Newbee

[ants]

Hi all, well I have taken the plunge and ditched my South Americans and setting up my 370L tank as a Planted Discus setup.
I do have some questions if I may.

Firstly I will not have any way of storing water for water changes, so before you all tell me how bad this is, what is the best way to do this without the ability of water storage? Am I able to do my weekly water change adding the tap water slowly, add conditioners (to remove chlorine & Fluoride ect) my concern is more the temp dropping. What about if I add some boiled water at the same time?
I live in the SE of Melbourne and the water quality is quite good.
Anyway any advice here would be great.

Also looking for some good suppliers of preferably locally breed discus, but I am going to see Oakleigh Aquarium and Discus Sanctuary this week and see what they have to offer......Any problems with these two suppliers (I know they are importers not local breeders).
Or is there anyone I should contact?

Also feeding - As I have always used live foods 2 - 3 times a week, is this a good or bad thing with discus, and should I use a pellet or flake food as well? And what dry foods are recommended?

So and advise would be great, I am expection some punishment regarding my water issue, but there must be a way of doing this even if it is not ideal.

[ILLUSN]

If you cant age water then do smaller changes more often, if you stick to a bare bottom tank, and remove any uneaten food EVERY NIGHT you should be ok with daily 8-10% changes (you mightn't need any chlorine neutrilizer).

live food is always risky, i'd suggest a good beefheart mix and a mix of dry foods to take care of any keeper laziness that often sets in. i use breeders blend flake, color bits, nls chiclid + thera A mixed together.

if you can get fish from breeders you'll be miles ahead these fish are always tougher as they're already use to the local water. there are some nice turks in the classifeds at the moment that I'd seriously concider i was starting out in melbourn.

[bartek]

Do you have room to store 20-50L of water. This is only the size of a bucket. You can just fill the bucket 2 days prior to water change... easy.

With a 370L tank you could probably just keep the bucket under the tank.

[lpiasente]

Even a large soup pot or 2 on the stove could be suitable. Then turn the stove on heat up the water and in it goes, no worries :)

[ants]

The buckets are a great idea.
Thank you