A couple of questions

[MissClaire]

Hi all,

1. I now have my temp up to 28 degrees for my discus...
Is this too high for some of my other fish?

2. What is a recommended PH to keep my tank around for the fish I currently own. Im trying to get it under 7, at the moment it varies from 7.1-7.4 but im not too sure what I should be aiming for.

Thanks for the help
`Claire

 

[jams.alaskan]

How are you trying to lower your ph?

ALASKA

 

[yhbae]

Hi all,

1. I now have my temp up to 28 degrees for my discus...
Is this too high for some of my other fish?

2. What is a recommended PH to keep my tank around for the fish I currently own. Im trying to get it under 7, at the moment it varies from 7.1-7.4 but im not too sure what I should be aiming for.

Thanks for the help
`Claire

Although 28 will be fine for your fishes in the short term, I normally only go there in the fry tanks where I want faster growth. 25 or 26 is more typical.

Also, your native pH is fine for all of your species.

It appears that you have one discus and you are trying to adapt the whole tank towards that one fish. In the long term, you are probably better off returning discuss (which you need a group of them to keep them happy) and focus the whole tank for the remaining species. 26C for temperature and leave your pH where it is... You really don't want to get into messing with pH business...

 

[MissClaire]

I have two discus - soon to have three. And im not giving them up hehe I love them waaaay too much now!

Im lowering my Ph with 'ph down' but if you recommend that my PH is ok where it is at ... then I wont fiddle with it

So my current fish should be able to withstand the tempreture of 28 degrees? Or not really....

 

[David]

I don't think so. I kept my tank at 29-30 when I had discus and the other fish were all fine. They ate like pigs due to faster metabolism but that's the price you pay for having discus.

 

[MissClaire]

gosh they already eat like pigs as it is!

 

[pnyklr3]

I tired pH down once in my tank. That lasted for all of a few hours before the pH skyrocketed back up again (does this have to do with buffering?). My tap water is 8.4 and very hard. Since I've decided to keep apistos, I've switched to R/O water (slowly of course) so that I can easily maintain the pH without having to worry about swings that may kill my fish.

I was told not to use the pH down because of the swings and that it would be easier just not to mess with it.

 

[yhbae]

As mentioned already, unless if you are serious about breeding difficult species (such as discuss), you shouldn't mess with water chemistry. Most fishes can adapt well outside of their native environment ranges.

MissClaire, I would continue what you are doing - keep the temperature as is, and see what happens. I doubt you will face any serious problems. The only potential issue is that discuss seriously needs clean water, so you may need to water change more frequently (which of course, benefits other species) and watch out for quality of food as well. If you can keep discuss alive, I'm sure other species will thrive in that tank...

 

[MissClaire]

^^^ Thanks for the advice, also David has been really helpfull as well. Im going to do more frequent water changes from now on because I know my discus will benefit greatly from that.
I feed them discus breeders choice premium pellets, so only the good stuff for my babies hehe
As for the PH, I think I will stop trying to fiddle with it, all the flactuating cant be good for them and the PH down only keeps it down for so long.