most spectacular discus ?

[melbfish20]

PH has gone up to 6.6 .I think I am ready to get my discus

ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 10
ph 6.6

[melbfish20]

do you guys all think that bare bottom is the right way to go for a discus tank ?

[Goes to 11!]

Absolutely, Considering how sensitive they are wrt water parameters BB is THE easiest to keep utterly funk free.

[koaladarshana]

Agreed, bare-bottom is much easier unless you are willing to siphon your gravel every other day... it's what I have to do anyway.

[melbfish20]

should decorations be kept to a minimum to make it easier to clean ?

I currently have a few driftwood logs and fake palnts in the tank to give the discus places to hide

[Lady Hobbs]

I just put some driftwood and fake plants into the tank and ph has gone down really low.It reads as 6 which is as low as my testing kit can read.Does this mean that I have to take the driftwood out ?

thanks for any response

Driftwood moves the pH very, very little ......if at all. I crammed 5 big pieces of driftwood in my 55 gallon and it never moved the pH. You should take a reading of your pH right from the tap to find out if this is something in the tank moving those numbers down or if it's your water.

You need to be careful with pH if it goes below 6 and I'm not too sure if even 6 wouldn't be a problem. You can not grow bacteria in pH that low and that's also referred to a "tank crashing" when you suddenly have an uncycled tank due to pH crashing like that.

Before getting any discus, I would get this current problem resolved and find out what is bringing your pH down like that. If pH needs to be increased some, you can do that with a few coral shells rather than chemicals.

[melbfish20]

Driftwood moves the pH very, very little ......if at all. I crammed 5 big pieces of driftwood in my 55 gallon and it never moved the pH. You should take a reading of your pH right from the tap to find out if this is something in the tank moving those numbers down or if it's your water.

You need to be careful with pH if it goes below 6 and I'm not too sure if even 6 wouldn't be a problem. You can not grow bacteria in pH that low and that's also referred to a "tank crashing" when you suddenly have an uncycled tank due to pH crashing like that.

Before getting any discus, I would get this current problem resolved and find out what is bringing your pH down like that. If pH needs to be increased some, you can do that with a few coral shells rather than chemicals.

Not sure what caused the ph to go down so low.The ph is currently at 6.7 and the tap water is about 7.2 .The only reason I can think of was that I put a lot of food in the tank to feed the BB in the tank and make sure the cycle was complete at the time the PH went down.

I actualy have 10 cardinal tetras in the tank which are doing fine

[steeler58]

If your Cardinals are doing fine that a good sign. A lot of people keep them with Discus because of similer water conditions.

[Cermet]

A little late and been away - a droping pH often occurs with water that is very soft. Have you checked the water's GH and KH? If these are very low (good for discus as is low pH but bad for the bacteria in the filter) there are substrates that will fix that problem.

[Cermet]

In answer to an earlier question - to get a breeding pair, a min of ten is needed to get a good chance that two will pair off. This assumes you raise them from younger fish. With a 150 gallon tank, fifteen or sixteen is fine (larger tanks allow bending the 10 gal/fish rule. Remember, wood and substrate remove water volume - in smaller tanks, this can be a problem. Your tank, not a serious issue.)

A lot of wood is a good thing - just remember, when they pair off, you will need to either have another tank for them to lay eggs or use a tank seperator screen to keep them from harming the other discus. Also, very young will be food for other discus.