converting from Africans to discus? hell yea!:spoton
really did anyone think id leave this one alone?) ive got two discus tanks, and neither use co2, theyre a bit more sparsely planed now than befoe...I go in phases...sometimes I prefer underwater jungles, now im moving more toward more open swimming space...I have a co2 setup, but I never use it...and really don't need it at all
I cobbled my setup together for about 150 (controller, regulator and 5 lb bottle) but with good substrate, and youll have no need of the stuff. I regularly give or throw away large portions of plants without it.
I keep my tanks at 82-83 degrees and while I had some die-off when I briefly moved the temps closer to 90, most of my plants were hardy enough to survive. cory mentioned oxygenation, which has been a higher priority to me since my incident when I lost all but one of my discus to suffocation. the plants didn't make things easier, as they consume oxygen at night- theyre not the cause of the problem, but they didn't help...but air stones, wet dry filters, and venturi jets from power heads all serve to remove co2 from the tank, so youd effectively be working at cross purposes keeping your fish oxygenated while pumping your plants with co2. a second reason I pulled the system is the probe I was using quickly became unreliable. it was a cheap Chinese one, and I have yet to try another probe, the tanke is doing well enough without it
soooo...that's a long roundabout way of saying, just changeover....don't worry about co2, you really don't need it at all. choose your substrate wisely, and watch your water quality. discus really aren't that hard to keep, just expensive to buy good ones and hard to stop once you start..
