My Planted Discus Tank

Hi All

Im new to this forum and thought I would post some pics of my tank.

I have been keeping discus for quite a few years but only in a planted tank now for about a year and have been playing with the layout and the best suited plants for a while.

Please feel free to make any suggestions on layout or plants that you think may be good additions.

The tank is 48Lx24Hx18W thats about 68G after displacement. I dont currently inject CO2 but am currently collecting the bits I need so I can do this in the very near future.

I currently do 3 water changes a week 1 35-40% and 2 10-15%.

Sorry the pics arent great I dont have a decent digital camera at the mo and have used my phone camera!!

Few more pics

Welcome to the Forums jkc!

That is a lovely tank you have and wonderful Discus, they look remarkably healthy, a credit to you I'm sure. Thanks for sharing and I hope to see more of you on here.

What lighting do have? Is that a fake planted background too?

Thanks for your comments. People say discus can be a lot of hard work but with the right water contions and consitency there no problem at all. You may have noticed some young angels in the picture's. These were some of the last batch of 160 that my pair raised.

As for the lighting I hoped you would as the question!! I have three 38W tubes under the hood with reflectors. I have heard that refletors double the amount of light that the aquarium gets so do I have 1.7W per gallon or 3.4?? I can only get three under there so it may be something I need to upgrade!!

Yes it is a fake planted background. Do you think this should be changed?? Was never sure about! Is there something else that would complement the plants more??

The WPG rule assumes you have reflectors fitted, so 1.7 WPG still.

What make/model are the current tubes and how old are they? With 1.7 WPG of decent full-spectrum lighting you may not need to upgrade. 1.7 WPG is a fair amount of light in a larger tank like yours, my only reservation is the 24" depth, but even then you should get great results with less demanding plants and CO2 injection. It looks like you're doing a fine job already so I'd be very hopful for your planted future!

Personally I lose the fake planted background, they detract from the real plants. Most of us choose a blank background; blue, black etc. some even have no background but this is unsuitable for most as you can see the ugly wiring etc. through the glass.

As far as aquascaping goes, there's infinite possibilities. Just one link to start you off - AGA contests - http/showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2005...e=view-showcase

WOW i could look at those tanks all day!!

I have one arcadia original, freshwater and white. Do you think I should change the white to a freshwater tube??

I recently got a few pots of glosso that I planted, do you think this will spread without CO2 under this lighting or will I not se much affect until I start injecting CO2??

These were my resultson wednesday after doing a 45% water change last monday and a filter clean on tuesday,

PH 6.6
KH 2
GH 6
NO2 0.3 mg/l
NO3 7 mg/l

Thought I would test the phosphate as well result: 5 mg/L !!!!! This is a bit high isnt it??

I think I need to try and bring up my KH slowly to about 5 before I start injecting CO2.

My first reaction to those water tests is the 0.3ppm NO2. Are you sure it isn't zero? If your bio-filtration is effective then nitrites should be undetectable at all times. What filter(s) have you got running?

Your lighting sounds ok but could be improved a great deal by swapping your Arcadia Original Tropical and white(?) for full-spectrum tubes. Check out the pinned lighting thread for a selection. I've had great results with the Interpet Daylight Plus T8 tubes - link - to fit your tank

Glosso is quite demanding in terms of light and CO2. You certainly won't get it to carpet with 1.7 WPG and no CO2 and you may have trouble with CO2 due to the height of your tank (24") - the general rule is 2 WPG minimum in my experience, possibly 2.5 or 3 WPG in a 24"H tank. It also requires a nutrient-rich substrate, ideally not sand as the grain size and can limit its delicate root growth. It also needs to be planted a specific way to get it to carpet i.e. cutting the stems into individual plantlets and planting these two leafed "portions" individually (ideally) with tweezers. It is a fair bit of work but worth it. If you look though the last third of my journal you can see it "in action".

Your NO3 is a little low and PO4 too high. Obviously you have similar tap water to me, low nitrates and sky high phosphates. The ideal solution in my experience for a planted tank is to have a 10:1 ratio of NO3 : PO4 i.e. 10ppm NO3, 1ppm PO4. How to go about this may confuse you a little at this early stage so I won't go into detail. Have a read of this zig's EI article first and ask any furthur questions you may have.

2 dKH is regarded as a little low for CO2 injection but I'm going to say that you should be fine if you're careful in monitoring your pH. You perform plenty of water changes that IMO are more important in preventing pH crashes than just KH alone. Your adult Discus obviously prefer soft, acidic water so I wouldn't bother messing with your chemistry too much. If you inject say 30ppm CO2 (ideal levels) then you'll be looking at a pH of 6.3 - just fine for your fish.

I hope that has helped and not bombarded you with too much info. I'd simply love to see a tank like yours become a stunning planted aquascape.

You havent bombarded me at all. Infact you have been extremely helpful.

I believe the only reason my NO2 is at 0.3ppm is because I changed the white pad in my Eheim 2026. This is of course where half the bacteria in the filter lives so I would hope this should settle down once the pad is broken in.

As for the lighting, would you change all three tubes for the interpet daylight plus tubes? & would the starters that I am currently using still run these tubes??

If you suggest changing all three tubes would it not be worth considering spending the money on T5's in an attempt to gain more WPG?

I could think about setting up the same as what they discussed in this post - if i can get it under the hood!?

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=122984

Doesnt seem to bad cost wise!?

Thanks for your advice on the glosso, I recently read a thread on here about how to plant it correctly etc so I will have a go at this later. As I have it I may as well see how it goes!! I do have quite a bit of laterite mixed in with the silica sand. I added this about three months ago to see if had any affect and I have to say my amazons took off!!

I have read zigs EI article once but I think I need to read it a few more times to get a full understanding of it all. I do have low nitrates but this was the first time I have ever tested PO4 so dont really have any history on this.

I do have an RO unit and mix RO and carbon filtered water to get the parameters I want. I think I might still try and raise the KH a little over time just so that it will be a little safer when I start injecting CO2.

I to hope that eventually I will have a stunning aquascape that I will be able to share with you!

Thanks again for you help.

I'd keep the Arcadia Freshwater if it's less than 6 months old. If not then I'd probably go for 3 new Daylights. Your starters will work fine.

However, by all means go the T5 units if you can afford and fit them ok. I'm not familiar with them myself so am unsure what configuration/quantity/size of units you'd need. Maybe someone else can help out? They'd certainly give you more light, ideal for growing more demanding plants - glosso should be no problem. Just bear in mind that more light = more balancing required to keep algae away. I certainly wouldn't recommend going over 3 WPG.

I assume you're planning a pressurized CO2 system?

I think the tank is a credit to you, a 68gal with 6+ angel, 7 discus, 2 rams and all the dither fish would be considered well and truly over stocked.
The discus in there own right are enough for the tank.
You must have quite a heavy maintenance schedule and good filtration.

What sort of water changes are you doing?

Great looking tank with huge potential! What temp. is your tank at, and are the other fish apart from the discus able to handle the temp? It'd be a good idea trying to raise the KH, I'd do the same if I were you. And ditto on gf225's advice on more light causing more algae if CO2 and nutrient levels are not met. It's a tricky task trying to balance the right amount of light, CO2 and nutrients, but it is all worth it in the end!

By the way, did you check out the tank in the AGA contest with the angels and discus? Truely awe inspiring! Let me know if you can't find it, and I'll try to find it for you.

Cheers,

simonbrown403 said:

What sort of water changes are you doing?

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jkc said:

I currently do 3 water changes a week 1 35-40% and 2 10-15%.

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simonbrown403 said:

.............would be considered well and truly over stocked.
The discus in there own right are enough for the tank.

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I'm glad Simon has brought this issue up. Overstocking was a concern of mine, especially with the nitrite reading.

The Eheim Pro II 2026 is regarded as overfiltration in a medium stocked 68 but as Simon suggests you are overstocked by traditional standards. Perhaps another filter would be a worthwhile investment, then when you clean your media there won't be any spikes. Just a suggestion.

your tank is AMAZING I want dicus but i dont hae the experience to get them

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all your comments.

I was wondering if anyone would pick up on the fact that it is currently a little over stocked.

There are a few reasons for this: -

1. I have a trio of breeding angels. The first time one of my females ever layed eggs they raised around 130 fry and get this, two weeks later whilst they had free swimming fry in the tank they layed more eggs. Around 40 of these hatched out. To date I have managed to move on about 100 of these to the LFS. I have around 70 left in other tanks but I did put 6 into the main tank. This afternoon four of these went to a friends house. I have pics of all the action I will add to the forum at some point.

2. Another friend has had to shut down his fish room for personal reasons. He had quite a few young fish that he had bred plus others that he had bought with the intention of growing on. Because he needed to close it down in a hurry and was having trouble shifting the fish I said I would look after some for him.
Only two of these are in the main tank (the small blue diamond snakeskin & the small orange one (cant remember the name of this one). I have another 6 orange ones in another tank. Not sure if I should say this here but they are for sale if anyones interested. Angels too!! I guess PM me if your interested!!

I will add a list of everything that is in the tank soon but I will say that I have three 2 year old rams and one of them currently has a tumor. They say rams only live for around 18-24 months and I think this one is on the way out, not looking good at all, unfortuntely not much I can do about this!

Currently I have one 2026 running the main tank but because a friend is closing the fish house down I hope to have another one very soon!! For quite cheap hopefully!!

I would like to be able to turn the flow down to half on each so that the water has more time to pass through the media!!

I currently do 3 water changes a week one 35-40% and 2 10-15%. Maybe more if I have the time and feel like it!

Temp is 30oC
Hope this has answered all the questions.

Thanks

James

badis56 said:

your tank is AMAZING I want dicus but i dont hae the experience to get them

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I personally dont think that you need experience to keep discus. I think you need to do lots of reading and research yes, but dedication is the key!!

I have been fishkeeping for 13 years now, started with guppies and platies and kept all sorts of different cichlids but I still have LOTS & LOTS to learn!!

This is the first tank that has inspired me to create an aquascape and I hope that by researching and chatting to the knowledgeable guys and gals on this forum I will achieve it in the future!!

i only have a 20g (for like 5 months)
but how much would a say 55g with about 6 discus cost without co2 injection and a with good filter