Hi there

[Oscar Sheila]

Hey guys,

As you can probably tell from my name, I keep Oscars. However I have only just the other day filled up their old 4ft tank, and planted it ready for Discus in a few weeks.

I have kept Oscars for a number of years, and they seem to be like weeds. So now that they are happy and breeding in their 8ft tank, I am looking for a challenge, and Discus are the most appealing I have seen so far.

I can't wait till I get my Discus. At the moment I have got my lfs guy to hold a Royal whiptail and a butterfly fish, I will get some small schooling fish and get them going before I get the discus.

I seem to have a problem with water hardness, its sitting around 80ppm. I have taken a couple of rocks out that have been weighing down a piece of driftwood, so hopefully that helps over the next wee while.

Can any of you guys tell what live plants do to water chemistry? Do they look after the ammonia and nitrite? I havn't kept real plants before, as Oscars tend to redecorate a bit :roll:

Anyway, your site looks really good.

Cya l8r

[Merrilyn]

Hi Oscar Sheila, and welcome to the forum. Discus are not as difficult as a lot of people think. They have similar needs to oscars, warm, clean water, good food and stable conditions. Same as you have been doing with your oscars, regular water changes are essential, but the rest is just good fishkeeping practices.

Plants will help remove some of the nitrates from the water, but not do anything to the ammonia or nitrites. Discus are very sensitive to ammonia, so should only go in a fully cycled tank.

Enjoy your time with discus. You'll find they have a personality too.

[duck]

Plants will help remove some of the nitrates from the water, but not do anything to the ammonia or nitrites. Discus are very sensitive to ammonia,

I beg to differ plants do consume ammoina and nitrate's and not just some, it could use it all.
If done properly, You plant out your tank with lots of fast grower's and a low to medium fish load you will be lucky to see any spike of anything.
Plants are filter's as well.

I have 6x2x2 planted out with 10 discus fed three sometimes 4 times a day.
4x bn 20xcardinals 10 cherry barbs 3 clowns 4inch each. I change the water once a week @ 50% change and i get a nitrAte reading lucky to get to 20ppm before the WC.

[Oscar Sheila]

Thanks for the info guys, but what about the water hardness, tell me about that. I know that it has to be alot lower than for Osacars.

[Merrilyn]

Hardness is the way of expressing the amount of carbonates, bicarbonates, sulfate and other salts dissolved in the water.

Soft water usually has a DH of less that 30 ppm, medium water is about 60 ppm and very hard water over 120 ppm.

Your water of 80 ppm will be fine for raising discus, but if you want to breed, you will need to use a reverse osmosis or ion exchange unit to make the water suitable for breeding. One good thing with hard water, no danger of a pH crash.

If you buy your discus locally, they will be used to your type of water, and maybe all you will need to add is a little peat to your filter each fortnight.

Duck, the type of tank you are referring to used to be known as the "balanced system" whereby plants would take up all the wastes produced by the fish, and in return supply the fish with oxygen. It's an ideal scenario, and I'm glad it's working for you. If you run a biological filtration system on your tank, the bacteria will be converting most of the ammonia (NH3) into nitrite (NO2-) and then into nitrate (NO3-) which then becomes available as plant food..

Plants are fantastic filters, there's no doubt about that. But I wouldn't rely on them solely to remove ammonia and nitrites from the water.

If you'd like to write a small article on your success with your planted tank, how you set it up, and the types of plants you have, I would be delighted to put it in our articles section which will be updated shortly. Thanks for the input.

[Oscar Sheila]

Well, unfortunately plans have changed. I have had to put my Female Oscar in the 4ft tank because she is not protecting my Oscar babies, and quite likes to eat them. So seeintg as I am breeding the Oscars to keep (well a couple, as replacement stock), and I have spent NZ$70 on them, I'm not prepared to let them be eaten.

So the Discus thing will have to wait until the Oscars are in the big tank and the setup is stripped, cleaned and started again.

:cry:

Thanks for the info anyway

[Merrilyn]

Come back to us when your oscar babies have grown. We'll be here when you're ready. Good luck with those cute babies..

[DiscusMad]

I thouht Oscars did eat there babies and they didn't protect them?