Ei Help

[angelmouse]

just wondering the best way to dose my ferts. in the Ei topic in pinned section it says about doing 1 50% water change during the weekly dosing schedule. I was wondering about how to do mine as being discus i like to give my tank more frequent wc's normally aprox 15-20% 3x a week, how would this fit into the routine. was thinking maybe 1day no3 & po4, next day traces, next day water change continuosly will this be ok
thanks Angel

 

[plantbrain]

Bing Seto, Dick Au etc all live here locally.
They keep plants as well.
Generally I've suggested standard EI with about 1/2 the suggested KNO3/KH2PO4 if you are feeding them heavy in a well stocked tank and doing 2x a week 50-60% water changes.

FYI, a 20% WC 3x a week is not = weekly 60%.

Dilution series do not work that way, you still have 80% of the remainder left and not the 100% each water change. So you only remove a fraction of the remainder, not 100% of each 20% you do.

Math wise, it's called an infinite series.

If you changed 100%, then it would be starting brand new and be like a reference solution each time.

If you change 50% weekly say, then the dosing would only build up to 2x that value you dosed that week.

So say you dosed 15ppm total NO3 from KNO3.
The max build up due to that dosing would be 30ppm, that assumes no uptake.

If you reduce the water change volume, the trade is that you cannot have that same re set ability, it gets a lot smaller as you do smaller water changes.

We found that 2 slow hour water changes done daily changed about 20% of the water. This came out to about = to a 40-50% water change done once a week.

So it seems that's a lot of work and trade off for a little bit more work just once a week vs daily.
Now if you have an auto water changer, then that's different.

20% daily is about right.

But that's a lot of RO and wastewater and a lot of RO water.
140% vs 50% weekly

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[BHornsey]

Hi Angelmouse,

I've been keeping Discus for a while now. The frequent w/c for Discus is to prevent water quality deteriorating. Planted tanks prevent that happening; the plants soak up the waste products from the fish. I've got 7 Discus in my 115G tank and they are quite happy with 50% weekly changes using Yorkshire tap water.

Most commercial bred Discus are pretty adapted to European water; it's only if you keep wild caught that it might become a problem. People have reported that soft, fresh water was required to breed them but I think that now longer holds true: fishes adapt over time.

 

[angelmouse]

Thanks for help it makes sense after i read it afew times. So if i understand right i am better off just doing 1 big water change, especially as i use r/o water as my tap water is vv.hard however with the co2 bringing the ph down i might use abit more tapwater, what is the best way of preparing the tapwater, i normally leave it airating overnight with water conditioner, wondering weather i need to leave it to airate or can add it straight away after adding water conditioner, i airate the r/o overnight too. i have alot more plants arriving anytime now so i shall start ei when they have been planted.
Thanks again Angel

 

[BHornsey]

Hmm, hard to say; just how hard water is your water? Doncaster's is kH 6, gH 13.
I have an RO but don't use it for the tanks now. I just pass it through the RO's pre-filters which cleans it up, into a 50 gall water butt, heat it overnight then pump it into the tank for a w/c.
If your water is much harder then you could cut some RO back in to drop the kH down.

My Discus are quite happy with the regime

 

[angelmouse]

My tap is
ph-8.2
kh-12
gh-17
i normally mix 85% r/o 15%tap for main tank and with co2 its normally around ph6.7 kh-3. but am having trouble keeping ph low in my breeding tank without co2 it wont go lower than 7.6 tryed adding more r/o but not much difference.They are laying egg but the eggs keep growing fungus
Angel

 

[BHornsey]

With a tank KH of around three you should be OK breeding Discus.
Is the breeding tank planted or bare?
Don't get too hung up on the pH, it's not as critical as you may think.

Just keep trying, often it takes three or four layings before a successful hatch occurs.

 

[angelmouse]

its bare with their favorite peice of bogwood that they like to lay eggs on and sponge filter. they lay every 5-6 days but eat the eggs
Angel

 

[BHornsey]

Just been thinking about that; the fungus could be transferring off the bogwood. My bogwood often gets some 'fuzz' on it.

Try looking for one of the hatching cones, you might have better success.

 

[angelmouse]

BrianH i think you are right about the bogwood, i did have a flowerpot in there but they ignored it for their favorite peice of wood, they are cleaning it now so i think more eggs are on the way.

Plants arrived, up till very late planting, haven't done the HC yet i think that will be a long job itself so not looking forward to it. Mixed up my dry ferts ready to start, do i start straight away or is it best to let plants settle first.
Also removed my bristlenose's for a while as i have no doubt their rummageing around in the plants will uproot most of them till they take root.

 

[BHornsey]

Hi Angelmouse,

When I plant up I make sure I dose and then raise CO2 before I put the lights on.
Once planted, they need good nutrient levels so that they can settle in. They won't do that if they're limited.