Adrienne

I would like to know where you are from as I am having water issues in most of my tanks atm and yet some of these tanks have been running for more than two years.

I think it depends on what sort of overflow you have - mine was like a normal filter whereby water was supposed to be sucked up from the bottom of the tank (it had an open part at the top to stop the tank overflowing), however it only worked from the overflow. Water returning into the tank was dispersed via a spraybar. But even with the inlet and outlets at the top the tank was well circulated.

Are my discus okay? Over the last two - three days most of my discus are spending a lot of time up at the top of the tank, heads up tail down. Not all of them but between 4-5 of the 6 I have. If I get up and walk over to the tank they will go back down to mid way and then come up again anywhere between 2-3 minutes and 2-3 hours. They are eating normally. All my tests have returned normal readings I am running an airline as per usual The day before this started I did a fairly large overhaul of half my tank, moved the plants, the driftwood, added some different plants and yes, I did stir up some silt. The next day I did a 50% water change, this is normal, I change 50% twice a week. The one major difference in the tank is that there is a lot more open space than what there was i.e. they are getting more lighting. The discus are the only fish in the tank doing this, everything else in the tank (harlequins, plecs, rummynose and sterbai are all acting perfectly normally. What do you think?

I know its been covered a bit lately but when I first got my big tank (not big by some of yours though) I was totally confused and although I asked questions and read through here I still really didn't understand the workings of it. Eventually after twelve months I ditched it for a cannister (which has now been upgraded twice) and now kick myself for doing so. So while it may be a painful process for some, a really good slow detailed explanation is really good - an explanation that is specific to each circumstance. I know I will be reading the answer to the above question thoroughly because one day I will ditch my fx5 and go back to a sump.

:lol: that was fantastic Mark

beautiful, stunning, well done

Hi Jambls You can get flakes or a variety of guppy food from any of the pet shops. To some of the members who responded to this question - If I was new and asked for help on this forum I would not expect some of the responses dished out on this post. :roll: Please respect everyones right to ask for help. We do not know the age of the poster nor what information or resources they have available to them.

Brett - you got all but the first pic right. Just the last bit of the link dropped off it.

Here you go Brett. How old are they now?

You are doing well. You do not 'sound a bit thick' and remember no question is a 'stupid' question. I wouldn't bother with melafix, as while this does aid healing, it won't necessarily treat it. Keeping the water as clean as possible certainly will help and I find dosing directly onto the wound works really well. I don't know anything about Pimafix.

Ch@d - if you want to see a white diamond have a look at my photo of my discus which was 2nd placegetter in the April photo of the month competition last year. The white diamond is the 2nd discus in (the one with the yellow tones to it). This is another shot of him - he's the middle one.

He's moved way beyond guppies now Sam Thats why his bed is in the fishroom. :lol:

Does anyone here have the contact details for fishlover7 or know them well. If so would you please pm me. Thanks in advance.

Your excuse for a step ladder is that you are still growing I don't have that excuse :roll:

nice! The gender difference isn't as obvious as it is with the Hongsloi. What sized tank do you have them in and how peaceful is the male (assuming he's in the same tank as the female)?

lol - I have just spent nearly two hours standing on a step ladder shifting my plants around in my tank. I have to get above the height of the tank, lean right over the tank and then the water goes up to my arm pits before I can just reach the substrate. :lol: You're doing well, just call it a work in progress.

There will be no problems with the bristlenose being in your discus tank.

Agreed. While advice and plants are freely given on this forum I do find it hard to get what I want in the way of specialist supplies.

Agreed. Once I got to 5 tanks hubby insisted I put them out in the shed (now I have 16 running out there!) I then put a 5ft tank in the house and let him decide what fish he wanted in it. I wanted cichlids but the only fish he liked was the discus. So its a planted discus tank, he happily sits and watches it while I continue on doing my own thing

Yes driftwood will - would try to be more helpful but I don't have those types of fish.

:lol: :roll: :lol: I do remember someone saying they would buy them for you :-?

I think it looks good but I would probably chuck the bio balls in with the heaters as well. Very workable though.

Well all these fry were eaten. They got to about 10 days old and then over three successive nights all three spawns disappeared. However two pairs have spawned again. I siphoned off one lot today and will siphon up the next spawn tomorrow when they all become free swimming. The first lot are growing well, not sure how many I have left but around 50 I think so pretty pleased with the result.

Take a look at the plecs link on the landscapers own website - fantastic.

I meant the mini sag looking plant. Yours have grown really well and I have now planted the runners in my pleco tanks.