Discus Planted Tank

[jasonchua1982]

Hi Everyone,

Want to share with you some pictures of my Discus Planted Tank Like most of you here, my hobby and passion revolves around this tank, and there are so many things to keep me occupied, from the initial planting to touching up to simply sitting down and watch the fish swim, my planted tank has brought me many joys

General Overview
http://www.pbase.com/jason08/image/94890842

Ring of Mountains
http://www.pbase.com/jason08/image/94318197

Discus Logo (gone after rescape)
http://www.pbase.com/jason08/image/93830658

The Discus Collection
http://www.pbase.com/jason08/discustank&page=3

Some cute little fellows in the tank
http://www.pbase.com/jason08/image/94890847
http://www.pbase.com/jason08/image/94318203

Comments are welcome, thanks

[aquanatix]

Looks good! You went ahead and did what most discus keepers like myself are unwilling to try. The conversion from bare tank discus to planted tanks is such a commitment.At your size(a 422?),it must've been ALOT of work! Can't wait till all the plants start growing and begin filling up the background. Do fill us in on your tank specs like feeding regime,WC etc...nice!

[torque6]

I would probably keep about 4 discus for a tank this size. Your looks abit overcrowded, hopefully you have huge and matured filters with sufficient BB to handle the bioload.

[Jervis]

Wow! What a sight! Mind share your water parameters?

[ywl]

Wow what an impessive tank . I have a discus plant tank too but constantly plague by algae .

Do you have black spot problems with your melon strain ? How frequent is your water change ?

[jasonchua1982]

I would probably keep about 4 discus for a tank this size. Your looks abit overcrowded, hopefully you have huge and matured filters with sufficient BB to handle the bioload.

Yeah, agree, thats why I am doing regular water change to keep the bioload down, as well as adding new plants, have bought another stalk of water sprite into the tank, now its hanging by the side of the tank tied to a rubber sucker, reason for that is not much space to plant the water sprite and also easy maintanence should it grow out of hand. Its on top of the gravel where theres no plant, so no worries that it will block light from plants below it

Wow! What a sight! Mind share your water parameters?

Sorry bro, dont really have a test kit, but can share with you my tank inputs.

7 hours of light over 2 interval period, CO2 inputs at 2-3 bubbles/sec when lights are on, Water change (20%) every week plus 1 cap of flourish comprehensive liquid fertiliser,water is acidic due to CO2.

Wow what an impessive tank . I have a discus plant tank too but constantly plague by algae .

Do you have black spot problems with your melon strain ? How frequent is your water change ?

Thanks, yeah I have algae problem too, used to have lots of hair algae coating my HC, but I did a revamp, remove all the HC and started planting hairgrass and barcopa, tried not to let light reach any barren gravel, also added new plants like Java ferns inside, then increase CO2 to accelerate plant growth to wipe out algae, so far not so much algae alr, have some on the glass but i used a phonecard to scape them off once in a while, also got 4 OTTOs and many cherry shrimps to keep algae down.

One of melon has back spot, in fact the black spot seems to have outline his body, but I learn to accept them for who they are, they are all beautiful to me

Water change used to be once every 2-3 weeks about 20 %, now freq has increased to once or twice a week, to keep bioload down, due to increase in the number of discus

Anyway, thanks to everyone who commented, keep the passion burning

[ywl]

I have no luck with shrimps . I added about 5 yamato but they just vanished. Only once they were last seen chewed up by my discus. The rest freak out and jumped out of tank. Maybe its the upside down cat too ..... Its good that you don't have this issue. How is your feeding schedule . Do you use blood worm or dried food ?
I change 30% water change weekly but still fight losing battle with algea. Maybe i feed too much . 6 cubes of blood worm ( washed ) daily for 12 Discus.

[jasonchua1982]

I have no luck with shrimps . I added about 5 yamato but they just vanished. Only once they were last seen chewed up by my discus. The rest freak out and jumped out of tank. Maybe its the upside down cat too ..... Its good that you don't have this issue. How is your feeding schedule . Do you use blood worm or dried food ?
I change 30% water change weekly but still fight losing battle with algea. Maybe i feed too much . 6 cubes of blood worm ( washed ) daily for 12 Discus.

I see, guess I am lucky not to have this issue, maybe you can try raising cherry shrimp instead, I got 1 packet of 10 for $6 and since they have reproduce until there are over 50 shrimps in the tank currently. Besides that I provide lots of hiding places for them, as you can see from my thick moss and tenullus (removed after rescaped), maybe this has allow them to hide from the Discus.

My feeding schedule is twice a day with tetra bits, I do have some hungry tetras , rasboras and 3 platties who are always snatching and sourcing for food, think this will help to reduce leftover, which might encourage algae growth, I used to feed bloodworms until my mum think its not too hygenice to store in the fridge with our frozen food

I can see your discus are being fed well, yeah, maybe you are feeding too much, as 6 cubes for 12 discus is like average of 1 cube for 2, last time I used to feed 1 cubes for 5 discus and some tetras. Just a rule of thumb, see if the fish can finish the food within 5mins, if not, you are overfeeding.

To control the algae, you must remember not to overfeed, otherwise this will cause nutrients imbalance and caused algae to grow, I remember once my mum actually overfeed, causing a layer of food particles to form on top of the gravel, and guess wat, the whole entire stretch of glass is filled with green spot algae, which is really hideous. So i did a thorough clean up, add more fast growing plants as well as try fill every single area with plants, I also add liquid fertiliser to balance out the nutrients and ensure optimal growth for the plants, only in this way can algae be controlled.

Anyway, how big is your tank and discus? Just curious to know

[torque6]

Jason, its not imbalance in nutrients that causes algae, its ammonia+urea , KNO3 dont cause algae blooms.

[jasonchua1982]

Hi all,

Here are some updates for my discus planted tank.

The sudden increase of Discus (13 x 4 inch Discus) severely upset the "balance" in the tank and I got algae of all sorts, hair algae, green spot, BBA.

So decided to reduce bioload by giving away 11 Discus to frens and relative, now still plagued with BBA,but things are looking for the better, oh ya, added 2 small yellow Albino Discus and some albino red guppies to the big family