“The Novice Nitch”, by Steve Findlay N.A.D.S
This article is dedicated to the obvious. Also to all the stupid, inconsiderate and inconsistent things done to discus under my care. It is true that confession is healing and therefore I am admitting what I have discovered about keeping healthy discus. The format of this article is simplistic because anyone who needs to read it is by nature at least as slow as I am in their fish keeping. It may also be true that, like me, the reader may not be able to take directions from labels or from the leading authors in the field. In my case, each solution has to be learned the hard way and each new method rediscovered.
I do not breed or sell discus. I keep 40 or so here and there. Therefore, I have no problem in addressing basic fish-keeping techniques all of which I have done wrong at one time or another. I can say that the single solution to many problems would be to have a central water holding tank where the pH is consistent. Instead, I have tanks at work and at home which I manually change the water.
In learning how to keep this fish, we novices must learn to take measurements of the environment in which our fish swim. The problem is that so many things can be measured that one must figure out which thing is the most important to the discus! This article is dedicated to the pH measurement. Since this article is for beginners, I will skip the chemistry and let you read the standard stuff found in many articles and reference books. Instead, I will relate my experiences with pH measurements. For years, (here comes the confession) I changed the water in my tanks at a rate of 50% per week. Fish looked great, for a while. Then cloudy eye or another problem would appear. At this point, the Chinese fire drill started (apologies to my Chinese friends) and I would do a water change. My fish would look sick for a day and then do great. I would resume my schedule of weekly water changes. Before long, the same thing would occur.
Most of you know what the problem is, but in case not, here is how I discovered the answer. I bought one of those “toy” pH meters along with some pH buffer for calibration. Then I could whip it out at the office where I keep my fish and do a quick and lazy pH determination. I then kept a written record of pH readings. After a 50% water change, the pH in a 30 gallon tank was 7.9. By increasing the number of pH readings, I made my discovery. The pH might hold steady for 1 to 3 days but eventually the pH would fall 1 whole unit per day. In a few days the pH could be 4.5 NOT SO GOOD! A little delay in the weekly water change and the fish would undergo acid toxicity. During a water change, the pH swing would go from about 4.5 to as high as 8.0. It’s a wonder I did not have more problems. I found the color metric method to be slow and not nearly as accurate in my hands as the pH pen.
So the moral is, pH is really important, and it must be monitored. A simple pH device that occasionally calibrated using the manufacturer’s directions is all a novice needs or, if you’re patient, the color metric kits are great. In the process of measuring Carbonate Hardness, I found our local water has very little carbonate hardness but is relatively hard (It has calcium in it). In order to have the pH remain stable, I add baking soda (NaCO3) to bring the carbonate hardness to 200ppm using the Mardel dip-stick. The baking soda acts as a buffer which will resist any pH change away from about 7. Actually, I did this once and found about 2 tsps. was about enough for my 30 gallon tank. So now I just add 2 tsps. After each water change and recheck the pH. If I over shoot (pH 8.5) I carefully add acid (sold in my local pet shop). This is a rare event. IT IS EASY TO OVER_DO THE ACID< SO BE CAREFULL! In the case of my particular tank, the pH stays greater than 6 for 7 days but I still do a 50% water change after 7 days.
I have found that discus don’t like a pH change more than 2 units during a water change. Since I am a novice, I do not have a water conditioning holding tank (which I promise to do when I have room) and I tend to hurry at times. If the pre-water change pH is less than 6.0, I will add soda first then do the water change. This saves time and seems to stress the fish less.
Now that you have waded through all of this, all you have to remember is to “Measure the pH frequently”. Biological filtration stops at a pH of less than 6.5 (some experts say). If your tank has a pH crash, constant monitoring of the pH will detect it and resolve the problem quickly. Any method used to keep the water environment stable will help your fish. Since I am a novice, follow my advice at your own risk!
Naively yours, Steve Findlay
Editors note: Steve makes a good point about fluctuating pH keep in mind that at the low pH Steve was experiencing of 4.5 there would be ammonium from fish and food waste build-up (not toxic) present in the water and as the pH rose above 7 this would turn into ammonia which could result in very toxic water conditions for your discus, something to keep in mind when doing large water changes.
“The Novice Nitch”, by Steve Findlay, N.A.D.S.
Novice’s Niche; for those of you who are following this column, in the last issue you read the sad tale of a discus lover who keeps four tanks. The water is changed manually without the use of a holding tank to pre-condition the water. I also told you of my folly and initial ignorance concerning careful pH determinations and the consequences thereof. Now, I thought my confessions should reveal another important area. This concerns discus behaviour. Remember if you really know your discus you don’t need to read this article. (This is why it’s called Novice’ Niche).
How should discus act?
Why is discus behaviour important to fish keeping?
Most obviously, a change in behaviour reflects upon the health of the fish. The easiest behaviour change to detect is when a discus begins facing the back of the tank and not vigorously eating. Even us novices will note any darkening of the fishes body since, along with fasting, is a gross sign of either poor water conditions (pH, dissolved organic build-up, or nitrite excess) or disease. Over the last few years I have begun to slowly realize that more subtle changes in behaviour can be easily recognized and usually indicates that the novice is doing something that is not grossly wrong but that will lead to stunting of the fish or at least poor coloration. The behaviour, that I must admit that I ignored, was that the fish did not do the following:
(1) Roam around the tank at a casual pace (cruising)
(2) Peck each other occasionally
(3) Stay in a loose pack or school (not tightly packed)
(4) Begged whenever I came near the tank (I promise I feed my fish well!)
(5) Pick at the bottom
---IN OTHER WORDS: a quiet bunch of discus that eat but are not behaving somewhat like a bunch of kids (or adults). In active discus may have a slowly developing disease, or more likely, they may not be optimally maintained (food, water, temperature, pH, crowding). My confession is that I had one tank out of three which had a bunch of quiet, shy, not begging discus. These fish were not prized fish. They still had weekly water changes but were slightly over-crowded. The foam filters were not serviced regularly and the behaviour of the fish ignored. After one year these fish were very healthy looking but small. Now with slightly more water changes and giving 5 fish away, I have a rowdy bunch of discus (at least as rowdy as discus get). They scope out each cranny in the tank instead of hiding half the day. So there is healthy fish, sick fish, and in between fish. The last group may be detected by watching the behaviour of your fish. If you notice a change in behaviour you may be able to correct a problem early, rather than waiting until disaster strikes.
Naively yours,
Steve Findlay (N.A.D.S.)
“The Novice Nitch”, by Steve Findlay, N.A.D.S.
Those of you that read the past two “Novice Nitch” articles know that this column is dedicated to the “not serious enough” hobbyist who keeps discus, but at times has made observations or discoveries concerning his own naive approach towards raising discus. The first article discussed the pH crash that occurs in most discus tanks at one time or another and the second discussed crowding which leads to slow growing, stunted fish. It is embarrassing to talk about errors that I have made in the past but, since this seems to be the best way to learn, I hope that these articles can help the novice avoid my mistakes.
In this article, I would like to discuss my experience with trickle filters. Having attended the discus meeting in March of 1989, I met a breeder and purchased 25 small discus. These were shipped to me and were very nice in quality and color. I placed them in a 55 gallon tank with sponge filters and enjoyed watching their growth. Then, as the fish grew, I began to notice that they weren’t vigorous, free swimming, and rowdy. Although they ate, I knew that this was an early sign of an adverse condition in the tank and it didn’t seem that water changes made a difference, it was very short-lived. Luckily, I had read “Our Discus” as well as other publications on trickle filters so I decided to try my hand at building one. If the “filter” worked well, I believed I could reduce water change frequency.
Being neither particularly handy at construction techniques nor wanting to spend a lot of money for a small volume trickle system, I came up with the following scheme for building an inexpensive large volume trickle filter. First, I went to our local grocery store and bought the following items: A 30 gallon trash can that was rectangular in shape and about two feet tall. It came with a top. The material was fairly rigid and made by Rubbermaid ($18.00). I also bought a sprinkler type hose at the grocery store ($4.00). This hose is flat and about 10 feet long. It has thousands of holes in it and is blocked at one end. The other end is fitted with a standard sized water hose fitting “female” type. This type hose is designed for watering lawns.
Next, I went to the local gun shop and bought 5 gallons of plastic shotgun “wadding” costing about $7.50 per gallon.
Next, I ordered an Eheim 1250 hobby pump (about $65.00). I’d heard these had less of a tendency to burn out, should water flow be restricted to the trickle filter.
The next stop was at our local whole-sale department store where I bought a giant-size pillow made of a synthetic material that was “washable” (price $5.00). Editors note: you need to make sure this material is not toxic with chemicals like formaldehyde.
I realize as I am writing about construction techniques, it is hard to imagine exactly how to build a filter. Simply stated, I took a trash can and put the Eheim pump in the bottom. This particular pump has foam that surrounds the intake port of the pump. The line carrying water away from the pump to the tank was fitted with clear tygon tubing bought at the local hardware store. To finish the water return, I purchased a ½ inch diameter, U-shaped Eheim plastic tube that hangs on the wall of the tank and lets water enter through a flat narrow exit port. (I wasn’t successful at taking stiff plastic tubing, heating it and creating a U-shaped curve appropriate for this purpose.) Anyway, I took the plastic shotgun wadding and filled the trash can up leaving the top six inches empty. On top of this, I laid the sprinkler tubing.
The sprinkler tubing is flat in nature, has tiny holes in it for watering lawns here in Texas and is available at any hardware store. It has thousands of tiny holes in it. These holes unfortunately, are too small for use without high pressure water so I simply took a fine pair of finger nail scissors and cut larger openings throughout the length of this tubing. I then coiled the hose into a coil. The coiled hose fit nicely on top of the shotgun wadding. I secured the coil together using a monofilament type fishing line. Thus, the flat hose rolled into a coil sits on top of the shot gun wadding. (Since this time, I have developed a drip tray, but both systems work fine.)
Another addition was a one-inch thick layer of the pillow stuffing. This serves two functions: Water shooting upward out of the coil tube is caught and drips back down over the plastic wadding and doesn’t spray all over the underside of the trash can top.
The final steps include putting the trash top in place and cutting a whole large enough for the tubing that brings water to and from the tank. I connected the tygon tubing that brought water from the tank to the “sprinkler hose” using a water hose repair kit male connector. Draining water from the tank in my case was simplified since I had a tank with a pre-drilled hole in the tank bottom. If you do not have a drilled tank, a siphon can be purchased through mail order houses or you can construct one yourself.
To make a long story short, the water goes from the tank to a sprinkler hose that is resting on top of a 2-foot depth of plastic shotgun wadding material. It exits the holes cut in the sprinkler hosing and drips down over the shotgun shell wadding to the bottom of the trash can. The hobby pump returns the water to the tank. One can adjust the rate of flow using a water hose valve on the inflow side. In my case, I was fortunate in that the inflow rate seemed appropriate and did not need restriction.
Even if you don’t get the exact picture, the point is that, with simple materials purchased from you grocery and hardware stores, you can really make a high-volume trickle system for well under $200.00.
The most interesting thing about this story was what happened when it came time to turn the trickle system on. I expected a beneficial effect to only be obvious after weeks of bacteria colonization of the system. Much to my surprise, literally within ten minutes after turning on the Eheim, the discus went from a very quiet mood to swimming over the tank and eating more vigorously than they had in a week. I think this has to do with the oxygen levels which can increase using a trickle filter (see the saltwater aquarium literature).
One final word of warning: Be sure that the container for your trickle filter system can hold enough water so that if your pump should stop, the siphon won’t empty enough water to overflow and flood your house.
My final appraisal of trickle systems is that if you are a novice facing an overcrowding problem, a high volume trickle will help, at least temporarily, to avoid huge water changes. Eventually, of course the fish will always outgrow the water volume they are in until you reach a ratio of about 10 gallons or more per adult fish. On the other hand, since it is so inexpensive to produce trickle filters in this manner, it appears to be a basic and important feature in every discus tank of a novice. So until I get unlimited water for water changes, I will continue to use my home-made trickle system!
Naively yours,
Steven R. Findlay
