To deal with discus slime?

[Webfoot]

I'll be new to discus, but am wondering about the 'discus slime' I keep hearing about which apparently coats the tank and everything in it.

Is this true? At first I thought it was just a bio-film forming because they're often kept in bare tanks with not much more than a sponge filter, but I could be wrong.

Is there any way to deal with that other than having to manually remove it constantly? I'd be keeping adolescents/adults in a planted tank, so scrubbing every surface might not be very easy, and I wouldn't want it coating my plants as well.

Would filtering a high turnover through a micron sock, protein skimmer, and/or ozone reaction chamber potentially help remove it/and/or destroy it? Supposedly the bacteria that result from feeding upon this deposited slime layer are not a good thing either, but I'm not quite sure why.

[Aeonflame]

Most discus keepers wipe down the tank around once per week. Whatever is in the water will be removed through water changes. The bacteria that feeds on the slime is not good because discus are sensitive fish that originate from highly acidic water with low microbe populations. Many discus breeders and keepers keep their fish in bare bottom undecorated tanks to this end.

[3dees]

never heard of slime being a problem. I have 8 adults in a 120 gal. I clean my glass with every wc, but that about it. I only have floating plants, but a ton of wood and I have no problems with slime..

[Lady Hobbs]

I have never had Discus personally but certainly heard of hundreds who have and have never heard of this.

[Webfoot]

I've read a fair bit about discus already, and know they supposedly need very clean water, etc. And I keep reading that discus keepers wipe down their tanks between daily and weekly to get rid of this slime. (I never thought of such a beautiful fish as being quite so slimy!).

So is it actually slime shed from the discus? Or is it just bacterial bio-film forming due to the lack of other sufficient biological filtration medium for bacteria to colonize? Incidentally, I would have thought the bacteria were helping to keep the water clean!

I know that parent discus feed fry initially through enriched excreted slime, (as do some asian catfish), but I would have been a little surprised if they're shedding such slime continuously, quite unlike any other fish.

[Webfoot]

never heard of slime being a problem. I have 8 adults in a 120 gal. I clean my glass with every wc, but that about it. I only have floating plants, but a ton of wood and I have no problems with slime..

So when you're cleaning your glass is there 'slime' on it? If this was a serious problem then I would have thought you'd noticed it on your wood at least.

[Lady Hobbs]

Actually, baby discus are soon removed away from the adults so they won't feed off the slime coat. Also why catfish are not recommended to be with discus.

[3dees]

So when you're cleaning your glass is there 'slime' on it? If this was a serious problem then I would have thought you'd noticed it on your wood at least.

not so much slime that you can see. it's like the glass gets a little clouded. you notice the difference after you clean it. all that equiptment you mention would be a waste of money. the best thing is large wc's.