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Learn how to set up the best discus aquarium for your new pets

By Randy Green


A real, passionate aquarist knows the tank is only as useful as its ability to sustain nautical life. At the end of the day, it's your private calculations and changes that will dictate if your discus fish will live for another week or fall prey to a natural death in the captive waters of your tank.

Knowing the necessities of an ideal discus aquarium will bring you one step closer to being able to raise tiny discus fish types to full maturity. Here are some axioms to get you going on the right track:

The minimum size for the species' tank that may house discus fish 24 across. Don't put your discus fish in any other tank that's smaller than 24 as the water volume won't be enough to raise healthy fish. Utilize a smaller tank only as a temporary quarantining area for new or sick fish.

Tank cycling is a S.O.P. Standard operating procedure, irrespective of what species you are looking to keep. The minimum time for cycling is one week. Seasoned aquarists may even insist to cycle a tank for a complete 5 weeks before keeping discus fish there.

With the price of discus fish rising every year, it is not surprising that private breeders and pro aquarists are not willing to take any possibilities with their new discus stocks.

An ideal tank has three types of filtering systems installed: biological, chemical, and mechanical. The biological system will take care of the ammonia by encouraging the growth of beneficial bacteria that will denitrify the water.

A chemical system, from the other viewpoint, will absorb and disable other chemical products that may build up in the water. The water in your tank is known as a system because a few natural processes happen in it without your knowing it.

Eventually, a mechanical filter system will look after solid waste and other slivers the two other systems can't dump. Mechanical filters are frequently equipped with a straightforward floss mesh that traps sizeable particles in the water. All 3 systems need electricity in order to work, because water has to be pumped through the system and back to the tank. The renewing of the water has to be done continuously to maintain high water quality in the tank.

The advocated pH for a discus tank is 6.5 to 7. Commercial discus strains will prosper moderately on hard water while the wild strain prefers softer and more acidic tank water.

At about that point in time, it's a wise move if you buy a water toughness testing kit and a pH testing kit, so you can monitor your water closely. Zeolite may be used if the ammonia in the water is getting out of control.

Zeolite is loaded into a chemical filter as a substitute filtering media. This mineral traps the ammonia until it can?t absorb the chemical any more. If the water is getting too acidic, an alkaline buffer could be purchased to govern the acidity. If the water is getting too alkaline, acidifying agents may be utilised as well.




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