Discus home on christmas island a couple of questions

[Jules]

My discus came home on sunday they seem to be very happy within 2-3 hours of being in tank they began to swim around. I managed to get a ph test kit but only tests high range. I tested the tank they were in and it showed ph of 8 so i made my tank the same. Should i now start to lower the ph gradually :?: :?: :?: say .03 every 24 hours or should i just leave it :?: Also the supplier was only feeding them twice a day they range in size from 2-4 inches, should i increase the feeding they seem to want more :?: :?: They seem very friendly they always rush over to me when i approach the tank. Also he was only feeding one frozen bloodworm square per feed but the tetras are also eating this and they seem to all gobble it up very quickly is this enough :?: Also the very smallest one seems to have one eye that looks a little cloudy what is this caused by :?: and do i need to put it in hospital tank and what do i do to get rid of it :?: :?: This one tends to hide but is eating ok. Also when should i do my first water change :?: i don't want to stress them i was going to do it on third day i did a 50litre change the morning they came home it is a 500ltr tank Thanks everyone sorry for all the questions but i am a total newbee at keeping fish let alone discus but i love a challenge :D

[Jules]

I also forgot to mention when asking about feeding there are 12 discus and 21 tetras i know this is a lot of discus but supplier did not want to split them up and i was told it will be ok while they are still small so if they all live ok i will just have to get another tank later yipee!

[ILLUSN]

I'd start lowering the pH. i'd do it by mixing your aged water (I'm assuming you age your water) with some buffer to a ph of around 6.0- 6.5, and doing 10% day. over a month the ph will come down nice and slow, and you'll have fewer long term problems.

once your water is stable at 6.5 it would be safe to do 30% changes 2x a week, 3x a week if you think you need it (your fish will tell you).

as for feeding 2x a day is fine for adults, 3x-4x a day for juviniles to help them grow, just feed as much as they eat in 2 minutes and you'll be fine.

bloodworms alone are no a sufficient diet for discus and can be addictive, try and make up some beefheart mix of your own, its the best thing, or contact Mal for some freezedried black worms and any of the sponsors for some breders blend flake to round out the diet.

the cloudy eye is usually casued by a ph shock, it will go away as the fish adjusts, if it looks like eye fungus, I've had good results using protozin by waterlife.

good luck with the newbies, keep us posted.

[Jules]

Thanks ILLUSN i have ordered other food and have asked for express post so fingers crossed but because of easter i won't get it till the end of next week i also have frozen beef heart is this ok? as we have no butchers here all our meat comes on ship once every 6-8 weeks i can probably order the beef hearts but by the looks of the recipies you would need them to be fresh not frozen as i would have to defrost to make mix then re-freeze. Yes i do age my water. My rainwater seems to read in the 7.2 range does this mean i can add that as is at 10% per day?

[ILLUSN]

7.2 is quite good, I've had much better results with a lower ph (around 5.5) but it should be ok, ill you get plague (hopefully that will ever happen, if it does you'll have to get the ph to below 5.0).

frozen beefheart is ok , i woul;dn't recomend re freezing it, but it happens to frozen food in tranist every now and then and the fish dont seem to mind.

10% a day will be fine, once you hit 7.2 you can swich over to 30%