REDSTEVEO
Member
Hi All,
Those of you who have seen the latest update on my journal 'The Full Monty' will know that I bit the bullet and sold the remaining two male discus I had in my tank. You will have also seen recently the photographs of the proven pair of Super Red Flame Discus in my aquarium.
They have only been in a week and on Saturday night at 8.30pm they spawned around 200 eggs in a nice cluster. The TDS when I put them in was around 300. After a few partial water changes I managed to get the TDS down to just under 200. After 36 hours most of the eggs were still okay with no mould or fungus on them, after 48 hours about 60% had the white fungus on them. This morning after at the 60 hours point there are around 20 maybe 30 wrigglers on the pot, the parents are looking after them at the moment.
I believe that the high TDS has an adverse effect on the fertilisation process and on the hatching rate. My problem is if I do water changes to lower the TDS and don't add any plant fertilisers (EI or otherwise) some of the plants begin to melt and I also get an outbreak of BGA. So I am torn between getting a good fertilisation and hatching rate at the expense of the plants. My tap water has a very low GH and KH and if I don't add KH and GH buffers the plants also start to suffer, but the buffers combined with the fertilisers also raise the TDS levels to around 350 TDS. This is definitely too high for discus to get a proper fertilisation and good hatching rate.
A bit of a dilemma, so I wondered whether anyone has any thoughts or had any advice or suggestions on how to get the TDS down and keep the plants healthy. Its a bit of a juggling act at the moment.
I have consulted with Clive 'The Wise One' for his opinions as he is a bit of a Guru on the subject of EI, but all help or advice will be much appreciated.
Cheers,
Steve
Those of you who have seen the latest update on my journal 'The Full Monty' will know that I bit the bullet and sold the remaining two male discus I had in my tank. You will have also seen recently the photographs of the proven pair of Super Red Flame Discus in my aquarium.
They have only been in a week and on Saturday night at 8.30pm they spawned around 200 eggs in a nice cluster. The TDS when I put them in was around 300. After a few partial water changes I managed to get the TDS down to just under 200. After 36 hours most of the eggs were still okay with no mould or fungus on them, after 48 hours about 60% had the white fungus on them. This morning after at the 60 hours point there are around 20 maybe 30 wrigglers on the pot, the parents are looking after them at the moment.
I believe that the high TDS has an adverse effect on the fertilisation process and on the hatching rate. My problem is if I do water changes to lower the TDS and don't add any plant fertilisers (EI or otherwise) some of the plants begin to melt and I also get an outbreak of BGA. So I am torn between getting a good fertilisation and hatching rate at the expense of the plants. My tap water has a very low GH and KH and if I don't add KH and GH buffers the plants also start to suffer, but the buffers combined with the fertilisers also raise the TDS levels to around 350 TDS. This is definitely too high for discus to get a proper fertilisation and good hatching rate.
A bit of a dilemma, so I wondered whether anyone has any thoughts or had any advice or suggestions on how to get the TDS down and keep the plants healthy. Its a bit of a juggling act at the moment.
I have consulted with Clive 'The Wise One' for his opinions as he is a bit of a Guru on the subject of EI, but all help or advice will be much appreciated.
Cheers,
Steve
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