Tony's 4ft discus planted tank revisit

[Tony]

Is so nice of the tank... I wish I could achieve a foreground like yours... How long does it take to have foreground like yours... Do share some tips...

I shorten the time by getting the moss turf from bro barmby. It took him 1 yr to get it so dense and matured. That is with good lights and regular fert.

[siraj]

nice tank do you change water often?
Where do u get the plants from?

[barmby]

Where do you guys get your Discus from? Any good place for getting wild Discus?

I saw wild discus in NKS last two Mondays ago

[Tony]

nice tank do you change water often?
Where do u get the plants from?

15% water change twice a week. Most of my plants I got them from fellow forum bros , while the red plants and c. Helferi are ordered through Hong Yang, c. Wendtii are from c328.

[adrianng1996]

nice tank...i always loved discus in planted tanks

[Tony]

nice tank...i always loved discus in planted tanks

Thanks Adrian. Here is an update of the tank with a change of the inhabitants

Sold off all my RGD and changed them to Albino ALSS... they stay brightly colored regardless of the darker planted background.

[Bettacloud]

Interesting and nice! Thick n lush. How long did u take to "hairstyle" ur plants?

[Tony]

Interesting and nice! Thick n lush. How long did u take to "hairstyle" ur plants?

Thanks for reading. Depends on what needs to be trimmed and how much changes need to be done during each haircut. Can range from 20min to 1 hr or more. So far i prefer to do portion by portion so ususlly slightly more than an hour including scrubbing of wall and water change and fertiliser dosing.

[Tony]

There is an explosion of growth on the bylxa and I had to prune away 60% in order to see the fishes. Here is an update photo.

I'm still fighting BBA which somehow seem related to the frozen bloodworm I'm feeding. Have cut down on the lighting and increased CO2 injection in hope of keeping them at bay.

[barmby]

wow.. nice...from far.. kill the algae : )

[Tony]

Hi Colin,

Got problem eliminating BBA and I can't stop frozen bloodworm. Tried the overdose excel method but does not help much, infact it kills the bolbitis with burns of brown patches instead. Any suggestion?

So far BBA appearing only on bolbitis closer to water surface.

[Mystikboy]

Will freeze dried blood worms work for you? Pardon me if my suggestion is naive

[jeffteo]

What i did to tackle BBA and staghorn on my shrimp tank is cut down on the dosing and control lighting very strictly.
For the start I block light coming from windows in the day and give only about 4 hrs of light in the evening when I am home.
When it is in control, day time is lighting from window and only 3 hours of light in the evening. Dosing is drips now and then when i feel like it.

My Discus planted tank only have slight GDA/GSA on glass and leafs. Using EI dosing method following Tom Barr dosing scheme(not strictly though).
1 week dosing divided into 3 dose.
50% WC on sunday, tues and thurs dose micro
mon, wed and friday dose macro
Sat no dosing at all and the cycle go on and on

[Tony]

Will freeze dried blood worms work for you? Pardon me if my suggestion is naive

Thanks for the suggestion. Have tried dry food but the don't seem to take them. I'm feeding them discus pellets
, pirulina flakes and their favorite frozen bloodworm to keep them healthy

What i did to tackle BBA and staghorn on my shrimp tank is cut down on the dosing and control lighting very strictly.
For the start I block light coming from windows in the day and give only about 4 hrs of light in the evening when I am home.
When it is in control, day time is lighting from window and only 3 hours of light in the evening. Dosing is drips now and then when i feel like it.

My Discus planted tank only have slight GDA/GSA on glass and leafs. Using EI dosing method following Tom Barr dosing scheme(not strictly though).
1 week dosing divided into 3 dose.
50% WC on sunday, tues and thurs dose micro
mon, wed and friday dose macro
Sat no dosing at all and the cycle go on and on

I suspect the bolbitis are exposed to too much light, so for a start, will try reduce the length of exposure while continue dosing. Thanks.

[barmby]

Yeah excel kills plant too. just live with it if it is only so far BBA appearing only on bolbitis closer to water surface.

[Tony]

Yeah excel kills plant too. just live with it if it is only so far BBA appearing only on bolbitis closer to water surface.

May have to let it be if still can't eliminate after all the tweaking.

[benjidog]

What I tried with BBA is to reduce dosing of fertilizer, and play around with the lighting.

I read somewhere that plants will start photosynthesis before the algae. So the general idea is that your plants will start using the nutrients about half an hour before the algae starts to do so, and eventually, the plants win and the algae loses.

In practice, this means using 2 light sets for your 4 feet tank (I suggest a 3 feet and 4 feet light set.

Suggested lighting scheme:-
Over a light period of 8-10 hours, alternate between overlapping periods of having only one set on for the 8 hours, and maybe only 2 hours of strong lighting with both sets of lights switched on. (1-4pm 3ft back light only, 3.50pm-9.30pm 4 ft front light, 7.30pm-9/10pm 3ft back light.) The back light will turn off last, so that there is fade out effect.

[Tony]

Thanks for the suggestion, i suspect the bolbitis are getting too much light so will try to reduce lighting period for a start and see how it goes. At the moment, i have adjused the 4x 54W , On 5 hrs rest 7hr then On 3hrs in evening. Will monitor and see if this setting is better

[Tony]

Fingers got itchy and did minor rescape to add more "hard" scape . Top up the soil with ADA 2 fine grain soil and added nice bogwood (form by adding 2 x 2ft pieces together) from a chance find. It took me 1 month of soaking to make it sink. Tied nanas and narrow leaf java fern that were harvested from the same tank and targeting low maintenance.

Sorry for the poor quality picture taken 1 day after the rescape (water still clearing up). Comments are welcome.

[Apistoinka]

Still look nice and wild... What foreground plant you plan to add in??? A small school of cardinal tetra will make the tank look more interesting bro...

By the way how is your Apisto???