Discus and EI??

[Riley]

I am planning on doing a 75 planted tank with 260 watts of Coralife PC. I want to go with the EI fert route. I also want to put some discus in there. I am curious will the discus be alright with the on 50 percent water change per week? Does anyone else do this or do they modify the fert schedule or the water changes? I really want to have healthy discus in this tank, and also I want some healthy growing plants. Thanks for your help.

[Madfish]

I have discus in my planted tank. And I do the EI method and 50% weekly water changes. One thing that alot of people say is if your doing this way get fully grown discus. But mine do just fine with this method.

[Riley]

Cool! Thank You!

[Naja002]

Not sure what your living situation is, but Auto and Semi-auto WC systems are not that difficult to setup and don't have to be expensive.

I have a 120g system with an Auto-WC that does a daily 20g WC. All by itself. Every day.

Another 53g system that is currently Semi-auto, but will be full Auto when I get my lazy-a** up and setup the timer for the drain cycle.

And a third 71g system that is Semi-auto. Turn a ball valve and start a timer. 7 min later turn the ball valve again and my part is done. It refills itself.

I just tore down a 55g today that was Semi-auto. Turn a ball valve, start the timer, 7.5 min later return, turn the ball valve, dose my ferts and walk away.

Well, worth the investment in time and money.

[plantbrain]

Another option for water changes:

If you buy a little giant sump pump with a garden hose, you can pump out the water and refill anywhere you might live.

The water can be pumped to the ground/plants/lawn etc, down the drain etc. Refill is simple as well.

A bucket and a bath tub/shower/sink etc, use the same pump to fill.

Takes a few minutes is all and you clean and do other things while you wait(glass, filter cleaning,trimming etc).

I spend about 1.5 hours or less per week on a large 300 gallon high light tank.
I spent about 15 minutes for the water change for a 90 gal planted discus tank I had 15 years ago. I just ran the siphon into the drain in the bathroom and refilled from the show head and a PVC attachment adapter from Home Depot.
The automated and semi automated methods are really the way to do it if you have this option.

Then there's very little motivation required.
It also does not make a mess.

Semi auto is my personal preference.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[Naja002]

Originally Posted by plantbrain

Semi auto is my personal preference.

Agreed, very simple and inexpensive to setup, and very, very convenient! But I've finally gotten around to setting up my dual charcoal filter for chlorine--so, now I'm going full auto!

[Riley]

Currently I dont have the luxury to set up a automatic water change system. I will in a few months once I get a fishroom together. Thanks for you help.