lilstorm

I have a 125 gallon fish tank
In the tank are 3 Discus fish... the tank is about a month and a half old if you include the ageing process before adding the fish.

Problem is, I am trying to get my Discus to breed, and I have already lost one Discus.

Found a Liquid pH test today, my tap water is testing out between 7.2 & 7.6, I know Discus like there ph closer to 5 & 6.5, so my question is, how do I lower my PH levels of my tap water without using a but load of chemicals?

I have a 55 gallon plastic drum that I have been ageing the water in and bringing it up to temp for the fish before I do my water change outs. I aerate the water for 24 hours and heat it and then do a water change in the 125 gallon tank. (again, trying to not use chemicals of any sort)

Since i lost one discus already, I added some amazon sword plants (3 medium/large plants and one small potted plant) and a smallish bog wood to the tank.

I have a power head mostly working on aeration of the tank, and two other aerator driven sponge filters in the tank as well as a bubble wand.
My tank stays about 83 degrees, and I have ONE discus out of a total of three that is VERY DARK in color.

They all eat, they all seem too breath normally, and their poop is not any weird colors. The one dark Discus seems to like to be hanging out at the bottom of the tank, leaning to one side or the other and wont perk his colors back up yet!

Oh, there is nothing on the bottom of the tank, the plants are in the bottom of milk jugs with 3 inches of gravel in the jug, but no gravel on the bottom of the tank since I am trying my hand at breeding and they say that makes it eaiser to clean the tank.

Any suggestions? For lowering my PH and getting my discus happy again?
I'm new at this so help me!

check out the pic, you can see the difference in the happy fish and the not so happy one.

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lew2000

I have a discuss tank that i am using for breeding and as a species tank. First off, ageing water - most municipal water systems now use chloramine instead of chlorine. Chloramine does not rapidly or readily breakdown with either letting water stand or even boiling. I use something like tetra aquasafe - it neutralizes/breaksdown chloramine, it binds heavy metals (which are usually present in municipal systems due to old delivery systems). You do need to treat the water with a conditioner before you add to the tank.

Discuss tend to darken when stressed, diseased or poor water conditions. What has worked for me in the past, is to put a discuss like this in a Q/T tank with no light, prisitne water condiotions matching the parameters of the tank, (medicate if if diseased) and see if they slowy recover - don't feed until some sign of swimming behaviuor and they show appetite.

As to temp and pH; most recomendations are to copy the waters they originate from - i use peat in a 100 gallon tub - peat lowers my pH to 6.8, lowers GH, supposed to add benificial trace minerals. Given the Kh (buffering) of my water it takes approx. 3.5 weeks to get the water to 6.7/6.8 pH. I use pure peat from a garden supply (must make sure no added fertilizers, or fungicides). I keep my water at 87/88F, some sites recomend 90F.

I have both mechanical and bio filtration on my tank to provide 10X water turnover per hour. (120gallon) tank.

To get a breeding pair - it is recomended that you either get at least 6 discus to get male/female or purchase a pair (i don't if you have a pair)

Try this link for breeding:

http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/...cus/index.html

hope this helps.