Discus Shedding Its Slim Coat

[shaz-killie]

that was the unsolved issue, my tank always reads 6.6. and my tap water is over 8

 

[foley69]

the best thing to do is what i see and do is take the water out of the tank say you do a 25-30% water change and each bucket of fresh water i add dechlor to it before adding to the tank thats the best and safest way to add water aging doesnt really do much just evaporates the chlorine out of the water but whats the point when ya can just use dechlor makes sense really

 

[shaz-killie]

yeah I've added conditioner first thing then a few hours later done another change and used the conditioner again, hopefully this will help

 

[foley69]

yea just keep addign the conditioner which one do you have btw

 

[shaz-killie]

at the moment it was one I found that my dad had gave me when he shut down his tank API stress zyme but i normally use nutrafin hagen aqua plus which I'll bulk order

 

[foley69]

best thing for the job is seachem prime its about £10 but its super concentrated 5ml treats 200litres of water will last u about 6 month try getting it off ebay it also detoxifys ammonia,nitrite and nitrate it just stinks awful

 

[shaz-killie]

thanks will have a look

 

[rabbut]

thats where the problem may lie doing a 70% water change without using dechlor theres nothing to kill of the chlorine i wouldnt dream of doin even a 10% water change without using dechlor mainly tetra aqua safe or seachem prime... try using dechlor when doing a nice big water change and there might be a difference

In a new tank, waterchanging without using dechlorinator is asking for trouble, but is actually not required in a mature tank. DO (Disolved Organics) and bacteria in the tank itself are killed or absorbed by the chlorine, reducing the chance of infection and creating plant fertilisers long before said chlorien can affect the fish or filters. This also nutralises the chlorien. I do twice weekly 50% waterchanges on my Discus tank, rarely using conditioner, and never have a problem... If there are contaminants in the tap water, this can upset the fish, and most contioners will remove them. If you are having issues and water is one suspected caurse, start adding conditioner again if you aren't using it. For the most part though, even sources that use chloramine, require no conditioner provided the tank is mature.

To be clear however, I do not recomend you give up using Dechlorinator, unless you have done sufficient research on your own part to satisfy yourself that the risk is neglegeble. I accept no responcibility for fish losses if you choose to stop using dechlorinator as this is always a risk, though I believe it to be neglegeble in a mature tank The safest advice is to use it at every waterchange regardless

Test the PH of your water straight from the tap and seperatly test the PH of your tank, It sounds like you are going straight from the faucet into the tank. If your ph fluctuates that will also irritate the fish. That is why you are supposed to age your water in buckets overnight before doing a water change.

Aging buckets of water covernight can acctually avoid pH fluctuations. If your tap water is laiden with CO2, it's pH will be lower than that in the tank. Leaving it overnight will let said CO2 gas off, and the pH to rise again. Similarly, some water boards add buffers to their water to get a target pH. Leaving water to stand will usualy lead to these buffers breaking down. Ageing water isn't needed for small waterchanges, or where the water board does not use buffers/where CO2 in tap water is neglegable, but it isn't quite an obselete part of fish keeping...

Small waterchanges and for sources with no buffers/CO2, a tap water conditioner will make your water ready for instant use In all other cases, age your water.

at the moment it was one I found that my dad had gave me when he shut down his tank API stress zyme but i normally use nutrafin hagen aqua plus which I'll bulk order

API Stress Zyme contains Aloe Vera to "boost the slime coat". I would not use it for Discus, as the only way I can see it doing this, is by irritating the fishes skin. Discus, according to some sources, are also particularly sencitive to Aloe. I have asked the API rep at work how it works, but he always finds a way to dodge the question. Untill someone can show me an alternative way for Aloe to "enhance the slime coat" other than skin irritation, I will continue to advise against it's use, especially for Discus keepers

All the best and HTH
Rabbut

 

[Jim Curtis]

Your fish are stressed obviously from the change in PH, as rabbut said, age your water in a bucket overnight with an airstone to gas off the co2 and let the ph stabilize before adding it to the tank. Stesszyme is not going to help with your PH swings.

Whoever said that aging water dosent do anything but allow it to evaporate obviously needs to do some reading about water before replying in a thread like this..

Using aged water is pretty much discus 101.

 

[rabbut]

This said, I never age my water....

Gosh if people on here know how "slap dashed" I kept my fish, most members would want to shoot me

Still, it works for me, got wriggler angel fry earlier this week, before the other fish in the tank decided that it was xmas again and live food was on the menu...

All the best
Rabbut

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

I don't age my water either it goes straight into the tank with dechlor. Dechlor does the same thing aging does.

 

[shaz-killie]

ok thanks people however I have one question, why is it that these two particular discus only seem to go ill when I rinse the internal filter sponge? other than that they were always happy. and I rinse my sponge in tank water.

my water conditions are the exact same in the tank where they have decided to breed, yet these two (which were the poor quality ones I first bought seem to get ill all the time, rest of the stock are fine)

I'll get another water conditioner today and some of that stuff you said in an earlier post rab and see how it goes. I assume I can still keep doing the water changes? aged water really isn't possibly as I do two 50% changes a day so I don't have the space to have that amount of water lying around as I live in a flat

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

ok thanks people however I have one question, why is it that these two particular discus only seem to go ill when I rinse the internal filter sponge? other than that they were always happy. and I rinse my sponge in tank water.

Sorry I'm kind of confused. You rinse your sponge in tank water?

If you are rinsing it in tap water or water with chlorine in it, then it could be killing off your bacteria and causing the Ammonia/Nitrite to spike. But then again, because you are doing 70% water changes with non de chlorinated water, shouldn't the bacteria colony be effected each time?

 

[rabbut]

I don't age my water either it goes straight into the tank with dechlor. Dechlor does the same thing aging does.

Not quite. Dechlor won't gas off CO2 if it's presant, where as aging does... EDIT to add this section... Discuslova, Dechlorinator isn't an essectial as may state. You can get away without it in a mature tank in most cases, see my above long post about it... End of edit...

APT Stress coat is no good. Try Prime (as recomended by foley69) or just plain API Tap Water Conditioner. Just to be clear, as your last post sounded like you may be about to use the iffy one

The fish being put off by filter cleans could be due to upsetting them by interfering with the tank (as it's an internal) or an un-detactable mini-cycle due to the cleaning. As you are using tank water, a full cycle isn't going to happen. You will displace some bacteria however, so a mini-cycle will occur, just below where we can detect it

All the best
Rabbut

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

I don't age my water either it goes straight into the tank with dechlor. Dechlor does the same thing aging does.

Not quite. Dechlor won't gas off CO2 if it's presant, where as aging does... EDIT to add this section... Discuslova, Dechlorinator isn't an essectial as may state. You can get away without it in a mature tank in most cases, see my above long post about it... End of edit...

You are correct about the C02 I didn't really think of that when I was writing that reply, but my fish don't really get upset by the C02. I can always see the bubbles all over the tank but they go away after 5-10 minutes.