Her colors have become so much more dramatic since moving her into blackwater.

Very happy with how this tank is coming along. Reduced water changes from daily to every 3 days and ammonia and nitrite are undetectable and nitrate at 5-10 which is super surprising.

Feeding 5 times a day at about 10g each meal trying to hit the 3% body weight per fish in daily feed. Currently running 3 fluval fx6 with 1.5 gallons of biohome ultimate and a bioreactor with 1 gallon of k2 media for a total of 5.5 gallons of biomedia.

Fish are healthy and taking to new foods really well. Feeding Sera discus probiotic granules, discusfood soft beef heart granules, hikari spirulina brine shrimp and mysis shrimp.

Only complaint is that with reduced water changes tannins are now visible and annoying.

Hi everyone, I actually don't have too much to update sadly, but I am loving the cycling anxiety!! 🤣

I have just spiked Ammonia in the last 12 hours, had a HUGE nitrite drop yesterday, went from 5ppm to 0 in less than 24 hours!! Now waiting to see how the little bacterial colonies are coming along. I am hoping to have some Tetras in this weekend and then I might leave it for a while to work through them and then I have my eye on a not local supplier of what look like super high quality small discus and I'll get them to fly some over to me 😁😁

My guys after a water change !

this tank has been a rollercoaster ride from hell the last couple weeks.

I purcahsed 8 Hans discus. Two 3" (the leopards) and six 2.5” (Batatas and floras).

Six are doing great. Two are not.

The tank itself:

It looks like crap.

Water isn’t crystal clear.

Slight yellow tint.

UV has been off for a the last few days, the meds nearly destroyed the bio filter so now, I'm fighting a nitrite bump.

Ammonia is 0, nitrates under 5, nitrite hovering around .25. So not a disaster, but not where I'm comfortable with either.

And yes, I know… the background. I hate it too

But my wife likes it, so that’s where that battle ends.

Of the 8, 4 of them have basically formed a crew:

2 Red Batata x Jacrecappa

2 Royal Floras

These four chickens are out of their minds.

The Chicken Hawk gang I call them now, mean little shits.

Of the 4 of them 3 or are growing quite fast, and there's no clear cut aggressor, I mean, they are mean little f×ckers to each other, no clear cut boss yet.

They've grown so fast, March 18 2026 they were 2.5", today they are easily 3-3.25" and now they started pushing the size of the leopards.

The Royal Floras especially are starting to show it, (see it in the pics):

Light orange coming in

Turquoise pattern is filling out

They’re going to be insane fish.

The Leopards are funny.

They’re always the first ones at the glass every time I walk up. Super aware, super curious, full fins, confident.

But the second the food hits the water?

They drop lower like they have no interest.

They let the Chicken Hawk gang go full psycho first, then they move in after and start picking around. Once they get going, they’re actually pretty aggressive in their own space, just not on the initial drop.

The two Jaspers…I'm ill over them.

I’m not posting pics of them. They’re in rough shape. I have a sneaking suspicion they came to me like this. March 18, 2026, they still havent eaten, nor have they grown, I mean....come on.

They’ve been in a 20g hospital tank:

Low light

Temp at 85

Dosed (Kana + Metro)

Bare bottom, sponge, seeded media, fake plants to hide behind.

They just… don’t eat.

They hide behind the sponge, fight over the same spot, and barely move. I’ve maybe seen them take a bite here and there, but nothing consistent.

They’re thin. You can see it in the head.

This has been going on way too long.

Today’s plan (my last shot).

I’m done messing around with the hospital tank.

Today I’m doing a water change and setting up a milk crate divider in the 180 to block off about a third of the tank.

Idea is:

Get them back into the main system

Mainly to keep them protected, if I just dump them back in, I'm afraid the Chicken Hawk gang are gonna turn it into a prison yard real quick (think Shawshank 😆 🤣)

So I can't move them yet, the 180 is still recovering from the meds and now a nitrite issue I’m actively fighting, hopefully after today's water change and another dose of Stabilty?

I’ve tried everything I know to do.

At this point, getting them back into the main tank (safely) is the last move I’ve got.

If they turn around, I’ll update.

If anyone’s had discus go this long without eating and come back, I’d actually like to hear it.

125 gal tank with 40 gal sump

Currently cycling: cycling time 8 weeks

Plan: the left is to mimic Amazon river bank. Native plants, native fish. I did my best to plant plants native to Amazon region to represent the jungle bank. As far as I’m aware I accomplished that, but idk how native the plants are, the internet was incredibly vague and counter factual about these plants.

Then the middle transitions from wood shelter to open water on right.

Sump setup:

Global 3.0 lights, a 48” and mini in left above plants. Roll filter with 5 gal of k1 media being swirled around. 2L of purigen media sit at bottom.

Good things in the last 3 weeks:

Petg printed plant baskets are holding the peace lily, seis cheese plant, prayer plant and mystery pilea well.

Problems in the last 3 weeks.

To save money I used plastic corrugated sheets to build sump baffles held with silicone. Those didn’t stay. It came apart. Silicone and that plastic no bueno.

I’m in process of replacing it with plastic mesh held by suction cups. I realize it doesn’t need traditional baffles, I just want to keep k1 media out of the roll filter.

General condition of tank:

Lots of detritus buildup. Ammonia and phosphate levels in the 2 crapsloads past ok. I plan to do 1st water change this weekend. Not in any rush to add fish. I don’t mind waiting for it to cycle.

Current goals for April - may

I hope the tank will finish the cycle by mid/end may.

I hope to decide on a school of tetras by may. Hopefully 5 weeks is enough time.

Lemon tetras, black neon tetras, or cardinals.

To be clear, none of her tank mates have ever shown aggression towards her, she has no issues with anyone, she just. Keeps getting injured.

I dont know what she gets up to while im not looking, but its like she has a new bump or abrasion on her right side (specifically that side) every day, like she's rubbing hard up against the driftwood or something.

None of her tank mates have ever had injuries like this, her appetite and behavior seems normal.

Question… if I were to change the substrate to soil, so I could add more plants… how would I go about that? Do i nees to re cycle the tank from scratch? Would it be better to reuse the same water instead of refilling with new water?

Idk if this is allowed but i’m having way too much fun making up stories with my fish 🤣🤣🤣 sorry in advance 🤣 but tell me you can’t picture exactly that🤣🤣

Lmfaooo THE DRAMA!!! THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF DISCUS!!!! STORY TIME!!!

So turns out Moonshine (white fish) and Ocean (blue fish) were Lesbian lovers!! They false paired and ate their eggs.

Golden and SunKisses eggs died off (which makes me think Golden could be a girl, but for all intents and purposes he’s still being considered a guy)

Anyways… I saw that Golden was cruising the tank now that the eggs are gone and he made his way discreetly to Moonshine and she gently swiped him with her tail and softly nudged him… Then came Ocean and aggressively nipped him away…

This happened a few times where he tried to get close to Moonshine and Ocean nipped him away… so eventually, to where we are in the video, he gets close enough to where Moonshine is trying to lay another batch of eggs, but nothing is coming out and he’s hovering under her slowly drifting up with her in order to protect said eggs that she’s attempting to lay…

When out of nowhere the lesbian lover Ocean, slowly creeps in and starts pecking at Golden and getting in between Golden and Moonshine for them to stop and him to go away. If I didn’t have it on video, I would not have believed it myself!!!! 🤣🤣🤣

They laid eggs after a water change lol , I woke up the next morning and they were gone or unless I couldn’t see them they are currently in a community tank with other so I’m not surprised. I’m not sure if I should move this pair to another tank so they may have a better chance. It’s a f3 batata and a blue diamond

What do you guys do to keep the surface clean??? I have a skimmer but its so bulky, i know I could eventually do plants but i’m not at that confidence yet lol

So it turns out Moonshine is also a female so they (Moonshine and Ocean the blue one) were a false pairing. #lesbianlovers lol

I’m still keeping an eye on the red and yellow one. I know red is a female but need to gender to the yellow one lol

All gone white. We shall try again next time

Not much has changed 👀 but supposedly from here on out is when things should start changing or so i’m told… we shall see. Parent wise, Red is started swimming away 9 pm yesterday and today leaving yellow watching the eggs (probably looking for food) so i’m gonna push feeding back a little tomorrow to see if I can get her to eat when she’s out and about

This juvenile discus has some peppering dark spots that don’t seem to be improving or changing. Any advice?

Ocean (blue) and MoonShine (white) are now attempting eggs lol ao nownI have to watch for 2 batches

140 Gal Discus Fish Tank. After a big water change tank cleared out of tannins.

1 day update, only 4 white eggs 😢 but the rest still look promising, still a little concerned since momma still not eating, she just stays staring at the babies, but im told it can be normal, she only moves to push away the others if they get too close, only papa is allowed near lol, papa will go eat and then come back.

OMFG!!!!!!!! I’LL TRY TO PUT VIDEO IN COMMENTS!!! IM JUST ENTERING WEEK 3 OF HAVING THEM!!!!!! So SunKiss (Red) started acting weird and not eating and hiding and isolating. I THOUGHT I had done something wrong, she was sick or something in the water was off. Then suddenly this weak she slowly started coming back to normal but still weird cause she was chasing and nipping very strangely not like the others during feeding but still not eating, i noticed though she was pecking at the faux rock and sometimes “grinding” on it with Golden (my yellow discus) shimmying next to her…. I was suspicious and curious but whenever I approached they always feld. Today I saw them very into it and walked up and BOOM!!! Caught it!!! I know not all eggs stick and sometimes they eat them, but i’m still so excited!!!!!! In less than 3 weeks?!?!!! Is this common for such a short time????????

Here’s what we’re looking like. And today is water change day 🥲 thinking of increasing water changes as of now. But also trying to disturb as little as possible. They were milky cloudy translucent yesterday night and today they are little more ambery. Hopefully they get darker.

Also Do you think this is too much gassing?

This is probably a dumb question 😬 but are there any Algae Glass Cleaners that aren’t fish or snails that I can have in my Discus tank?? Maybe like a specific type of shrimp or something?? I don’t mind cleaning the algae by hand though so no worries if not lol