Discus questions...

[redgrinde]

Hi, thanks for taking a look...

For starters my water has a PH of 8 and is hard water... I can reduce it to 7.2 or so with Peat Moss, or low 6's with CO2...

I have an established plant tank its been cranking out plants and numerous critters for just over a year, I've tested the PH several times over the last couple of days and it seems stable in the low 6's, morning and night produce nearly identical results, temp is stable at 82 degree's... I am not running CO2 24 hours... Should I if I put discus in the tank?

I set up several 10 gallon tanks and put hang on filters with sphagnum peat moss in them to figure out how low I could get the water... It gets to 7.2 or so and will go no lower regardless of the amount of peat I put in the filters... I understand it may get lower over extended use ... So far its been fairly consistent at 7.2 regardless of the amount of peat in the filters... They've been running for 4 days so far and all three tanks are at 7.2-7.4...

So do I CO2 inject a grow out tank, use Peat in the filters, buy an RO/DI filter or some combination of the three?

I've been reading about ADA substrate, anyone use this with a planted discus tank? It sounds like a good product...

As I understand it one should wait to put Discus into a planted tank until they are full grown, otherwise finding food can be an issue for them, and the uneaten food will (as it always does) pollute the tank... Other than food issues are there other reasons not to put young discus in a planted tank?

[Hollowman]

Hi Red'

ok, I live in an area where my water is like concrete. It also has a ph of 8 to 8.2 My fish are thriving, happy, eat well.
Can I just pick you up on one thing you said about planted tanks, you say that discus cannot find the food, being natural grazers, discus will find food where-ever it is, believe me. :wink:

Raising fry in a planted tank 'can' be done, but there are many reasons not to. The main one being that to raise a small juvenile discus to it's full potential, it needs large daily water changes. Water quality needs to be really high. Because you would have to feed them several times a day, the amount of waste they will produce would foul a planted tank way too much to maintain the water quality. Your plants would start to suffer as the constant gravel cleaning would affect any root growth.
It seems that you are reading how to do different things with these fish, how I wish more people were like you. Adults would be fine to go in your already established tank, as you have said. Remember to check out the sponsors to get quality fish, do not go to your lfs!!

good luck

Hollowman :)