Tank Setups • Setting up my 240 gallon, step by step

[Shahlvah]

So sad, two of my discus die...one one day, the other this morning. I have been doing my water changes, checking the water parameters, temperature, feeding them.....no stress....i don't know what happen. I took most of the plants out of the tank as I was advised....I came home Thursday and one blue diamond was dead, no signed in the morning of being sick or anything..... then this morning all of them where eating and swimming all over the tank and about 4:00pm another one was dead. I am freaking out!!!! what is really going on???
My water parameters are:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrates: 20
Nitrites: 0
Chlorine: 0
PH: 6:5
Temp: 83.2
Water changes every other day 40%

Feeding New Life Spectrum for discus , brier shrimp frozen, and the worms for discus the breeder was feeding them.
Any one can give me some insight?
The three remaining seem to be well, no sign of stress, or dark coloration, eating well, but also the ones that dies where doing that......
Not a single fish in the tank other than the two discus have died...not even the tetra babies.....

[jd lover]

Nitrates is a bit high for discus. Try bigger water changes and see if that helps. What's the tank temp at? Also what are the worms the breeder were feeding?

[Shahlvah]

Black worms. switch to water changes to 50% - 60%, the other 3 discus seems to be OK, they are eating well and swimming around the tank. I stop feeding them the black worms, I am just doing the FLS and the frozen bairn shrimp that the discus absolutely love...... the next buy of discus is on hold until I am sure that the 3 fantastic will be good for real, how true your comment when you stated if I trusted myself to take care of my discus. I thought I was doing everything perfectly fine.....
So now the tank has way less plants, just about 4 - 5 all together, the driftwood and rocks. of course the sand. the sump working fine, the FX5 working 5....i love that filter, it keeps my water crystal clear....
My temperature is 83.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates, less than 15 (more than 10, less than 20....I'll said around 15?)
ph 6.7
chlorine - 0

The babies came out to be diamond tetras, 16 survived and are about the size of the cardinals....I still have them apart except for 3 that I could never catch...
My plecos L260 came....the are babies, about 2 to 2.5 inches the 5 of them....they took over the tank and you can see them in all the rock and wood formations....pretty cool.
For now all is good and all fish are swimming....

[jd lover]

Why Did you stop feeding them black worms? I would stop feeding the frozen brine shrimp as that has no nutritional values. Black worms are actually Really good just not as a staple diet. I would feed a quality flake 3-4 times a day and give them a feeding of black worms on the weekends

[Shahlvah]

Basically because I run out of them and I wanted to hear your opinion on the worms.
I'll get some more on my way home today.
One question, flake food better than the new life spectrum? What food do you recommend since I will go "grocery" shoping for my fish I would like to buy what has worked best for you.
Thank you for all the advise.

[jd lover]

I use new lufe spectrum flakes for the garlic additives but basically anything around 50% protein is good for them. Black worms has 50+% protein but no vitamins so isn't good as a staple. Same with blood worms.

[Shahlvah]

So the worms will be just a high protein snack, to call it that way?

[jd lover]

well no exactly. think of the worms as steaks. while good for you, overdoing it will cause you to have health problems. (another reason is the worms are very addictive and if you feed too much/too often they might not eat anything else)

[Shahlvah]

Ok, perfect, I love steak so I guess worms for my discus once a week will do. Thank you so much. Will post more new or questions as they come.
Thqnk you again

[jd lover]

anytime thats what the forum is for =]

[jd lover]

hope things have gotten better =] looking forward to pictures of those beast to be lol

[Shahlvah]

Things looking good in my 240, my 3 discus are colorful and parading through the tank, they eat oh my gosh....do they ever, sometimes are a little skiddish when I come in the room and they are funny, picking at me through the plants...today as I was working they were swimming from side to side in the front part of the tank, then here comes mama...time to change the water,...that didn't seem to bother them, me hands on the water and all. They just get scare when I walk in, I guess is just a matter of time until they get use to me. (how long will this take?) They are starting to come forward, I think they know mama = food....little rascals.

I went crazy again and bought another tank....a little one for the babies, yes, the diamond babies still alive, the 18 of them and growing, but still to little to release them in the big tank so I got a little 12 gallon, a fluval edge, I scope some sand from the big tank, steal some rocks from the big tank and put half the tank of water from the big tank, also the sponge and the biomax are inside of my sump in the believe that it will help seed the tank....tomorrow I will assemble the filter and finish filling the tank, and measure the water parameter, I will not put the babies in there until the water is "safe to live in".....pictures to come. Once the babies are all grown they will be moved to the 240 to live with their parents and I will house electric blue rams and blue tetras , maybe some Harlequin rasboras or runny nose tetras, a cory julii and a mini pleco, maybe another L-260 or a bristle nose.

Just as a note on the side I had some amano shrimp in the tank doing an spectacular job in cleaning my plants....the other night my giant schnauzer was trying to pick up something from the floor....you guess right....on shrimp, it jumped off the tank...all 6 foot down, I though he has killed it since he is so huge and these shrimps are .... well tiny shrimp size, I got him to jump inside the net and put it back in the tank....the critter went straight to one plant to continue cleaning it....isn't that something? between the 4 amano shrimp and my two ghost shrimp...(these are really tiny but super cute)

[jd lover]

sounds like things are getting back on track. i wouldnt keep those 3 in there for too long as 2 will pick on one till it dies, then the dominant will pick on the weaker one. if i were you i would buy atleast 3 more and qt them right away. DONT SKIP QT NO MATTER WHAT.

[Shahlvah]

I will go tomorrow and buy them, I found a place where they have some very beautiful ones and not so pricey....well, about average.
So I will post some pictures

[Shahlvah]

So I have 7 discus now, after the quarantine I let them loose in the tank and.....the blue diamond took charge and didn't let them out of a corner for 3 days, I was about to take the blue out of the tank and put it in a quarantine tank....but today when I came back from work the 7 of them received me at the front of the tank...they are so beautiful.
I have:
2 blue diamonds
2 ring turquoise red leopard skin
2 turquoise striated snake skin
i golden panda (he is the biggest and the most shy of all)
They are about 4 inches and the biggest are about 5 inches.
I love when they swim together like "gliding through the tank.
pictures to come....the are stiill picture shy