RE: Discus Keepers

["Daphne Freeman" <daphne.freeman at charter_net>]

Let's see...

My 92 gallon is heavily planted with 6 discus, cardinal tetras, SAE's,
ottos, Amano shrimp, flag fish, farlowella, zebra pleco, and Adolfo corys.
I have both stems and nonstems and unfortunately GW and other algae
currently!  My water is very soft.  I had laterite initially but had to tear
my tank down to modify the stand and with the mess it created when ripping
plants out and the nightmare in mud it created during teardown, I hosed it
all out and don't plan to ever use it again! (it gets chilly standing
outside in February in an ice storm hosing out a big tank and 150 pounds of
gravel!!)  Currently, I use

50-60% Flourite mixed with plain gravel
Dupla cables with controller
250 watt metal halide on timer for 12 hour days
CO2 injection with reactor and controller (6.7-6.9 pH)
Eheim canister

Tank stays between 83-84 degrees.
Hardness (GH and KH) 3-4
Nitrates (5-10PPM)  I try to stay on low end to keep rotala macandra red
Phosphates (.5-1.5) lots of phosphates in my tap, gets a bit high with large
water changes

TMG (30-40 mL a week)
Seachem Alkaline Buffer
Seachem Equilibrium
Seachem Flourish Iron (2-4 mL a week)
Seachem Flourish Potassium (6-8 mL a week)
Seachem Flourish Nitrate (4-6 mL a week)

Plants like glosso go crazy as do the stems.  I have everything from a
massive barclaya down to riccia and most everything grows well.  Currently,
I can't get my bolbitis to do anything, it is blackish in color oddly
enough. This plant was doing well but looks kind of dead now.  It is harder
to keep things in balance because you have to feed so much and frozen foods
make it worse.  I've experienced more algae issues with the discus than
before.  My tank would make JoAnn jealous currently with that beautiful
green water and pom pom algae and some new and delightful algae on my stems!
Thank goodness for UVs and massive water changes!  One thing I have noticed
though.  When I was throwing food in by the bucket loads, the discus seemed
much more calm.  I have cut their food back and they are much more skittish.
It is much more difficult in terms of balancing but they are beautiful.

Daphne