This video is an introduction to our attempts of keeping Discus (Symphysodon Aequifasciatus) and maybe someday even breed them. We hope to document our successes and pit falls in future videos to give realistic and factual information to those that might choose to follow in our footsteps. In this video we have a 70 litre tall, bare bottom Juwel aquarium set up, which we intend to grow out 4no. 3 inch Discus for the coming months at which stage we will be keeping an eye out for tell tail signs of pairing. Our water chemistry is pretty complicated at the minute, however very important. We are using a Rain and Tap water mix. Our tap water comes at a pH of 7.2, a kh of 160mg/l (or 9dh) and is very hard at a gh of 240mg/l (or 13.5dh). The rainwater currently has a pH of 6.5, a kh of 0dh and a gh of 0dh when collected on site. On setting up the tank on 6th July 2010 we used 100% rainwater. After 2 days of cycling and reaching temperature (27 degrees Celsius) we added the 4 very hardy black widow tetras that you see above which are doing just fine. Ammonia was detected the following day so a mature filter pad was added from a well-cycled aquarium. A number of days later Ammonia levels and Nitrate levels reached 0 and Nitrate is removed during water changes. At this stage the pH had reached 7.2 due to the low kh of the rainwater i.e. its buffering capacity. We added a DIY CO2 diffuser (in the form of a 2 litre bottle with an airline, check valve and air stone, 2 cups of sugar, a half teaspoon of bakers yeast and luke warm water) and bubbles of CO2 appeared after about 4 hours which drove the pH down to 6.0 in about 18 hours. On doing water changes with tap / rain water mix (to increase kh and gh) the water parameters settled to where they are now. The current water parameters are pH 6.2, kh 30mg/l (or 1.68dh) and gh 60mg/l (or 3.36 dh). The dissolved CO2 levels in the water are about 30ppm, which are perfectly safe for now, however we intend in lowering it by increasing the pH gradually in coming days. Our kh needs a bit of work but we don't want to increase the pH too much as they increase hand in hand, so we are working on finding a middle ground before any Discus arrive. Advice and comments are welcome.