Latest discus project

[thecarl]

Here's a photo, not a great one since oxygen is running right now and it's daytime outside so lots of glass glare. The tank isn't so happy right now due to medications and such. Plants don't look good but everyone is eating.

 

[dleblanc]

Your plants look great! Nothing to complain about there. I run about double the number of air stones they recommend in most of my tanks after being able to find out my actual DO levels. Even a well planted tank can run low - we have a 20 that is mostly small fish and a lot of plants, and it was down around 2.5 mg/L when I first tested it. I was amazed the fish were alive. A problem with a heavily planted tank is that debris gets stuck in there - your biological oxygen demand (BOD) comes from fish breathing, the nitrogen cycle, and plant matter breaking down, so it is possible to have both lots of plants and low DO. Only tank that I don't aerate is the one with the sump - not needed.

I have a completely bare tank I use for treating fish - that way I can treat without regard to plants and I can do a nearly 100% water change. It also lets me see how much and whether the sick fish is eating.

 

[thecarl]

Yeah, 20 long has a bare bottom for that too, but when most of the fish are sick....

 

[MattArmstrong]

Carl, do you bother with crushed coral or worrying about KH in your Discus tanks? I see you're in Shoreline. I'm in Kirkland, and I assume we have the same water (1-2 degrees hardness, both KH and GH).

In "regular" tanks I see the point of crushed coral to avoid PH crashes, but in Discus tanks the water is changed so much it probably doesn't matter, right?

 

[thecarl]

Yeah, not to much, I have a tiny bit of crushed coral in the filters. Water remains fairly soft but it keeps a little bit of alkalinity so there's some buffer. I also use an inline water filter when I do water changes to remove the chlorine and other crap in the water, so once it goes in the tank it's very soft.