is my tank ready for discus?

[discusnewbie]

Hi All,

I have a heavily planted 4ft tank and thinking to host 4 discus. but due to the use of co2 so my water PH generally swing from 6.8 during co2 on to 7.8 during co2 off. my KH is normally at 3. I've done lots of reading and most people suggest PH swing due to co2 isn't a big concerns. so what you reckon? am I ready for it? should I try it? I just couldn't think of any other way to stabilize the PH except either having co2 on 24x7 or having a PH controller(too expensive).

other info.
ada substrate
SUMP filtration
40% wc twice a week.
currently have cardinal tetra, rummynose, spotted blue eyes, threadfin rainbow, drawf cory, otos and shrimps without any problems.

Cheers

[discusnewbie]

please forum members, anyone care to share their experience? i'm sure there must be someone who had the same dilemma and how did you overcome it?

Regards

[Hollowman]

I saw this when you first posted newbie' but I have no real experience in heavily planted tanks like some here. ILLUSN is our plant guru, maybe he can help.
As for large ph swing, I dont htink that is good for any fish. I believe the swing from low to high is more dangerous than the swing from high to low. I think that when a ph rises for example 6 to 7 there is a 10x factor increase in alkalinity, and this is increased by 100x by the rise from 7 to 8. Please dont quote me on that, I am just trying to remember what I was told a while ago.
Obviously stabiltiy is far better than constant swings, but if your current fish are doing ok, maybe try some discus, but be prepared to be able to put them in a system where you can keep them stable, ie, not injecting co2.

hth

H :)
sorry I never replied on first post :(

[TW]

To avoid this, my C02 is controled by a pH controller, but I see from your post you don't wish to use one.

Have you had a look on line, maybe sites like Age of Aquariums sites or eBay. Sometimes you can grab a bargain.

[swampy1972]

Hi DN,

I've been doing a bit of homework re: CO2 as well and did a search on EBay as TW suggested. I don't know what your budget is, but if it's anything like mine you're hunting bargains too. I don't know how good these products are, maybe someone with CO2 experience can advise.

See what you think of this.. HTH

http://shop.ebay.com.au/i.html?_nkw=ph+controller&_sacat=0&_trksid=p3286.m270.l1311&_odkw=co2&_osacat=0

[discusnewbie]

Thank you all for your inputs. sorry for the late reply myself, had some hiccup with the sudden death of my oto (not sure if this has anything to do with temp fluctuation [28 to 31] or the lack of foods.

Hollowman, Now I know the trick to get you posted. yep I see your point and it seems that PH controller is unavoidable to stablelise the PH unless I take co2 out of the equation. umm,,,

TW, yeah, may need to save up for it now.

Swampy, wow amazing price, I was looking at those $500+, so had to pull myself out of it. please let me know how good these are if you happen to get one.

Cheers

[swampy1972]

please let me know how good these are if you happen to get one. Cheers

Sorry DN,

I don't have one but I'm eager to know of anyone else has had experience with these.

Anyone??

[discusnewbie]

swampy, I've scanned through afew more old posts and it seems that the cheaper PH controller is not recommended as they are inaccurate, I'm starting to look for one from some german site. found an aqua medic one for A$250, will need to find out the shipping cost. but it's still cheaper than buying from here.

[swampy1972]

Ok. I'll be interested to hear your findings. I stumbled on a Weipro one (same as one of those on the Ebay link) for sale 2nd hand on another site. There was a lot of interest in it. I've asked the owner to give me some detail on how well it worked for him.
He seemed to be selling a fair amount of gear so hoping he was just doing a clean out and the unit worked well.

[ILLUSN]

Get a ph controller, you'll never look back your co2 will last longer, your plants and fish will love you for it. i've got a sera, a dupla and a weirpro all do the job fine, its your electrode not your meter thats usually the problem.

as for discus, remember discus like...
high temp so get plants that tolerate 30C, anubias, E.amazonicus, E.bleheri, E.ozolet, E.red devil E.red october, E.apart all do well, crypt wenditii also does well, val does well, hydrophilla diformis, hydrophilla strictica do well red ludwiga and tiger lotus red and green also do well at these temps and with CO2.

In a planted tank you wont be able to clean propperly so drop your stocking density by half 1 adult discus /80L (not sure how this fits with your tank but 3 adults should be ok in a std 4 footer NO MORE.

buy adult discus, juviniles will get stunted.

DO NOT FEED BEEFHEART you wont be able to clean up propperly stick to a good mix of dired foods, NLS, color bits, vipan/ vipagran, breedrs blend flake, freeze dried black worms etc feed little but often, and as many types as you can to cover any defficienies from 1 type of food.

Discus in a planted tank can be done but it requires alot of planning and a lot of work.

[swampy1972]

swampy, I've scanned through afew more old posts and it seems that the cheaper PH controller is not recommended as they are inaccurate, I'm starting to look for one from some german site. found an aqua medic one for A$250, will need to find out the shipping cost. but it's still cheaper than buying from here.

More on the Weipro controller. Guppy's has the same thing (different name on the box) but it's double the price.
I contacted the retailer for the Weipro unit and he agreed to reduce his shipping to match the others on that link.. food for thought, especially after ILLUSN's input.

ILLUSN, is this the same Weipro controller you mentioned using? I just recieved a message from another owner of this model saying it's ok but you obviously get better results the more you pay. It sounds like it may be a good option for me as a first time CO2 user without breaking the budget. If I'm happy with the use of CO2 I can upgrade this sort of thing later I guess. I'd appreciate your thoughts?