Yes, I really like my recipe. IT WORKS! The root systems of 1 year old plants are massive. I just rearranged another tank and pulled sword out. The roots were about 10" and there were a million of them. They do well. Thanks for the kind words!


WoW Chad, I can see how well your Food Mix really does bind together well with no gelatine.
Your w/c ritual should pay off if your tank is keeped in such a fab condition.
You have a bully although the others don't seem to really mind as they are getting in their food intake.
Love the sounds you produce in the vids! :D

Regards
Ahmed ;)

Ahmed,

Thanks for the kind words! I have used this water change schedule for a few years now, even on grow outs. It works! My interest is how well does it work against the other methods. We'll see! I'm glad to hear that you like the videos. They're a lot of fun to make!

Best wishes!

[DiscusKev]

Looking forward to see the difference once the challenge finishes between a planted tank and a BB tank. Who will win?

[Chad Hughes]

Looking forward to see the difference once the challenge finishes between a planted tank and a BB tank. Who will win?

Me too! ;)

May the contestant with the best grown discus win! :D

Best wishes!

[dpt8]

Hey Chad, Doesn't take long for people to jump in on these threads. That's due to all the interest we all have in this contest.. :9) I know you have a good filtration system and a very large tank for the discus.. As I stated earlier, I am VERY interested in the outcome of your discus' growth.. I hope your system works and your discus grow out nicely even though they don't have the numerous water changes.. Good luck and hope they get big !! They do love the beefheart !!! David T

[Chad Hughes]

Hey Chad, Doesn't take long for people to jump in on these threads. That's due to all the interest we all have in this contest.. :9) I know you have a good filtration system and a very large tank for the discus.. As I stated earlier, I am VERY interested in the outcome of your discus' growth.. I hope your system works and your discus grow out nicely even though they don't have the numerous water changes.. Good luck and hope they get big !! They do love the beefheart !!! David T

David,

Thanks for the kind words and the support! Honestly I think I see growth already... but that could be from too much staring. LOL! The half way point should give us some pretty good indications as to which methods are working best, but the final product is the one that will be judged. 50 more weeks! LOL!

Best wishes!

[DLock3d]

David,

Thanks for the kind words and the support! Honestly I think I see growth already... but that could be from too much staring. LOL! The half way point should give us some pretty good indications as to which methods are working best, but the final product is the one that will be judged. 50 more weeks! LOL!

Best wishes!

Hey,

I tried to PM you to get your recipe but I guess you don't accept PM's. I'd be interested to see the different FBW mixes that the contestants are using.

[Chad Hughes]

Hey,

I tried to PM you to get your recipe but I guess you don't accept PM's. I'd be interested to see the different FBW mixes that the contestants are using.

Hmmm.... that is odd. I do receive PMs and I get them all the time. Which recipie are you looking for? I have a post that lists the two that I use with the contest fish.

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?t=71454

They are detailed in my food & recipies post. I use FBW sometimes, ut typically as a snack on the weekends when I am home all day. Sorry about the PM thing. Not sure what that's all about!

Best wishes!

[Chad Hughes]

DLock,

To you and anyone else that may have tried to send me a PM without success, I apologize. I received an email from Kath (MrWild) and she stated that she was having the same problem. I was wondering why I was getting email frompeople instead of PMs.

Anyway, the situation has been resolved. Somehow the box called receive email from moderators and contacts only was checked. It's unchecked now. Not sure what hapened! Sorry!

Best wishes!

[Mr Wild]

DLock,

To you and anyone else that may have tried to send me a PM without success, I apologize. I received an email from Kath (MrWild) and she stated that she was having the same problem. I was wondering why I was getting email frompeople instead of PMs.

Anyway, the situation has been resolved. Somehow the box called receive email from moderators and contacts only was checked. It's unchecked now. Not sure what hapened! Sorry!

Best wishes!

Oh great its been fixed! Fell like I can chat more now LOL

[Chad Hughes]

Kath,

Yeah, not sure what happened to get that block checked!

Feel free to PM whenever you like. Let me know if you still have troubles with the PM thing.

Best wishes!

[Mr Wild]

Hey Chad
Have I missed week 3 from you?? Can't seem to find it????

[Chad Hughes]

Oh Kath,

No... I have been so busy that I haven't done it yet! I mean I changed the water but haven't posted the post. LOL! I have it ready to go now. It'll be up tonight! Sorry about that!

Best wishes!