My discus setup

@Reedfish no ways man, don't give up on discus!! Your tank is by far the nicest looking I've seen on TASA and an inspiration to us all.

 

@Tetra try out Seachem Safe instead of Seachem Prime, you can treat more than 3 times the the volume of water with Safe instead of Prime.

 

I've made up a carbon filter to filter the tap water. Once it's up and running I will post some pictures. Just waiting for to glue and silicon to dry.

Ive ve read a other thread just now about the nitrate level of tap water in Pretoria that should be around 20. I think I need to buy a new test kit. The one I'm using shows our Pretoria tap water is lower than 10. What is the best test kit's to buy?

ive seen test kit that test everything comes with a box with all the test solutions. I think Tetra makes it. Then they've got one that's a dip stick with all the things to test for on one stick. How accurate are these dip sticks?

 

It's difficult to say which test kits are good and which are bad, unless you have a test solution to compare to. I've always used Salifert as they have a good reputation.

 

Hi @Tetra

Hope you are well. Didnt hear from you again? Did you manage to get the carbon filter thing sorted out?

Not quite following what you mean the Nitrate level of PTA water?

Dont bother with the tetra test kits. They are expensive and properly useless.

What do you wish to test?

Rgds

Marco

 

Hi Marco

All good thank you. My discus fish is appearing to beter of now, the one that's stunted intends to socialize more now that there is four discus in the tank. One of the new red ones is a little shy at times but they all swim together for feeding time. The other red one is all good he eats well and looks confident.

i had a look at the mail you've send me with the carbon filter you use to filter tap water to prep water before you do a water change. I've put a carbon filter together to prep tap water for a water change. Now I want to test the water before and after the carbon filter to see if it's working. Thank you for that mail.

The 20 I'm talking about is the ppm Nitrate of tap water. I've read in another thread where you said in a post that the ppm of nitrate in Pretoria tap water is a approximate 20 ppm. The test kit I'm using measures my tank and tap water the same almost 5 but lower than 10ppm. So I'm assuming my test kit isn't working anymore.

How do you test your waters NO3 and NO2?

 

Update on my setup.

I've made up a carbon filter. Place a fine spunch on the outlet side, filled 3/4 up with carbon and placed another spunch at the inlet side to keep the carbon compact and then refill with the tap water just open to allow for a slow flow through the filter. The water in my tank us much clearer after the making use of the carbon filter.

I got hold of Metronidazole to treat my discus and gave them blood worms to feed tonight.

They all are much more active after the WC and after feeding the blood worms I could see change on there behavior.

Once again thank you for everybody's advice it really helps to get advice of the forum.

Ill add pic of the filter and a pic of my tank again.

once my Discusse is healthy again I'll update a pic again.

 

Must say plant growth is awesome looks nice. Its your tank and you are supposed to enjoy it.

 

Are you filling directly from the hose,through this filter into the tank?

 

Previously I just filled it up straight from the tap. But on this thread I had a lot of critcs about my water change.

From all the post on this thread the option where
1. to I either prime the water for a change
2. or some guys prepair there water by filtering it through carbon filter similar to mine for 24 hours before they do a water change and replacing the carbon every 5000liter.

Then I decided that the prime option for 250 liter with every 50% water change is going to cost me to much and decided to go the carbon filter way. Instead of purchasing a 250liter container and a pump to circulate the water to have more contact with the carbon I tried out the bigger carbon filter to have more carbon with the water and open the tap just alittle to have longer contact with the carbon as well. It's maybe not the best way yet but I can see the diffrence already after my first water change. So it's already better then just straight tap water.

ive found a company that sells a filter where they have two different types of carbon filters that you can use to remove carbon and other chemicals. The setup cost is R1200 and replacing the filters is R65 every 3 months for the one and R400 for the other once a year. For a R1700 you can put a extra canister in with I think it's a 0.1 micron cotton type filter to clear the water more.So I'm planning on getting one of these filters. If you have container and a loose pump to use then the self buidlt filter can work.

But in the mean while I'm going to use my own DIY filter and keep the thread updated if anything changes.

if you interested in the filtering setup let me know I can see if I can get a better price if we a couple of guys purchase a filter set ups at once.

 

If running water through the filter once removes all chlorine and chloramine,then this is indeed a great alternative to water conditioner.
I thought for this to be effective,one needs to setup a tank and filter through the carbon several times over a certain period of time.
Does a 50% water change with cold tap water in winter not temperature shock your discus?

 

Tetra, nicely designed layout.

As you are well aware, Discus are very finicky, they like certain parameters, and are also easily bred in all glass systems.
As mentioned planted systems are difficult to keep.
I notice you are using plants, from different eco systems!
This in my book is wrong ~ Allelopathy again!
Your water preparation should maybe include peat to help increase the tannins in the water and darken it,increase the amount of wood in a discus tank as well to assist with the bacteria and the filtration, also increase the plant growth ~ try natural co2 injection!
Reduce artificial light. ~ Use only "cool" white lamps.

Ensure you don't have high traffic passing your discus tank (they are shy fish)

Are you keeping brazilian wild fish or are they hybrids from the far east?

Many points to consider!!

 

Alleloparthy in a planted aquarium? I've never heard of this being significant or even noticeable?
I thought peat was used to reduce ph?
What types of light, other than sunlight would not be artificial?
All glass systems? As opposed to?

Some curious observations. No doubt you have reasons for making them.

 

looks fabulous man, just freaking stunning.

 

Broder, my limited experience with natural river sand/gravel and using plants from the same eco system (amazon) never gave me issues.
Previously mixed (asian/amazonian) aquatic plants gave me sporadic if not stunted and limited growth.
I did use Java moss and Anubias species (malaysian) fastened to the wood. I did get good results with them. Other plants were amazon sword plants in different varieties and smaller sword plants & grasses. Loads of mopani wood and raw river/mountain rock.

Peat was used in the substrate as a fertilizer, also utilised in a 1000ltr tank outside to condition water, for water changes.
Lighting used were basic 'cool whites', utilised at night for short periods. Tanks position: Setting sunlight, with curtaining on the windows (during the day)
Algae growth minimum if any. Home made co2 injection.(brewers yeast/brown sugar)
Filtration was a basic weir filter, no carbon used!
Tank capacity was +/- 850ltrs

@ Reedfish, they are shy, and very tough, but to breed with them they must become your friends!

Other criteria I discovered was that the aquarium should have sufficient height and depth, to accomodate your interior design, always allowing sufficient area for fish to congreate and or hide/shelter, as well as areas to swim freely.
This criteria to be considered in the construction of the aquarium.

That was all a very long ago, my records are stored somewhere on a cd. I hope to restart where I left off.

 

I've used my filter for the 4th time today and my tank has never been this clear, it looks if it is working. My only concern is a in a month or two when tap water is going to be much colder. My temp drops to 24/25 after a water change but it's probably going to drop more with winter water. I'll make a plan when I get there.

Psy thanks for all your points will keep it in mind next time I make changes to my WC. I'm using pressure CO2 and my moss and Java moss grows without stop. My Amazon took some time to settle in but it's going again. The crypto also grows well but it where more the burgundy colour in my previous tank. The HM struggles abit with loosing leaves in there bottom half but with a 600 deep tank you struggle to get sufcient light to the bottom, unless money isn't a problem to buy proper LED lights.

Ive got another thread in planted tanks. " My new planted tank" there you will be able to see the progress on my planted tank.

About the inline filter I was talking about in previous post I'll make some work from it again next week to find out if it removes chlorine and chloramine and will let you know.

 

Some good news on my setup again.

The skinny Discus is picking up some weight. It's colour is also looking beter.

Al 4 of them swims in the front around and when feeding I hold the pallets between my fingers where they nip it out.

Ive ve treated my tank with Metronidazole but with the wrong one Flagyl Suspension formula. The water where very cloudy and after a few WC all cleared up again. All fish,plants and shrimp survived but it looks if it gave the algea a go. I've got much less algea after the treatment.

Now that my shrimps numbers increase it looks if my tank became s'more clear as well. They helping a lot to clean up.

Will post a picture again.