Help !

[g_good]

I am a newbie here. Not @ aquarium keeping. I've been into that for 50 years,starting small & getting larger. Even now, I am not that large. I am growing tired with the hobby. I've never had problems & suddenly that is all I have.My biggest problem is with my 30 gallon planted discus tank. It was beautiful & then..... all of a sudden, the water is so murky, I can't see through it. I put a blanket over it for a week, blocking out all light thinking I may have green algae in the water. I used my sponges over & over again. They were getting pretty shabby so I got new ones but rinsed them in the disgarded water before using them. They remain white which tells me they are not doing a good cleaning job. I do daily water changes syphoning the gravel @ the same time. I have reduced the light from 12 to 4 hrs./day. I purchased the recommended lights a few months ago & everything was fine till recently so it wasn't the lights. I clean up all decaying plant matter. I feed the fish every other day. I fertilize with seachem fertilizer. I just recently stopped dosing with iron. Someone told me it could cause cloudy water.

It is getting worse daily.

I'm desperate. Any ideas ?

Thanks,
g_good

 

[anthony96]

It might be u are feeding them to much just google it

 

[HN1]

How many discus? How large are they? I ask because my suggestion is probably a feeding reduction. A 30 is pretty small for a proper group of discus IMO.

 

[jpchin]

i would say that cleaning your tank too much might be a problem. you say you do a daily water change and clean gravel at the same time. ideally you should only clean your gravel once a week and only clean about 1/4 of the tank at a time. if you remove too much bacteria you could go into a cycle with a rise in ammonia. did you check your chemistry? ammonia, ph, nitrates and nitrites? that would be where i would start. also discus like a low ph 6.0-6.5 and soft acicdic water. also changing out all your filter material gets rid of good bacteria. that's all i can suggest.

 

[g_good]

I have 2 discus in a 30 gallon. I feed every 2nd day. All perameters tested fine except PH. It was 7.6 & discus like around 6.0. I am adding acid buffer as instructed. Should that do the trick. It said this PH could cloud my water.
one member recommended cleaning the gravel one week, the filter the next week & so on. What are yor feelings.

 

[jpchin]

i clean my gravel (about 1/4 of the gravel) once a week. i also do a water change about every 3 days. here's the thing that i think will be a problem. your ph needs to be tested at the faucet to see what the natural ph of your water is. if it is 7.6 or higher i think you are on a course that will be very problematic. most people will tell you that trying to lower your ph is almost futile unless you use spring water or r.o. water (which you need a machine for or need to buy it at a machine found outside of some grocery stores) spring and ro water has a zero ph so you could mix a half and half mixture(your tap water and spring or ro water) and test to see if you can get a ph of around 6.0 to 6.2 for the discus. you might have to use more tap or more spring until you get the right ph. experiment with smaller amounts like 1/2 c of spring 1/2c tap and then test ph. from what i've read however, discus need pristine water that requires at least a 25% water change every couple of days. some people do a daily water change. that's alot of work getting the water, mixing it to get the low ph. when you use chemicals to lower the ph it will only stay low for a certain amount of time and then revert to the natural ph of 7.6. this could happen rather quickly and be very stressful to your fish. also about the feeding. i think discus need at least one or two feedings a day to stay healthy. so they aren't on an optimal feeding schedule if they only get food everyother day. my advice is probably not what you want to hear but since you only have 2 discus i would try to take them back to the store and get fish that work with your natural ph. not only would it make your life much easier and enjoyable but it would give the discus a chance to have a better life. maybe someone else has a better idea but i think fighting your natural chemisry is tough to do. there are many beautiful fish that will do great in your natural ph. i know the discus are beautiful but instead of enjoying your fish you are having alot of stress and worry.

 

[jpchin]

i almost forgot. when you mix tap and spring or ro water don't forget to treat the tap water with water conditioner. spring and ro don't need conditioner.

 

[g_good]

My tank went from good to bad in a matter of days. The water was so clear, you'd never know there was water in it. I'm not giving up yet. Today I'll begin with large daily water changes & treat the water I put in. I'll also reduce the light to 4hrs./day.
Wish me luck.

 

[g_good]

Green water
I did a 1/3 water change on my 30 gallon discus tank today. I treated the water that I put back in. I did notice, when I took the water out, that it was green. Hopefully the water changes will do the trick.
I have reduced the hours of light from 12 to 4.
Should I stop using the plant fertilizers for awhile ?
Thanks for all your help. I hope it works.

 

[jpchin]

i'm not really sure about the green water and the ferts. maybe someone else could comment on that. i was reading some posts on discus and it seems it might be possible for them to do o.k. in higher ph if that's what they were raised in. did you buy them from a local fish store? if you did you could ask what their ph is at the store and if they lower it somehow .the other thing i would question is if the discus can do well with only 4 hours of light. you could google that and find out. sorry i can't help with the water but i would say a 30% change maybe every other day or so would get the green out but the problem is how did it get there in the first place? again you can google green water in planted tank and see if you get any good tips. i google so many aquarium questions or search this site. quite a few times my googled answers were from this site. lets hope some more experienced members will help.

 

[Johnstamos003]

Lowering the light that drastically was probably not the best - if you have dissolved nutrients that the algae are using - your plants are competing for those but only when the lights are on. If you want to back off on the light level - 12-4 was to much in my opinion. Try 8-10 hours a day and give your plants more time to use up available nutrients in the water through photosynthesis

 

[g_good]

I found my plan of action ( right or wrong) when I googled green water. I have modified it a bit.
Firstly green water is not dangerous. Actually fish like it. It is just unsightly.
A 20% water change every 2nd day was recommended. I chose to to a 20% change every day.
It said the light should be left on for 10 hours / day. That encourages plant growth.Plants compete with algae for the same nutrients so their growth is an important part of the cure.
I will continue to fertilize the plants for the same reason stated above.
I will do water changes 6 days a week & do a change plus clean the gravel & filters 1 day. I'll rinse the sponges in the disgarded water.
That is what the article said. I am still open to suggestions.

 

[g_good]

My plan !
I am going to remove 1/ 3 of the water daily & replace it with treated water.
I am reducing the hours of light from 12 to 8.
I will do 6 water changes a week &, on the 7th, I'll also syphon the gravel & wash the filter media in disgarded water.
What do you think ?

 

[Johnstamos003]

Not familiar with your specific article. Personal experience with any type of algae - I would either discontinue or serious reduce use of any liquid fertilizer until you are back in control of the tank.