Med or not to med?

[srusso]

Hey all, I though of another thing that I wanted to ask all of you smart people! So I have a 55gal planted tank, running for three years now. I have an angel groumi and a bunch of kribensis. I will be giving all these fish to the LFS (a good one) they will be getting me 6 discus from hans, so my question is...

Should I treat the tank with any meds before I put the discus in?
I have not had to treat the fish I have for anything in over 2+ years... with that track record would it be smart to med or not to med that is the question...

[mmorris]

I don't know what you would use...pp would kill off parasites but there tends to be a higher organic load in a planted tank so the pp burns off too quickly. If I were getting juvies and I had a planted community tank, I would not only give away all of the fish but I would give away all of the plants too, strip that tank right down and steralize it with bleach. Oh wait - that IS what I did. :D Once the juvies are adult, you could then add substrate and plant again.

[srusso]

I will never be able to do that in a million years... my wife would never let me remove everything from the tank... Is it really impossiable to grow discus out in a planted tank? I am getting them at 3+" is that still make them Jrs.?

[srusso]

Ok. Maybe she would if I put the plants in pots. I could then keep my plants alive... How does it take to grow out 3"+ discus?

[Chad Hughes]

Martha makes some valid points however I have done the exact opposite and had great results. There is no way that you can avoid a bacterial issue in the tank, but parasites could be dealt with by just leaving the tank dormant for a couple of weeks. Parasites require a host. If there are no living organisms other than plants in the tank, parasites shouldn't stand a chance. Now, if you get the fish and encounter a bacterial issue, then you will have to deal with that then.

Here's the thing....

Even if you did clear the tank of everything and sterilize it you could still have problems, but it's in a MORE controlled environment. Less variables. It's all about risk management. Do you try to eliminate every possible issue that COULD cause a problem or do you bite the bullet and, based on your knowledge of your healthy tank, take the plunge? It's a personal choice. I am a planted tank lover as well. I have done just what you would like to do more times than I can count (contest tank included) and have never had an issue.

Word of caution... If you are using CO2 in your planted tank, watch your discus very closey for the first 24 to 48 hours. The first thing that you want to do if there are any issues with behavior is shut down the CO2 and perform a water change.

3" fish will take the better part of a year to grow out.

My avatar is a 2 year adult marlboro raised up from 3" in a fully planted tank his whole life. He's never been ill and is now a 7" fatty! He's a happy camper. :)

Just my $.02. Hope that helps!

[srusso]

Martha makes some valid points however I have done the exact opposite and had great results. There is no way that you can avoid a bacterial issue in the tank, but parasites could be dealt with by just leaving the tank dormant for a couple of weeks. Parasites require a host. If there are no living organisms other than plants in the tank, parasites shouldn't stand a chance. Now, if you get the fish and encounter a bacterial issue, then you will have to deal with that then.

Here's the thing....

Even if you did clear the tank of everything and sterilize it you could still have problems, but it's in a MORE controlled environment. Less variables. It's all about risk management. Do you try to eliminate every possible issue that COULD cause a problem or do you bite the bullet and, based on your knowledge of your healthy tank, take the plunge? It's a personal choice. I am a planted tank lover as well. I have done just what you would like to do more times than I can count (contest tank included) and have never had an issue.

Word of caution... If you are using CO2 in your planted tank, watch your discus very closey for the first 24 to 48 hours. The first thing that you want to do if there are any issues with behavior is shut down the CO2 and perform a water change.

3" fish will take the better part of a year to grow out.

My avatar is a 2 year adult marlboro raised up from 3" in a fully planted tank his whole life. He's never been ill and is now a 7" fatty! He's a happy camper. :)

Just my $.02. Hope that helps!


It really does help, my wife nearly lost it when I told her the potted plant thing... :mad: :mad: :mad: "Its going to look ugly!" "Your going to kill all the fish!" :argue: blah blah blah!!!

So I think I will try it out in a planted tank... Thanks for the vote of confidence! If everything starts to go wrong I will rip everything out even the plants.
Could you tell me your WC schedule?

Do you clean the sand/gravel everyday?

[srusso]

also it turns out that the tank will run without fish for a week. Going to add some peatmoss too..