Take a look at the tank at the bottom of this post. This is a big big tank by Tom Barr (with many discus) and is full EI. Ther is also a pic to show how big it is with Tom Barr himself 'maintaining' it.
EI (Estimitive Index) means dosing an excess of nutrients (more than the plants should need) and then 50% water changing each week to dilute 'reset' the tank.
The dosing regime I linked to is a leaner dosing regime so that you still dose but you dose smaller quantities meaning that you dont need to do the heavy water changes and so that you dont have to worry about high anything.
It seems to me that from your posts you have come to the right place as you seem to have been given a lot of 'old school' advice.
Nitrates and Phosphates should not be feared. If the plants are growing well they will use them and help your fears diminish. Yes you need to dose them. No your fish will not suffer. The quantities in EI are a lot less than discus will tolerate (This tank is proof..Look at the colouration of the fish!!). The quantities in the link I gave are much less than EI.
You have 3.75(ish) WPG with all 5 lights on and this is a lot. If they are all independently switched then use them front to back to simulate the sun passing over. 1 light, 2 lights, 3 lights, 3 lights, 2 lights, 1 light over 12 hours. Use timers. It will look good and twill simulate nature a little better. The grolux and Triplus should be 2 and 4 as they are plant growth lights. The freshwater is the best T8 colouration IMO out there (1 T8 freshwater in my dig pic - 0.6WPG!!!) so make this 3 (for midday) the triton can 'start' the day and the daylight plus finish the day.
So your timers would be (assuming 12 pm start)
Light 1 - 12 - 6
Light 2 - 2 - 6
Light 3 - 4 - 8
Light 4 = 6 - 10
Light 5 = 10 - 12
This would reduce the light from 3WPG and stagger tha start in and end out plus give a boost in the middle of the day.
Uvs kill bacteria, parasites and algae spores that are not attached to hosts and are free flowing in the water. Bacteria in the filter is safe, parasites on the fish will live on and algae on the plants will stay.. They dont touch nutrients. A lot of us use them with no ill effects to the plants and definate pluses for the fish in terms of killing parasites
Your tank shilst looking full to you looks half full to me. I think you need to prune a little and then plant up to 75% of the substrate (you have the front 50% open) The plants will also help you combat algae.
I have to stick with the feeling that you should start with fresh plants and keep on top of them. The dosing site I linked to is a tank with no special substrate.
Tom Barr's (plantbrain) discus Tank
'Maintenance'
Andy
SuperColey1,all iknow is it seems to grow more around the bottom of my plants,ive checked the link you posted but it dont look as green as that,all i know is that i can syphon it out no trouble but within a few days its back,this is the part i dont understand,healthy plants good co2 and light should mean no algae,but in my case it dont,so if you have any suggestions on how to combat this then it would be much appreciated
