breathing rapid/faded color/in corner/not eating

[willslark]

I dewormed all 5 of my discus 5 days prior
Added three new Corys two days back
all 5 discus went crazy from the rapid activity of the corys, took them out yesterday
3 discus have recovered, one still hiding and this one

temp 84-85
am<.25
nitrite<
.25
nitrate<20ppm

have been changing with RO water every 12 hrs 25% wc

any suggestions

[Sean Buehrle]

I dewormed all 5 of my discus 5 days prior
Added three new Corys two days back
all 5 discus went crazy from the rapid activity of the corys, took them out yesterday
3 discus have recovered, one still hiding and this one

temp 84-85
am<.25
nitrite<
.25
nitrate<20ppm

have been changing with RO water every 12 hrs 25% wc

any suggestions
Hi these guys will help you, but you also have to fill out the questionaire. its in the stickys part of this forum, copy and paste it.

[Skip]

How old is ur tank.. U are showing .25 ammonia.. What water conditioner are u using?

[Melissa]

First thing to do in a Nitrite Emergency is add 2 tablespoons aquarium salt per 10 gallons.

It sounds like your tank is not cycled my friend, in a cycled tank you will have no Ammonia or Nitrite because you should have an established colony of beneficial bacteria that takes care of harmful things like that... Although, you are also showing readings of Nitrate which is the byproduct of that whole cycle so perhaps it is cycled? Maybe your filter crashed?

Why are you using straight RO? If you are not trying to breed, you should know that domestic discus do very well in conditioned tap water. When I say conditioned, I mean treated with a dechlorinating product like 'Prime' or 'AmQuel+'....

[Melissa]

Straight RO water is stripped of all minerals and buffers, everything is filtered out, and it is very unstable... Meaning the PH can swing like crazy which will certainly stress out your fish.... What keeps the PH stable is having a certain amount of buffers in the water... So straight RO water is never recommended for keeping fish, unless you are remineralizing it with proper minerals to keep your fish happy and healthy and to keep the water 'stable'.

[Melissa]

Forgot to ask, what do you feed them?
What made you deworm them?
How long have you had them and how big are they?

[willslark]

None I use all RO (change 30% normally every 3 or 4 days with RO), ammonia almost gone now due to water changes and not feeding two and the other 3 very little. Nitrates are down to between 10 and 20 ppm.

I'm about to do a water change 20 gals with 15 being RO, and trying a mixture with 5 gal tap with Aqueon water conditioner. I've noticed my ro is 6.4 and my tank is 6.8 and my tap is 7.4 ph.... what do you think?

I changed 50% water Sunday night, 100% yesterday in two changes after RO regenerated. and am planning another plus 100% today with 20% tap conditioned

[Skip]

How old is tank... Ro should not show ammonia

[willslark]

Had about a month no problems until Sunday. They have been growing well, about 3 inches.

I was at the store where I bought them and asked about something I read on worming (person had just got discus, everything fine, but he wormed and found out his had worms even though they looked well). The store told me that a preventative dose about every 4 months would be OK. I used Seachem Metronidazole, in their food a small amount about Friday of last week.

I been feeding blood worms and beef Heart (San Francisco frozen)

[willslark]

No ammonia in RO, in tank and probably from Sunday had spike due to activity of corys and dicus stress not eating

Tank 4 months old

[willslark]

Does adding 25% to RO with conditioner help.

My tap water is 7.4 to 7.6 ph and hard

[judy]

the Ph is of no importance here. Do 90% water changes at least once daily (twice if necessary) until you get your ammonia AND nitrite to zero (and test twice daily to make sure those paramaters are stable), and to get your nitrates down to below 10. Your discus are reacting to bad water quality.
You may also be overfeeding. Beef heart, if left uneaten, fouls a tank VERY quickly.

[Eddie]

I'd skip using RO entirely, why are you using it? 7.4 - 7.6 is perfect