Need Help with Discus

[clkjay]

- 155 gallon tank
- 4 5" Discus - 6 2" Discus - 5 Cory - 30 Black Neon Tetra - 3 Dwarf Gourami - 1 Pleco
- 2 300 watts thermostats
- 6 pieces Malaysian Drift Wood
- Live plants
- 1 UV sterilizer
- Eheim Canister Filter

I have had this tank for over 3 years with Silver Dollars in them (No problem), removed them and added all of the above fish 3 weeks ago. Nitrite and nitrate at 0. PH only reads 6.0 max, could be lower. Ammonia is at .5-1. I have been doing 10%-15% water changes every other day. After water changes, Ammonia reads .5, after a day it may go up to 1.

Don't know why the Ammonia is going up so fast. I feed once a day and they finish within 2 mins. I am now getting a white cloudy/slimey thing on their eyes. The Discus seem to have spasms with there fins every so often. They are eating. After every water change, I apply API Stress Coat Plus and API Stress Zyme and aquarium salt.

My water doesn't seem to be crystal clear. Could this be caused by water being too hard (KH)? Would having a too low of a PH have any part to this? Should I raise the PH to 6.5-6.8?

One afternoon last week, I changed the water and Ammonia was at .25, the very next early morning, my ammonia spiked and all my Discus had that white cloudy/slimey thing on their eye. I lost 3 2" Discus that morning. One of the 5" Discus was laying sideways with no movement even when you moved him. I did 2 20% water changes right away and after 7 hrs or so he started getting better.

Any ideas of what could be wrong with my tank. The white thing on their eyes and the spasms are making me very nervous. I have went to many Fish Stores and they seem to always want to sell me medication. I have tried meds but no result.

 

[Chris_A]

Yeah, I would probably raise your pH at least to 6.5 -6.8 unless you're keeping wild caught, unacclimated Heckels. There is something called Acidosis, basically burns the fish from the water being to acidic.

What type of ammonia kit are you using? Does it say NH3/NH4 on it? Ammonia can also cause burns but at that low of a pH you really shouldn't have very much ammonia, almost all of it should be ammonium.

One thing to note Nitrifying bacteria's growth can be inhibited at extremely low pH's which could be why you are reading NH3/4. Also what pH kit are you using? The vast majority of the ones I'm aware of don't go any lower than 6.2 to 6.0 so it's possible your pH is even lower than that.

Two other random (possibly pertinent) things...
1) what is your GH and (more importantly) KH?
2) How old is your UV lamp and how is it set up? Going along with that, when was the last time you cleaned the Quartz tube?

BTW, WELCOME!
Chris

 

[Cichlid-Man]

I honestly wouldn't touch your pH, toying with it will cause more problems. Cloudy eyes are a sign of poor water quality usually, or the fish has something wrong with it interally. Since it comes and goes i'd say its the water. Usually its an agitator in the water, i don't think the pH would be doing that to a fish. Ammonia more likely. Do you notice them getting any scar like marks on them after a water change? Any burns? Is their slime coat on their bodies looking rough?

What is the water temp?