Water Changes

[Christople]

Hi all, I am getting from a 75 gallon tank to a 100 gallon tank (looking on craigslist) and plan to stock eight adult discus in it with six german ram. After the tank is established with all the plants and the cycle is complete, would a 50% weekly water change be enough to keep the discus happy? The reason I'm wondering is I'm looking up stuff and seeing people do 50% WC every day which is extreme over kill if the tank is established and stocked decently. How often do you guys do water changes with your adult discus and what size is considered adult.

[walt3]

my tank has been running for 8 months now and i do 1/3 total volume every day as a water change. 75 gallon with 5 adults plus 2 dozen tetras and 9 cories 3 plecos and plants. gravel vac every 3 days in addition to the changes. dont think 50 percent a week sounds like enough. jmho.

[Sean Buehrle]

Hi all, I am getting from a 75 gallon tank to a 100 gallon tank (looking on craigslist) and plan to stock eight adult discus in it with six german ram. After the tank is established with all the plants and the cycle is complete, would a 50% weekly water change be enough to keep the discus happy? The reason I'm wondering is I'm looking up stuff and seeing people do 50% WC every day which is extreme over kill if the tank is established and stocked decently. How often do you guys do water changes with your adult discus and what size is considered adult.

There's no such thing as overkill when it comes to discus and water changes . 50 percent daily is on the low end.
I would get that thought out of your head right away, cause your totally wrong. No offense intended :)

Do a search on planted tank vs bb and save yourself and everyone else's time on this subject.

There must be 5 threads on the subject in the last two months.

Good luck.

[discus day]

-1.5" are fry and should have multiple 90%+ wc daily
2-3.5" are juvies and requires 50%+ daily
4-5" is considered sub adults can be mix with planted tanks and requires 75% every 2-3 day
5.5"+ are consider adults and need atleast 1 90%+ a week 2 would be better

[Christople]

Yes but there is no way that seven discus produce enough waste that 50% water change is need daily, I'm not saying it's detrimental but it is not necessary; people with two oscars don't do 50% percent daily and are fine with weekly, which oscars are fat filthy fish who eat every thing and produce enormous amounts of waste. There is no way discus can produce that much waste to need 95%(unless you have fry growing out) daily water changes or even 50. IMO it's a waste of time,water and money. Just try doing one water change in one week and test all your parameters and I bet that they will be fine, unless you grossly over feed, have a uncycled tank or a bb tank.

Taking a guess and saying most of the discus keepers have a pH of below 7, the ammonia from the get go becomes a less potent chemical ammonium which plants will gobble up like candy, though they prefer nitrogen fertilizers. Any remaining ammonium that wasn't used by the plants will undergo the nitrifying cycle and will end up as nitrate which is least toxic of the three (though still not good) will be used up by plants or removed by WC. I have a 38 gallon with a pelvicachromis taeniatus pair, 3 botia loaches, bristlenose pleco, 4 pangio khulis, 12 hemmigrammus bleheris, 6 guppies, and 3 corydoras and only do one weekly WC and the ammonia nitrite and nitrate are always 0.

The type of the plant in the aquarium also plays a role in WC because stem plants are ravenous feeders compared to say echordinus bleheri or other swords or root plants. The stem plants feed directly from the water absorbing the waste and other nutrients that I won't go into detail so say hornwort, in a sump will prove to be a very effective filter reducing the need for WC. Granted fish hormones and urine and pheromones don't get absorbed by plants they do not gather in such quantity so quickly that 50% daily water changes are necessary so there really isn't a reason to them.

[Christople]

I agree with discus day, they posted whilst I was typing

[discus day]

Yes but there is no way that seven discus produce enough waste that 50% water change is need daily, I'm not saying it's detrimental but it is not necessary; people with two oscars don't do 50% percent daily and are fine with weekly, which oscars are fat filthy fish who eat every thing and produce enormous amounts of waste. There is no way discus can produce that much waste to need 95%(unless you have fry growing out) daily water changes or even 50. IMO it's a waste of time,water and money. Just try doing one water change in one week and test all your parameters and I bet that they will be fine, unless you grossly over feed, have a uncycled tank or a bb tank.

oscars dont stuntas easily as discus. discus are alot more sensitive than most other fish. they produce ALOT of wastes since youre feeding more than you would oscars. theyre also eat alot more beefheart than oscars and lets me tell you beef hearts are messy. imo the work comes with the fish. its your tank so noone can tell you how much water change you need to do, we can only simply advice you that more is always better and wc is one of those that follows it. do you flush your toilet everytime you go or do you only flush once a day?

[ShinShin]

Well, without intending to insult anyone here, discus day's a little off on what he/she thinks an adult discus needs. 1st of all, planning your stocking the way you are, 100 gal tank would be minimum. 2ndly, if you feel all this w/c business is overkill, maybe you ought to consider another species of cichlids that aren't so needy.

There are people here telling you something that they have found out over years of raising discus, yet you choose to believe someone that says what you want to hear, and you have not ever raised a discus, have you?

Mat

[discus day]

Well, without intending to insult anyone here, discus day's a little off on what he/she thinks an adult discus needs. 1st of all, planning your stocking the way you are, 100 gal tank would be minimum. 2ndly, if you feel all this w/c business is overkill, maybe you ought to consider another species of cichlids that aren't so needy.

There are people here telling you something that they have found out over years of raising discus, yet you choose to believe someone that says what you want to here, and you have not ever raised a discus, have you?

Mat

care to correct me then please? cant really point out a flaw and not correct it :( just trying to learn i am no expert never claim to be just throwing my opinion in the air

[TURQ64]

Here we go again..."friggin' idiots reinventing the wheel', take 98...rollin'...

[discus day]

Here we go again..."friggin' idiots reinventing the wheel', take 98...rollin'...

thats uncall for. this forum was ment to help people if you didnt want to help why sign up? if you want to talk about discus why go to the beginner section? if you do go here why bother commenting something that isnt helpful?

[Christople]

Seriously you are a DB!!! my friend, join a forum or not, no ones forcing you. Also what I said was true, though I am no expert on discus, I am not a dumb *** and know how things work including what I said; I don't know much on discus though.

Now back to the nice helpful people, Could you, for me, just wait three days to do a water change and then tell me what your parameters are.

[Christople]

Here we go again..."friggin' idiots reinventing the wheel', take 98...rollin'...

While were on a wheel you're on your own lonely rotating square. And who are you calling a idiot, who are you to judge, you are no better than I or any other, God created men equal. Plus this is in the beginner section, so don't click on it if you hate me for however stupid you think I am, though I am acing all my classing exceeding all my standards and planning to be a radioligist.

[Christople]

Well, without intending to insult anyone here, discus day's a little off on what he/she thinks an adult discus needs. 1st of all, planning your stocking the way you are, 100 gal tank would be minimum. 2ndly, if you feel all this w/c business is overkill, maybe you ought to consider another species of cichlids that aren't so needy.

There are people here telling you something that they have found out over years of raising discus, yet you choose to believe someone that says what you want to here, and you have not ever raised a discus, have you?

Mat I don't eel it is wrong I feel it is just unnecessary, and I didn't een see what Discus Day had said until after I posted. I'm going off of what I know and what I have learned with my other fish and other forums. And no I am a beginner to discus and starting to learn, well before I get my tank so I am prepared. But I really would like one of you to try and wait three days before doing a water change for 3 days and then test the parameters of the water

[TURQ64]

excuse me, let me hold your hand, and agree with every wrong concept evry newbie comes along with..

[applekrate]

Hey guys the wheel was already reinvented--its on the dyson vacuum-....;)

[Doc_Polit]

excuse me, let me hold your hand, and agree with every wrong concept evry newbie comes along with..

You have never been a newbie, made mistakes or had something to learn? What a privilege for the rest of us to be in your company.

Your positive contributions beg for forum staff to make you a mentor, I'm sure.

Whether I agree or disagree with the advice given thus far is irrelevant at this point. Your attitude stinks. As others have said, if you are so overly knowledgeable, why not frequent a section other than "Beginners"? Blowhard Corner sounds fitting.

[ShinShin]

discus day - Look, I am not picking on you but if you don't know, why offer up absurdity? What are you basing your "opinion" on? Discus are expensive, demanding fish and you are willing to tell someone who has never raised discus what he needs to do, admitting later that you, in fact, really do not know. This has become the norm around here these days, the blind leading the blind. What is more amazing is that then the blind are sharp shooting the people who know what the hell they are doing. Soon, there will be need for a forum, because it is okay to do anything, feed anything, breed anything you want. Meanwhile Hans, Mike, Kenny and all the rest of the sponsors are just drooling over all the new discus they will be selling to replace all the dead ones you all are going to have. If you do not know, do not tell, ask!

[ShinShin]

Turq,

Thanks for taking the heat off of me. LOL

[ShinShin]

Christople,

I have and so has Turq. We have been around a long time. There is more than measuring ammonia, nitrite and nitrate here. Learn about discus and their requirements. I am always telling people to buy books from the experts and find this crap out. How many of these people throwing out advice know about Jack Wattley and what he's done? Dr.Schmidt-Focke and what he did? What Schimdt-Focke and Wattley did together? Know who Gobel and Degen are? How Many have read a book like Discus for the Perfectionist and see how a bunch of real experts from around the world have to say about many topics regarding caring for, breeding, treat and feeding discus? Water changes, etc? When they have, then applied these concepts into their discus and have seen why, then offer someting up. A lot of posts next to your name doesn't mean jack without the experience to back it up.

Mat

[johnnathan]

All

Enough. I will close the thread.