Reply With Quotegot coral chip good! over time the coral chip will melt away by the low pH water : )
Hmm thanks for the heads up. I was told that it was pH neutral. I'll monitor my pH closely!
got coral chip good! over time the coral chip will melt away by the low pH water : )
colin | The Wilderness and Forest | FTS
It's good for this tank (I actually put coral bits in the sump) as I want to maintain it at pH 6+. Using RO it always falls into the 5s at least, then I correct with Seachem Alkaline buffer.
In the other tank though, I want pH to drop to sub 5 (previously was 3.7), as my blackwater fish (heckels, altums etc) love it. Coral sand would be bad for that tank
The packaging says that it creates pH around 6.5 to 7 if I saw it correctly.
It's a nice looking sand, much more pleasing to the eyes than Sudo is.
Fish.. Simply Irresistable
Back to Killies... slowly.
It has been ages since I last updated this thread. Are people still interested in the progress of my discus?
I've changed the tankmates a little since the last update, replacing the Biotodoma cupido with Geophagus neambi (formerly G. sp "Aereos") instead, as the B. cupido were not doing their designated job of keeping the tank clean!
I have also switched sand to a much whiter looking one (GEX "Pure Sand" instead of SUDO "Bottom Sand") and the fish seem to appreciate the lighter coloured sand much more.
The red in some of the fish has really started to pop, and it's only been 2 months! These pictures were actually taken last week, and over the weekend I have seen the red develop even more.
Ok enough talk, on to the pictures!
FTS
Group Shots
Individual Shots
After adding the new guy and changing the sand, there has been a shuffle up in the hierarchy of the tank! The one I dubbed "Big Royal" has been displaced from his alpha position to #2, and one of the formerly more timid Semi-Royals (the one I previously said was "Spotted" - and my wife has named "Pinky" due to his formerly pink colouration) is the new alpha of the tank. Here he is:
Nonetheless, the royal is still as spectacular, and has developed a deep red tone in addition to his brilliant blue striations:
Here's an update of the new guy, who has also turned reddish:
All in all, I'm rather happy with this entire batch of Curuai xlg. The only thing I can consider a "blip" is the one that came wrongly packed - the "Brown Centre Bar" which is the most timid of the lot and hides alot and shows no sign yet of turning red. He was a piece that somehow got wrongly packed in. However, Big Royal seems to like Brown Centre Bar alot, perhaps potential for future pairing?
By the way, no fear about the GEX sand affecting pH. My blackwater biotope tank is at pH 4.3, and this tank fell to 5.0 before I had to add coral chips to raise it back to 6.7
Nice!
Your discus are really beautiful and stunning.
Got 1 question which i like to ask, i realise some of the discus have wavy ventral whereas some have very straight ventral. Are those genetical?
And also saw that you have quite a handful of cory in the tank. Was wondering do you have a chiller on for them? Or maybe a fan?
I think the ventral shape is just morphological (like patterns). Not sure if it's a genetic trait or not. I actually didn't take notice of it!
No chiller or fan for the cories. This tank actually is very very warm. The cabinet was initially built for canisters, and thus has very poor airflow. Now that I'm using a sump, heat gets trapped inside the cabinet and the water temperature is usually above 30 degrees.
Oh! as for the case of betta, from my understanding, when it was young and living condition is not optimal, their ventral tend to be wavy, thus i wonder if this applies to discus too. Point to discuss on in future haha
May i check what cory and angelfish are those in your tank?
The angelfish are wildcaught Pt scalare from the Altamira, which is in the middle of the Rio Xingu (same area as where L46 Hypancistrus zebra are found). Cories are farmbred C. duplicareus.
How are all these wilds doing 3 years on?
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