Hoping for a breeding pair!

[Yashua]

Here is a 40 second clip of the tank
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=408499080078

Hi Guys,
My name is Josh and I recently moved back home where my dad had a 80G salt water that wasn't doing so well after a sea apple died and blew up (nothing usually survives). Well we decided to switch it over to freshwater and since my dad had discus before he wanted to get a small shoal, but he also wanted it a community tank so we have
Discus - 9
Red Tail Tetras - 16
T-Bone Tetras - 13
Glow light tetras - 10
Head and Tail Tetras - 2
Cardinal - 1 (had 10 :mad:) they got eaten at night
Golden algae eaters - 2 (I know now that I need to get those guys out of there b/c of the eating of the slime coat... they are just fast now haha.
Pocostomus - 1
Well I didn't know anything when we started but it seems that I am going to be taking on more of the care ;) which is fine by me since I have fallen in love with these 9. Since starting to educate myself I wanted to point my tank in the direction of pairing some of these discus and after reading a lot of posts here I respect this forums ability to help people :)
So my real question is what would be my best step to help these guys pair up. Here is more of the info that I am sure you will ask for eventually :)

4. Tank size and age, number and size of fish

80 Gallon that has only been in operation for 2 months, we acquired water conditions by the schools of Tetras we threw in... To this date we have only lost one red tail tetra and 9 cardinals to the discus... the cardinals thou were smaller than everyone and we threw in 5 more after discus probably prompting chasing and consumption.
My discus range from 2.5in - 4in. I have 3 blue discus and 4 red and yellow discus and 2 blue and red with black stripes... sorry like I said I am new and I do not know the names of these fish it would be great if I could get some insight on them.


5. Water change regime/ how long has tank been running/ bare bottom or gravel/ do you age your water?

I change about 20% every week it's a gravel bottom, and we have basin in the garage that has hot water so I made marks and warm my water up to 84 degrees and add Prime and Nutrafin Cycle, Flourish excel ( for some of our plants ), Kent Marine R/O Right, Discus Buffer (only when needed and right now I am not sure where to take it.). I had ICK early one and I got a product called Aquari-Sol.. it says it's a mild protozoan Ingredients are soluble copper salts and I put that in and it cleared up ick without destroying my plants but I have been using it in a regular fashion as a preventative... should I continue this one?
I feed them Frozen Blood worms, Frozen Brine Shrimp, Frozen BH (LFS Brand), TetraMin flakes - if I put some flakes in a cup and water log them first the discus will eat them as long as I put it before the blood worms... since it is a big community nothing is left on the bottom.. in fact nothing makes it to the bottom. I feed them either twice a day or three times a day with lighter feedings to change the food up.


6 Parameters and water source; Measured with an API Master test kit.

- temp __83.5 (night) - 85 (Peak Day)___

- ph __6.9-7.0___

- ammonia reading __0__

- nitrite reading __0__

- nitrate reading _.20___ (I just took this test before submitting so I am going to do a water change.)

- well water __No__

- municipal water __yes__

7. Any new fish/plants added recently
NO
__________________________________
Well thats it... I did have an interesting development... one of my big blue discus got really dark and went into the corner... it's not eating at feed times but I watch my tank for an hour some times and I can see it come out and grab at stuff in the ground. In addition the the color change it's pushing away other fish that come into it's corner... I don't see any bite marks it just looks like it's chasing them away... I am getting concerned now after reading some
posts talking about being wary of color fading discus in the corner... this did happen after I was standing above the tank for maint in morning with lights off and they all started to dart and swim really fast until I moved away... all the other fish are doing better than good because the colors are enveloping their whole body. Not sure why this is but I can see my nitrates are up so i am going to do a water change and just add some prime to it.

Thanks for the time to read all that :)

[Yashua]

I have an update on one of my cobalt blue discus... It's turned black and only hides in corner on feeding times, but swims around with the shoal... What is the reason for this? Thank you.

[Disgirl]

Hi Josh, welcome to SD! I think nobody has responded to your request for help/info. due to the fact that there is a whole lot to discuss here. First thing I see is you have way too many fish in your tank. That tank is barely big enough for just the discus to say nothing of all the other fish, gravel, possible health issues, etc. First of all, you need to do at least a 50% water change daily, keep the temp at the same, no fluctuating at night, and for the time being, stop adding any liquid other than clean water to the tank. No meds, no ferts, no buffers, nothing but clean warm water and a dechlorinator, half changed every day! Discus are a whole lot of work with water changing and good foods and a very clean tank. So much gunk gathers in the gravel to make young discus sick. I know you are probably overwhelmed with all this but try just clean warm water and good foods and see if they do better. And ask questions here, we will help you!
Barb:)

[mmorris]

Well put Barb. Sound advice. All of it. :)

[danny2013]

Hi Josh, welcome to SD! I think nobody has responded to your request for help/info. due to the fact that there is a whole lot to discuss here. First thing I see is you have way too many fish in your tank. That tank is barely big enough for just the discus to say nothing of all the other fish, gravel, possible health issues, etc. First of all, you need to do at least a 50% water change daily, keep the temp at the same, no fluctuating at night, and for the time being, stop adding any liquid other than clean water to the tank. No meds, no ferts, no buffers, nothing but clean warm water and a dechlorinator, half changed every day! Discus are a whole lot of work with water changing and good foods and a very clean tank. So much gunk gathers in the gravel to make young discus sick. I know you are probably overwhelmed with all this but try just clean warm water and good foods and see if they do better. And ask questions here, we will help you!
Barb:)
+1,the water changes are really important you need to do much more than 20% a week if you can do at least 20% daily.

[Yashua]

Thanks guys... Yeah a bit overwhelmed it's now got a green tinge and my dad said it's an algae bloom... I want to do more water changes but am clueless to how the users here do so much water changing. Room is a factor and I can't put a drum next to my tank... Any suggestions please?

[Eddie]

Thanks guys... Yeah a bit overwhelmed it's now got a green tinge and my dad said it's an algae bloom... I want to do more water changes but am clueless to how the users here do so much water changing. Room is a factor and I can't put a drum next to my tank... Any suggestions please?


Have you tried aging/aerating your water 24 hours to see if the PH changes drastically? If it does not change much from aging, you might be able to use straight tap water. Use a python or something similar, to fill fast. Is there a door or window near your tank? If so, you can just manually drain out of the tank, directly out the door or window.

Also, DEFINITELY stop the continuous treatment using aquarisol. Most medications should only be used when needed and constant treatment can be toxic to the fish.


Eddie

[Yashua]

Thanks Eddie I will check the ph after airing the water ( I thought it was the chlorine I was to worry about Eddie). We are definitely planning to drain straight to outside and from that same line we are going to fill... My problem is my dad wanted to fill a 10 gal tank under the tank and leave it overnight, which is moving in the right direction but from what I'm reading now I see I need way more than that 10 gal... Eddie I would love to fill my tank straight from tap... Could you tell me what to look for on what's harmful and I will check my tap... Thanks again guys.... I've stopped all meds and adding things and I'm just doing water changes right now.

[mmorris]

Check the ph out of the tap. Aerate some water in a bucket for 24 hours. Liz once suggested that the ph should get no more than 0.3 point higher. (Hope I got that right!) If it is higher than this, your water will need to be aged. I only need to age my water a few hours. I have a pump on a python hose so I can put my barrel where I have room.

[Yashua]

Can you explain that ph thing a little more in depth? I guess what u mean by .3 change in ph... How do you judge how many hours your water needs to be aged.

[DerekFF]

Yashua welcome to SD. Heres what I personally would do in your situation your in as of right now.
1. change more water. Barbs 50% is a good benchmark, but not everyone has the time/money/capability for that much water. Your dads 10gal tank idea would be fine as 10g/80g is 12.5% daily water change. Maybe on the weekends do the 10g water change twice a day to help make up for the week. Its important that you gravel vaccume daily and in the time it takes you to gravel vac...youll suck about 10g so it should work out nicely.
2. Aging water is important if your water changes a lot when aged. .5 isnt a big swing with smaller water changes, and some argue .5 isnt a big deal at all. But for this case and your understanding, water contains CO2 (carbon dioxide) High CO2 means lower PH (im not a pro but im pretty sure this is right) So by adding aeration to your water your replacing/removing the CO2 from the water thus raising the PH of your water, usually a small amount. Personally i dont age, a lot do, ive never had an issue as mine swings .4 and 24 hours is PLENTY of time for your water to age completly
3. Algae control=bushy/bristle nose plecos....get 2.
4. As eddie said stop all med dosing. No buffers, no meds, no ferts. Discus love the clean water, and if you suck all the poo and left over food outta the gravel nightly....should help a lot.
5. It looks like you have 8 discus total with a lot of dink tetras. I think that stock level is ok as long as your filtration is good and you keep on a new and improved water change regime ;-)
Good luck Yashua, hope i helped. There are lots of people here to help you, come back and ask questions away!

[mmorris]

Can you explain that ph thing a little more in depth? I guess what u mean by .3 change in ph... How do you judge how many hours your water needs to be aged.

You won't need to age it more than a day. You can test the ph out of the tap, and then test it every few hours. At some point, the ph won't change.