My first discus

[burt42]

I got my first discus today, two turks and a leopard :D . They have settled in really well, they're moving around the tank, eating well and not hiding. From looking at the postings on this site and other sites on the net, I was planning on doing 50% water changes, twice a week. Is this too much or too little?

Just watching them swim around I may be hooked on discus!

Grant....

[chris]

Hey Burt,
congrats on the new fish, I do one water change 30% once a week. I think most people do 2 to 3 times a week.
I like to enjoy looking a my fish and only play with them once a week.
You will learn how inconsistant our WATER is :?:
Find a routine and stick to it.

[DR.V]

I think 50% is too much , because it will remove all the good bacteria in the filter and gravel ( if u use gravel ) . I do mine 30% once a week.

[Merrilyn]

Hi Burt, and welcome to the forum. Now you can see why we are all addicted to discus :lol:

With regard to water changes. 20% every second day is better than 50% twice a week. It's not so much that you destroy your bacteria (your bacteria are actually safely living in your filter medium and gravel and are unaffected by water changes) but that you are changing the water conditions too quickly. Smaller, frequent water changes are better if you can manage it, but if not 30% twice a week will be fine.

[burt42]

Thanks for the advice. I'll go with the smaller changes twice a week.

Grant....

[sunshinediscus]

If you are conditioning your water before use then 50% water changes are no problems. If you find the fish are stressed by this then the answer is simple, your water is crappy and you need to condition it better. Actually i consider 50% a small water change and it is not unusual for me to do 75% at one time. Once a week with low stock density and small amounts of food will work but you will have small discus, if you want great discus that are robust and BIG then do those water changes every day or at least every other day and feed them a lot of food.

Dr. V , i normally don't disagree with people rather i prefer to give my side ofthe story but in this case i believe what you are saying is very bad and will give people the wrong idea about how bacteria are colonized in the tank. That statement has nothing in common with the truth.

Rod

[weird]

I do 20% water changes everyday. If I could I would do larger water changes, near 50% if I had the water storage capacity.

burt42, U will find alot us have waterbins where we age the water for about 24-48 hours, with an airstone and heater. The only chemical I ever use in my tanks is Prime (thats just a brand) which is once a night in the water bin.

Regular water changes, bigger the better, where the water is as close as possible to the tanks is surely a key to healthy discus.