Does anyone have a barebottom planted discus aquarium? Care to share some pictures?

[melthazor]

I was thinking of setting up a disus tank, I would most probably be buying juvenile discus.

I would prefer that the tank be planted and bare bottom at the same time (plants on driftwood). Or...take a 2-4" (height) piece of acrylic and partion a section of the aquarium bottom; one side filling it with aqua soil, heavily planted and the other part left bare.

I'm wondering if anyone of you have setup a similar kind of discus aquarium?

[limz_777]

Why this particular setup?

[melthazor]

Easy to clean...heard discus is very particular about clean water...and when changing water, it could cause the gravel to stir and what not...

Is discus that hard a fish?

[tuang]

Discus is not that hard. I had 15 adults in a 4x1.4x1.5 ft bare tank, and do about 40% water change weekly. I do wash the filter canister 2-3 times a week without water changes. The fish did well in my case.

If you really want to have plants & bare-bottom, I suggest plants tied on driftwood (javan ferns, windelov, anubias or moss).
These plants are hardy and do well with discus, at least in my experience.

Is this your first time keeping discus? I would suggest you start with a bare tank, and work towards planted set up when you are familiar with the fish, water change and upkeeping stuff. It would not turn you off that much if they start doing badly with you.

[melthazor]

Yeah first time for discus. My tank is gonna be a 2x1.5x1.5ft. I'm considering the leopard snakeskin discus. Do we really need to go to such extreme measures with the water upkeep? Like I've seen people do 120% water change daily! I'm only considering weekly and maybe 30%. I find daily and alternate water changes of 50% messes with the parameters in my cycled tank.

I have an atman df-1000, with mr aqua ceramic rings and normal biohome. I was thinking of hooking it up to one/two apa prefilters, either both filled with filter wool, or one filled with and the other with ceramic rings. Basically the prefilter is to prevent fast buildup in the atman. The plants on the other hand, isn't for aesthetic purposes, it's to handle nitrates.

Can we keep discus in a 0.1% salt content permanently? I was thinking of putting them in the tank with a 0.1% salt content when I first bring them home so they can be treated for parasites and all (e.g slim coat, stress, etc.) until the frequent weekly water changes removes the salt completely. If they are ok with 0.1% salt content in their tanks, then I'll just continue with it.

[tuang]

Considering your tank size, probably you might wanna stick with at most 5-6 adults. So perhaps you should get yourself 7-8 juveniles to start with, (touchwood) in case of casualties. The juveniles do well in large groups.

The fish do ok with salt and with weekly water change (WC). You can consider a larger WC of about 50-60%, but do not wash any of your filter concurrently with the WC so that the bio setup do not screw up. You may wanna wash the filter 2 days before or after the water change. The theory behind the frequent and large WC, is that many wanna pump up their discus large and fast, and of course the murky waters from feeding heart meals.

You should also check with the person the amount of water changes they do when you purchase the fish and slowly adjust from there, to prvent culture-shocking the fish.
Eg. if they do 50% WC daily, you should slowly adjust the fish to maybe 2-3 days WC, slowly then to your weekly 50% WC.

[limz_777]

i added a pair about a year ago in my planted tank , i find the waste output is quite high , so be prepared to suck up the waste during waterchanges

[melthazor]

Wow...5-6 adults? In a 2ft tank? I was thinking a pair...or max 4...lol!

Actually I never clean my filters...unless its super dirty...and I only wash in aged dechlorinated water..

Where can we get beef heart? I was thinking of only feeding granules from tetra and hikari. And blood worms only...

And...which lfs has nice juvenile discus? I seriously cannot tell the difference between a stunted discus to a normal healthy discus...any tips?

[tuang]

Beefheart has been hard to get nowadays. I get my supplies from a hobbyist who does his own mix. You can try at most major LFS.
Or your proposed feed will do.

No advise on where has nice juvenile discus. Can try your luck at C328, Y618, Chai Discus at AMK, or even home breeders.

Stunted discus have comparatively larger eye to body ratio. They can be healthy but the shape does not turn out well. Sometimes stunted discus can grow well but requires more effort. Look for active fish with clear eyes. No darkening or sorts compared to the fish in the same tank. If you are looking for males and females for breeding, get a mix of the larger and smaller size juveniles. Males tend to be larger, females smaller in juveniles.

[melthazor]

Great advise there about the male and female difference in juvenile discus...ill look up those places you've mentioned

[melthazor]

What strain of discus is this? Marlboro Red?

[tuang]

Probably red melon... Do choose those with minimum black specks if you like it.

[melthazor]

Peppering is it? I read about it, they said only blood pigeons pepper...are red melons from the blood pigeon line?

[tuang]

yes they are

[barmby]

Go with brown discus / wild discus (五彩) first if it is your first time. They are more forgiving than the designer discus, which you mentioned above.

anyway tuang seem experienced keeper. please listen to his comment.

[tuang]

just shariong my experience with discus. still learning in the process. i would think wild discus are harder to keep due to the strict water parameters.
never kept them before as they are way off budget. though someday i hope to keep them.

agree with barmby that brown discus would be a hardier breed. pigeons too...

[benjidog]

You can plant your plants in baskets, filled with aqua soil.

That way, you can still have planted tank with ease in cleaning, as the plants are in neat planted parcels.

If you increase plants, filtration and biological media, you can put off cleaning the water so frequently.
Do monitor the water parameters. If your plants are doing well, that's a good general indication that the water quality probably is good.