Chicago Discus owners

[mysphit]

I'm new to keeping discus and am currently cycling a 125 that will end up as a planted / show tank. I am not new to plants though. The setup will be mediumish light and no co2 unless we go DYI with it.

What I would really like to know is what precautions / steps do the chicago discus owners do to treat the water if anything for water changes? The last thing I want to do is introduce the fish and end up killing them due to a wc.


All other pointers are welcome as well such as where you end up getting your discus from. I have my eye on one vendor from the chicago area cichlid swap currently coming up in Dec. If you have any juveniles for sale and are reasonable with the prices feel free to PM me as well.

-Ken

[Squiggy]

Hi Ken..

I'm in the northwest. I age my water at least 12 hours with aeration. From the tap I get 7.5 PH but it climbs to 8.5 after aeration. My TDS is 165 from the tap so I mix with RO for the breeders.
What part of the city are you from?

Joe

[Polar_Bear]

I have some juveniles you can have cheap.

You need no special precautions for either fish or plants, just a good dechlor.

[crazie.eddie]

I live in the south suburbs, but our water is Lake Michigan water. I keep discus, angels, clowns, and plecos in my 125 gallon. Using Python No-Spill, I normally perform close to 50% WC and use regular tap water when adding water back in. I add Prime immediately into the tank as the water enters.

[Elite Aquaria]

If you have any juveniles for sale and are reasonable with the prices feel free to PM me as well.

-Ken

Ken,

I have some Juvies for sale...I sent you a PM a few days ago.

[Tropical Haven]

I add Prime immediately into the tank as the water enters.

I would try to get a holding tank instead of this method, since you are using Lake Michigan water then you have chloramines and I would break up that bond and get rid of it before introducing water into your tank.

[mysphit]

Thanks for the responses guys. For whatever reason I did not get an email telling me I have a PM from this forum... I need to change that. <-- Fixed now.

I believe I replied to all the PM's. Thanks for the warm welcome! I live on the NorthWest side of Chicago near Harlem and Foster, but I work in Deerfield. I also have family and friends on the south side and western suburbs so I am familiar with most of the suburbs that I see everyone from.

-Ken

[RandalB]

Not all lake Michigan water has Chloramines in it. It depends on your water utility and how they process it. I was on the south side (Burbank) and ran right from the tap with a squirt of dechlor for years with no problems. A call to the local water utility will tell you one way or the other.

Other than the Chloramine issue, I always found my tap water to be very stable on the pH end of things and I even got my BD's to spawn sucessfully in it 2x times (not a lot of babies however...). The params: pH 7.8, kH 6, gH 8 178-225PPM TDS

HTH,
RandalB

[Polar_Bear]

Yep! Randal has it. Joe, Harriett, Butch, Bill, and I all have chlorine in our water and all of us get our water from Lake Michigan.

[crazie.eddie]

Prime does bind with Chlorine in found in Chloramine. As we all, removing chlorine from chloramines results with ammonia. Fortunately, Prime also binds/neutralizes/etc. with the ammonia.