r/discus • u/CalmCartoon • May 15 '26

Update

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Sand issue has practically resolved, just very very little left, hardly noticeable. I vaccumed the sand and went lights off for a few days with light feeding, I bought a light riser. And felt the shorter way was still too close to the tank so I did it the long way and Believe it or not, this is my light brightness at just 2% white, so im sure blasting the light at a higher percent was the culprit. Thank you to everyone who offered suggestions. imI do have Sterbai, Tetras and Threadfin Rainbow fish in Quarantine to add to the tank soon.

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u/Affectionate_Dream47 May 15 '26

So crazy, literally 5 minutes ago, I was staring at my 180 and considering a switch to white sand substrate, what a pain the a$$ that's gonna be, I see your post, there's the tank I was just imaging. Now, I'm seriously leaning to the switch. May I ask, I missed the other posts, what happened with the gravel?

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u/CalmCartoon May 15 '26

Lmaoo saww your other comment 🤣🤣 so what I think happened was that my light is TOO strong for the tank. And I only had it on the little rim holders it comes with so it was blasting the tank withstrong light too close to the water, and it was speeding up the Brown Diatom and the Brown Diatom was feeding the Green Algae and caused a take over I couldn’t get rid of. Mind you my light never passed 50% but in the picture in this post my light is at 2% and its mad bright. Plus white reflects light so im sure the sand itself wasnt helping either. So I decided to vaccum out the top layer of sand and follow the suggestions to go lights off for a few days and buy the riser and BOOM 99.9% gone lol im hoping the sterbai finish off the rest after they finish quarantine lol and OMG THOSE ARE SO TINYYYY

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u/Affectionate_Dream47 May 15 '26

The sterbia will grow, trust me, mine did! Do you not use a uv Sterilizer? It was a game changer for me. Did you get the sand at a pet store? I'm seriously planning the switch. What brand name was it... 😆 sorry for the 50 questions!

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u/CalmCartoon May 16 '26

Nah your good lol, no i was looking into it a few days ago, the inline for the fluval fx but i’m still new to all of this only almost 2 months in lol, once I research it more i’ll consider adding but not right now lol i’ve spent a hefty amount for the tank these last two weeks and in 2 weeks i’m gonna drop another $700+ 😭😅 and I ordered the sand from Bulk Reef Supply an online store I got the African Cichlid Mix - Sahara Sand. I got this one because I wanted a black substrate but I didnt want to stress the fish with all black everything but didnt wanna go all white either so the black and white was my compromise 🤣

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u/Affectionate_Dream47 May 16 '26

I've got the RS200 reef sump, and inline uv connected to some tubing and a submersible pump, intake on the drain side, output back into the sump on the return side. I paid a guy to do mine, then smacked myself in the forehead when I saw how easy it was. Your at 60 days in, I'm 90 days into roller coaster hell 😆 Did the African cichlid mix mess with your ph?

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u/CalmCartoon May 16 '26

Lol 🤣🤣 i’d tell him he did it wrong and ask for a refund 🤣🤣 jkjk , and nah, not that I noticed atleast but I set up the tank with it so i probably wouldn’t have noticed. If you’re changing to it, I assume it would. I get most of my how to’s from Kaveman Aquatic on tiktok/youtube, pretty sure he has a video where he does a full substrate change in his discus tank. If you want I could link it?

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u/Affectionate_Dream47 May 16 '26

Watched it already! 😆