just an update, the tank is stabilized and running at a cool 6.6 ph steady for the last 48 hrs or so and my fish are starting to come back around to normal all discus are now feeding ferociously as i stopped the feeding during the water treatment phase of this operation, seems to me that everything is coming back to normal and my plants haven't suffered much either, no fish loss to report at this time water quality is near perfect nitrates are back down to around .5 ppm, which is where i like to keep them. *wipes days of sweat from forehead* lol all is normal and back to enjoyable for the time being have to get a bit of stress coat though just want to be way on the safe side of things and make sure the slime coats of the fish weren't harmed during the ph spike. this will help them to recover even faster. if anyone thinks this is a bad idea let me know.
Brandon

pk it's the same principal however in a planted tank more difficult to see, the plant that i found to be the issue was growing an average a foot every two days. this was no indication that the bottom of the plant was dieing, so be careful what you buy, my tank now is a be more sparse however when it fills in again it will be back to what it was and even better. have figured out a topiary type setup that should work, it's similar to what i have used in many landscaping projects tall broad leaf plants in the back, under them low light broad leaf plants and up front and in the middle plants that fill in as ground cover with diff types of leaf shapes and sizes, so if my calculations are correct in a months time i should be back to a completely full and stable setup with the plants being thinned out every two weeks or so, i have setup as i have already posted a secondary quarantine tank for plants with high powered smh lighting and heavy ferts incase i have a plant die i can replace it, along with using this tank as a propagation tank for new plants, it's a bit crowded but running a 55 gal with duel cascade 1200 series filters over pete moss and heavy ferts and r/o water should prove to be beneficial to the plants i have quarantined along with several i have ordered, soon i will have a whole room dedicated to breeding plants and will use these in my new tank setups that i do for old and new clients. which will reduce my overhead by roughly 45% so more money in my pocket. have co2/o2 pumps on timers alternating for day/night times so that the conversion of co2 to o2 during the day is maximized along with conversion of o2-co2 at night is right on, if all goes well, a prospective client that i have semi lined up, once seeing the quality of my home grown plants will decide to go with me instead of the several competitors in the area, if this happens i am looking at nice added 9k to my income this year.......... WOOOT lets hope all works out well. lawyers pay top $ for top services lets hope......
Brandon.

pk if you have any questions or ideas feel free to email me i will send you my main email addy so that we can deff keep in contact in case i don't have time to check the site