co2 with discus

[jarrodrussell]

im about to get 2 small discus and put them in my planted tank with is 116 litres heavly planted and wasalso gonna get a diy co2 will this be a good idea for the plants or will it disterb the ph balance and disterb the discus ? :oops:

[DennisP]

Should be fine.

Make sure they handle the night though. Co2 should be turned off, not sure if its the same with DIY, but it can't hurt.

pH change wont affect them too much, although you would want to watch for stress/gasping at surface for air.

[jarrodrussell]

ok thanks man! :bounce: :roll:

[Luke*]

same for DIY yes.. it's because the resulting carbonic acid lowers the pH.. as the plants don't use it at night, it can swing low and also use up the O2 in the water. you can use a buffer to stop pH crashes.. such as baking soda

[phoenix44]

too much effort. I have CO2 running on all my tanks and I don't turn it off at night.

Discus are fine with it, and as long as your KH is fine your pH won't be swinging.

[suphew]

+1

[Warren]

+2

Discus are fine with CO2.

I did turn mine off at night but only because I ran a KH of about 2 and didn't want to risk pH crash overnight. The CO2 was on a timer with the lights. I never tried leaving the CO2 on and monitoring it to see what happened as it was pretty simple to add a solenoid to the CO2 outlet.

[Brennos]

+3 I have co2 runnign 24/7 with discuss no issues at all.

[jarrodrussell]

thanks everbody for the info

[Luke*]

DIY may be ok due to lower amounts but i'd be careful.. i was running a heavily planted 300L tank and overnight all the O2 got used up and the pH went very low. I did have a very effective CO2 diffuser that i made myself using a powerhead though..