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Thread: New to Discus

  1. #1
    Hi, I'm New Here!
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    New to Discus

    Hello All,
    Let me introduce myselfe, i am 29 old guy from Karachi Pakistan have been keeping Goldfishes for about 14 years got fedup with them because of their POOP and murcky water
    decide to change the look my tank.....cleaned all the filters and washed the tank filed the tank and kept it runing for about a week, bought three big size discus they are happy in the tank, so bought another 14 very small discuss now all the small ones are dying
    my tanks specs are:197 US gal,2 external filters 1500 liters p/hr.
    we dont have test kits available only test kit is available is PH tester (water life) and it has shade card on back of the box and you have to check the color in the tube with that shade card.
    bought a water life 6.5 ph buffer and added to the tank, when i put that buffer in the water turn soft and when i check second day it turns hard again,why is that.
    i have ceramic rings and activated carbon as filter midea is it creating problem?
    i also have lots of amazon graa and drift wod in my tank.
    thanks for your help in advance.
    Love
    Rafaqat

  2. #2
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    Well carbon can remove medicatons i dont know if it screws with buffers too. Another thing is you might have killed any good bacteria, and without an ammonia test kit its hard to know if the bacteria is present to combat the ammonia levels.

  3. #3
    Hi, I'm New Here!
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    Well i have Amonite as filter media so i m not worried about Amonia it is somethin else.maybe the small ones are really too delicate to handle or maybe they were extremly stresed when i bought them.

  4. #4
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    If discus can be transported all over the world without dying i dont think they will die from stress by bringing them home from the local fish shop.
    Fish dying from stress is too do with poor water quality. Kev proved too me how much stress a discus can actually take, I had 3 discus shipped for say 10 hours from sydney on 35c day and i was certain they wouldn't make it, Kev assured me they would be ok and surely enough they are in my tank swimming happy as larry.
    The other thing i was thinking is are you conditioning your water??
    I dont know what pakistan's water is like but most water around the world need to be condtioned. If your adult discus are fine it wouldn't be anything major. Does your local fish shop where you bought them from test water?? If they do get them to test it and record the results.
    Are you doing water changes, nirates might be high and need to have the water changed.

    It could be a number of things but i hope something i suggested might help
    Scott

  5. #5
    Hi, I'm New Here!
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    Thanks scott...well the fish shop here in Pakistan never relaly care about water quality or anything they dont even know these things.....i once saw Goldfish fild Tank with Few discus in it.
    Anyways is there any method to lower PH without using buffer as it is very expensive here and i got a very big tank.

  6. #6
    Founder Proteus's Avatar
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    Hi Fefe, welcome to DF.com

    Do you have access to Peat Moss??? or Peat in the granulated form... that works well to lower the pH and also releases tannins which are highly beneficial to Discus..

    other than that chemicals is about the only way to get your pH down, out of curiousity, what is your pH at the moment?

  7. #7
    Hi, I'm New Here!
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    Thank you ..... i m searching for peat moss...but i m not too sure if i can get it....can you please guide what are the names of those chemicals....and yes another question is Malbro red very expensive type of Discuss?
    Warm Regards
    Rafaqat

  8. #8
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    Malbro red woulbn't be classified expensive it not the cheapest but at the same time its not a discus that you will be paying top dollar for. They used to be on the rarer side of things but as most popular fish the market gets flooded with them and the price soon comes down. Dont know what currency you use but here a blue diamond is like $40 and malbro's you can get for probably $50-60

    Cheers
    Scott

  9. #9
    San Merah Discus
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    Fefe, peat moss u may not find in your part of the world, BUT, a good substitute for that is actually the dried "Indian Almond leaf" (Terminalia catappa) to reducs the pH and bring the water down to acidic levels. It is also professed to have mild antibacterial/antifungal properties and I know a number of Discus breeders in Asia that swear by this stuff! (Not only discus breeders, but Betta breeders and Arowana breeders!)

    Check out the UK discus association site. It even has a brief write up about this leaf.
    http://ukdiscus.com/tcatappa.htm

    U can read lots more about the properties of this leaf online... just do a google search and u'll get lots of hits.

    As for small discus, yes they can be sensitve. If you're not an experienced discus keeper, I would suggest buying discus as big as you can afford or at least a minimum of 6-7cm. Small discus require lots of little feedings in a day or they will stunt and not do well.

    Good luck with ur new discus keeping hobby and welcome to the DF.

    kev

  10. #10
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    Great info Kev, nice to learn something new!!
    Also peat can be found in garden supplies stores as fertilisers its just you need to ask the person working there, possibly somone who knows what they are talking about if its ok for aquarium use. I dont know what you have to look for on the packaging but iam sure someone here will stear you in the right direction.

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