REDSTEVEO
Member
Hi All,
Most of you will remember this tank previously as 'The Full Monty' which now no longer exists as it was. It has evolved into a home for 5 x Wild Red Spotted Green Discus from the Rio Nannay in Peru, and 2 x Wild Solid Royals.
Originally the remaining plants I had left were still planted in ADA Amazonia substrate, but this was difficult to maintain, especially with the amount of dark brown poop from the discus which was hard to spot amongst the substrate, so Nitrates were high which wild discus dislike.
So out came the substrate and in went JBL Sansibar River Sand. I used some of the original substrate in glass storage jars to replant some big Amazon Sword plants and capped them off with some of the river sand.
I have got four pieces of Manzanita Wood planted with Trident, Java Fern and Anubias suspended from the back of the tank to break things up a bit. I am going to be removing most of the plants in storage jars and creating more free space to suspend wood roots from the top of the tank and plant these with more ferns and Anubias.
In the last week I have been following advice from Clive Brampton at Northants Discus on how to get these wilds stimulated into showing signs of pairing activity and possibly breeding. Clive suggested a TDS of 60 degrees, PH of 6.0 and water temperature of 29.5. This worked for his wild discus which have spawned so I am giving it a try.
Over the last week I have been changing water daily and letting it fill back up by drip feeding pure RO water into the tank. So far the TDS has dropped from 240 degrees to 90 degrees over a week, PH down from 6.9 to 6.2 and the temperature is steady at 29 degrees.
I have been warned of a potential PH crash by just adding pure RO water, the question is do I add Bicarbonate of Soda to buffer the PH or add the Seachem Discus Pro Remineral salts. I don't want to add something that bumps the TDS right back up again.
The big Amazons will be for sale once removed.
One thing I have noticed is that my Co2 Drop checker has changed colour from lime green to lemon yellow, so is this a direct correlation to the drop in PH, or is there somehow more Co2 in the water? I have not had any Co2 running on the tank for many months now as it is low lighting low tech.
Here are a few photographs taken last night under two different light settings from the LED light unit. Hope you enjoy them!
Most of you will remember this tank previously as 'The Full Monty' which now no longer exists as it was. It has evolved into a home for 5 x Wild Red Spotted Green Discus from the Rio Nannay in Peru, and 2 x Wild Solid Royals.
Originally the remaining plants I had left were still planted in ADA Amazonia substrate, but this was difficult to maintain, especially with the amount of dark brown poop from the discus which was hard to spot amongst the substrate, so Nitrates were high which wild discus dislike.
So out came the substrate and in went JBL Sansibar River Sand. I used some of the original substrate in glass storage jars to replant some big Amazon Sword plants and capped them off with some of the river sand.
I have got four pieces of Manzanita Wood planted with Trident, Java Fern and Anubias suspended from the back of the tank to break things up a bit. I am going to be removing most of the plants in storage jars and creating more free space to suspend wood roots from the top of the tank and plant these with more ferns and Anubias.
In the last week I have been following advice from Clive Brampton at Northants Discus on how to get these wilds stimulated into showing signs of pairing activity and possibly breeding. Clive suggested a TDS of 60 degrees, PH of 6.0 and water temperature of 29.5. This worked for his wild discus which have spawned so I am giving it a try.
Over the last week I have been changing water daily and letting it fill back up by drip feeding pure RO water into the tank. So far the TDS has dropped from 240 degrees to 90 degrees over a week, PH down from 6.9 to 6.2 and the temperature is steady at 29 degrees.
I have been warned of a potential PH crash by just adding pure RO water, the question is do I add Bicarbonate of Soda to buffer the PH or add the Seachem Discus Pro Remineral salts. I don't want to add something that bumps the TDS right back up again.
The big Amazons will be for sale once removed.
One thing I have noticed is that my Co2 Drop checker has changed colour from lime green to lemon yellow, so is this a direct correlation to the drop in PH, or is there somehow more Co2 in the water? I have not had any Co2 running on the tank for many months now as it is low lighting low tech.
Here are a few photographs taken last night under two different light settings from the LED light unit. Hope you enjoy them!