What is the water temperature of your aro tank? Mine is about 86 F. I keep it high because I have discus with my aros (same water separate tank). I am planning on separating my discus water from my aro tank so that I can lower temp in my bigger tank to save electric. How low will you go on temp or what is temp in your aro tank?
What temperature?
- Thread starter arl
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frozen-fire
New Member
Mine is at about 28C.
Have you tried keeping your water at around 22? Just curious on how your aro behaved if you did.
I use to do about 10% WC every 2 weeks but now I have to do it more often, 10% every week. I feed beef heart to my discus and sometimes tetra bits. Aros gets any frozen food I can get cheap at superstore
, beef heart, salmon, pork, chicken,smelt, pellets.... They never had any live foods for the 2 years they were with me, a little costly when frozen food is probably just as good.
carcrazy
New Member
I keep my water at around 82F as well but I do more water changes, 30% two or three times a week. I have 2 12" motoro rays in the tank as well as a couple of 8" peacock bass (big eaters), a 12" tinfoil barb, a 6" ntt dat and 5 3" silver dollars. Got to keep the water clean for my babies.
My aro has become addicted to superworms, I wish he'd eat other foods. I guess I'll have to wean him off of the worms some day but I hate the thought of starving him.
My aro has become addicted to superworms, I wish he'd eat other foods. I guess I'll have to wean him off of the worms some day but I hate the thought of starving him.
I use to do about 10% WC every 2 weeks but now I have to do it more often, 10% every week. I feed beef heart to my discus and sometimes tetra bits. Aros gets any frozen food I can get cheap at superstore
Regardless to the filtration you have, you water changes (once you feed beef heart mix for the Discus) should be larger, significantly larger than 10% weekly.
Either separate them or increase the WC percentage. Not trying to be a smartass or something, but you know that serious Discus keepers go up to 100% water changes daily especially in the grow out period.
frozen-fire
New Member
I once had my heater stop working and my aro tank became room temperature... around 20 I suppose. He stopped eating and developed cloudy eye. Needless to say, i was pretty scared!
Nothing wrong with feeding SW or other live food. I would maybe do the same if I have only 1 aro as food cost then wouldn't be as bad.
Wow, I didn't think it ws going to be that bad. I guess 80 to 82 F would be the lowest you can keep them?
Yeah I know what you mean. When I was still growing those discus almost 2 years ago I have to do WC 50% twice a day on a 150 gal tank with 30 small discus. When I finished my 8' tank, equipped with what I consider a very effective filter system, I only have to do it 10% twice a week (6 aros and about 30 discus) despite my messy food. They were doing fine for a year until I have to shut down and change my filter system about 2 months ago for economical reason. Now I have to do WC 1 every week and limit my "messy" food and they are doing OK. I am giving them more pellets now, actually I am doing it alternate (frozen stuff today and pellets on the next day). I will be adding a denitrator latter, DIY of course. Hopefully that will make up for my original filter.
I guess I'll hold that idea of separating my discus water from my aro tank water but I'll try dropping the temp to 83-84 F. I have adult discus so hopefully they'll be OK with that temp. Heating a 900G + water (and keeping it at 86) is quite a bit of money. I am in the stage of refining my tank to be more energy efficient/less costly to maintain.
Cirrus
Arowana blogger
You raise a really good point - how to heat such large volumes of water economically. How do you heat your tank now Arl, and what are your plans going forward?
As I get ready to set my 535 up in the coming year, I have begun wondering how to go about heating it. The only idea I have is to use a bunch of 300 watt heaters (like 4?). Do you have any ideas?
I had 2x250W in my 400 Theo. Worked like a charm.
For larger setups, monster tanks especially, I think the thing to do is the heat exchange system as that would be the most economical. I'm definitely considering that for the future, when I'll own my house.
...I am gathering data on this, but it's something that I picked off on MFK.
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I guess my first step was getting rid of my bakki shower filter. Although it was very effective in keeping my nitrates low it just cools the water too much plus it creates too much moisture so I have to exhaust a lot of heated house air and keep dehumidifier running. I am planning to hook up a tankless gas water heater. The water intake is from a submersible pump controled by a temperature controler(similar to those use in titanium water heater). I had this idea even when I was still building the tank but the heater and it's accesories is quite a bit of money so I just put it on hold hoping to have it done last summer, I guess it will be on hold again for another year. I have been using electric water heaters. With my Bakki shower I have to use a total of 2KW heaters and barely keeping up. NOw I only have 4 300W.
Another way to keep down the water heating energy is having a lesser WC. It takes a lot of energy to heat up cold pipe water. So I guess the denitrator is a part of the energy saving plan. And ofcourse having styrofoam 3D background on the 3 sides of tank has been helping a lot in containing the heat.