henward

should i wory bout anaerobic at the bottom layers then? or... will having much plants stop this issue of 'poison' coming fro the anaerobic layer? any feedback there? the roots of plants s hould suck up and provide aeration in a way right? i am unsure. i dont wanna change substrate as i love silica, if its too much of a problem, i may have to..... but if not, i dont mind using clay balls and just buying mroe sand

its ok, surprisingly....it wont be that bad. silica sand is clean, just a rinse and done, fine particles will come out quickly so 10cm is 4 inches, say 3 ish as a happy medium.... any down side im not worried bout the sand, its cheap, 7 dollasr per 25kg im not worried about cleaning it. any down side or is it quite good to have that much root space?>

yeah, i didnt think so lol but look, really wanting to plant now (cough should have done that to begin with cough) anyways.......... mostly sword type plants, easy to grow and look nice! also discus and swords..... close enough:D i like how they grow shoots too! anyways, how deep is the concensus? 10cm? as for anaerobic thingee, any feedback p-44? you have much experience in this right? and a lot of clay balls.....is that bad?

its a established tank, no way i will put nutritios sub i dont even nkow how i can actualy get ti tot he bottom. fluorite and onyx doesnt work with fine substrate, as the fine substrate always goes tot he bottom and the fluorite ends up at the top. i found that its weird, i guess its cos the finer stuff tends to wriggle downward. i think i will try silica sand, clay balls, jsut lots of it willb e my option. id otn wanna go broke and clay balls are cheap, and very effective i found. as for C02, is it neccesary? also i have two tanks, shared filtration.... does that help with c02 levels in the tank? Literally there is about 80 fish in total in the tank tanks. i heard that anaerobic activity can happen in silica sand and when planted i cant disturb it much..... will having plant roots around help this? should i not really worry? i love the look of silica! also, CAN YOU OVERDOSE ON CLAY BALLS? say, one plant you put one as per insruction. can i put 2 if its a big plant? or even 3?? to really give them a boost?

is this the case? i heard from other sources that some plants like more compacted subst rate...similar to soil. more so swords i like, low maintenance.

ok, i am just thinking ill jsut plant my tank. the pots are working well, plants thriving......but doesnt look as nice. was thinking i would jsut plant it. here are some questions: 1) how thick substrate should i have? plants are somewhat large 2) can i use silica sand? dose other substrate provide nutrients or shall i just use alot of clayballs? i like silica sand, the look is nice to me. i dont mind clay balls are cheap and they seemt o work. i dont want to mix my fluorite with the silica sand as i cannot separate them later. 3) i will save the fluorite for when i have another planted tank one day just in case you are wondering, i only have 1 sck and that wont even make a dent in the substrate.

yeah i have read that too not just discus jsut fish in general. bigger fish are different but apparently smaller fish, like neons - sometimse just die, tetras etc. i have had other opinions from purely discus keepers and tehy said that if water params are good, no sign of disease - sometimes like rj said, they jsut die - heart attack, organ failure, just death. i mean in the wild, they would die like that also i guess. just really sad, it was growing well, good colours. as for blocked up, usually you can tell signs of blocking up. bloat, lack of appetite, discolouration due to stress and internal damage. hard to explain - but i guess its just part of fish keeping

yesh will switch to pelleted food for abit. i wouldnt say 'fat' litereally fat i mean not skinny in an abnormal way. i feed the fish twice a day, small portion of pellets in the day and beef mix at night. thats it. ill lay off on the beef for a bit though. i dont believe the deaths are related though. theone im giving away is more of a precaution, but i dont believe its diseased, i thin its just deformed lol.

ever had spontaneous death? i mean, one of my red melon medium sized discus, was eating well yesterday - fat and active. today i found it under a piece of wood, no scratches, freshly dead. weird. all other discus are active as normal - no discoloured poo (yes i watch the poo) :-? any ideas?

500grams beef heart 250grams raw shrimp 200grams blue cod fillet or fish fillet (cod has more oils and omega 3) 200grams fish roe 200grams spinach 50grams massivore 50g hikari discus gold (pellets food can be different, tetra colour bits, hikari cichlid gold, arowanas sticks what ever is fine) I use them because i believe they have goodies in them and good protein concentrations that help boost the effectiveness of the food. (p44 will say im overthinking it lol) 1 to 2 table sppon of spirulina (but if you have spirulina flakes thats fine!) 10 to 12 cloves of garlic. the prepared pellets act as a binder too - so dont add and dont cook it. Liver is a no no apparently so i stayed awayf rom that from all the disadvised comments here:D see i do listen! the fish roe is not needed, replace it wtih fish and prawn. You can of course load the food more into parwna nd fish and not so much beef heart. and perhaps add a courgette or two if youw ant. boiled peas too if youwant. the mix should be green. use a food processor - shou.ld really be a paste when its done. not chunky, otherwise theyw ont be ingesting the smaller particles of goodness. the paste will be sticky.

someone gave me an article how garlic works. garlic works cos the fish eats it and the parasties dont like the smell of garlic, so they come out of them and dont infest the fish - hence not being ablet o feed and eventually perhaps dying. it doesnt actually kill the parasites apparently.

cooked prawns is a no no for discus according to simply discus, raw prawns only. cooked shrimp can block up the intstines - shrimps structure of the flesh changes when cooked. so i would change taht, to be honest, discard the mix and start again. only beef should be cooked IF youw ant, but not needed. i will never feed cooked shrimp again after my experiences. 4 cloves is ok. in a 1.4 kilo mix i had 12 cloves of garlic. but you dont wanna over dose, but they love the garlic! the thing smells like garlic. i would add spirulina, just 1 tablespoon. extra vits. the mix should look green indicating its well mixed and not chunky DONT ADD WATER no use, the stuff has enough water you also dont want it breaking apart in the tank, water can stop binding to a degree. raw shrimp will bind your mix like jelly, no need for water or any binders. cooked shrimp, the binding effect is gone cos its cooked.

prime is made by SEACHEM very strong stuff you literally put 5mls per 200 litres! for your amonia concentration put double that works extremely wel! expensive but worth it - it also makes the amonia easily digested by bacteria thus further helpin to cycle the tank again

i dont believe its the water in aucks. i ahve been using the same water he has for the last 2 weeks no issues. and i turn over 600 litres a day of water in total in all my tanks automatically. i believe, that washing your bio media with tap water, shocked the bacts, and killed them off. but in saying that, instantly going up...that is weird, amonia will build up over a day or two with relatively heavy feeding if the bacteria died. another thing would be, perhaps your fx5 bio media was not efficient, or arranged wrong..... and your tank already had amonia you just didnt realise. taking your logs and ornaments makes no different, i wouldnt worry about that. this is a learning process trav, we go through this at some stage. its preventing it thats important (thank goodness you dotn have a reef tank!) that would be more devastating to your corals and animals wtih a spike like this. there is much to learn! putting ph up is bad, dont do it. low ph is not bad unless yoru fish requires high ph specifically. my tanks are 5.8 to 6.5, never higher than 6.5! most fish we keep in the fw tropical hobby in nz are from high ph countries. if the amonia went up suddenly over 1 day - then the only explanation is that you alrady had amonia. when was teh last test you did before you did the water change adn clean? ANOTHER QUESTION: what ist he configuration of your fx5. there are 3 trays, top, middle and bottom....what is in the middle roundy bit on the top middle bottom, can you explicitly tell us (preferably not on text spk:)

Prime is good!

hi trav it will take as long as your media takes to get to it. the media will cycle quicker in my opinion cos of the filter being high turn over. but.... your fish are not as dead cos the ph is low, which effectively makes AM less harmful. but thats luck. do daily 30% wc test twice daily, morning and night. monitor the drop, with in a few days it willd rop dont feed fish or if youd o feed extremely little. there is not much youc an do next time, when youw ant to wash and rinse the bio media - use the tanks old water. secondly, NEVER replace all the water of the tank at once like taht unless there is an extreme emergency. which really, i have never encountered unless your AM levels are 10 or more ppm lol You should never use tap water to wash the bio media. Chlorine may be an issue, wher eyou live, your water wotn have high chlorine, we have the same water from the sme resevoir in OKURA i believe if you are in east coast bays. The death of bacteria may come from the shock of temp and ph and water composition than chlorine itself. backteria are simple creatures - sudden and extreme change in condition kills them too.

Hi Trav. i am confused slightly but i think i have it:D txt spk is rlly hrd 2 rd........ c wht i mn? anyway. ok, first of all, rinsing bio media with tap water......killed all your bacteria. you shouldnt erally have to rinse them. also, why did you take all your water out ? im confused, maybe to avoid confusion. do a numbered step by step what youd id lol but if i have what you did correctly you took out the water, ALL OF IT then rinsed and cleaned fx5 contents and media with tap water. then when you re ran the tank... you had a AM spike. ?? none the less, you probably are pretty much starting all over again. fx5 will turn over water quick, cycling is quick.

first of all did you remove bio media then re set up/ bacteria may have died tell us teh process you did, you cleaned out the tank etc? tell us the exacts, this will help us asses your problems and cause i think. the recharging stuff is temporary, they only filter a certain amount of AM concentration. basically useless lol your key here is to find the cause, and cycle the bio media in your tank. stop feeding too. tell us what you did - exactly, from start to finish:D

in theory, all fish can have melafix used on them. just use normal dose, or not even i dont reallyt hink wtih that melafix will do that much. its not fleshy, its moer bone. and probabgly already healed.

how much stock do you have? feeding regime? i have a mixture, i have sintered glass, ceramic and eheim, aqua one. i get them when i used to buy set ups cheap on TM. then sterilise themand boil it to ensure no eggs or anything is in there. then use it.

yes, melafix, but in saying that, the tail part is a bony part of the fish. they will grow back i have had my bgks both had their tails taken - they seem to have learnt what not to do. havent happened again. it should be ok.

the checkerboard, are they a pair separated from a comm tank? or with other fish?

dang! ok, patience is not my best virtue:D but thats ok as i have no choice lol

The female laid eggs today! but ate them:( lol ok, the male wasnt close to the female, she was laying he was just swimming around. what is the male usually supposed to do? is he supposed to be guarding? he seemed like he wasnt i nterested. anyone bred discus please give me feedback:D first attempt, i will get them ot try a few more times. whats a good amount of times before you know you should change the male OR female?

Yeah, but drunk drivers etc. only endanger their own and a few other peoples lives, a snake that was pregnant/ carrying a diesese could kill many more people. We just did a topic on border security in Social Studies. But I do wish snakes didn't come with all the problems because they would be pretty cool pets!