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New arrivals today, 8 Santarem from Hans. Hans called me personally to check on things, on his vacation of all things.
The fish are certainly not shy.
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My 280 planted tank project is still alive and well. I moved to a larger abode about 3 years back, and had to re-establish the tank. No Discus yet, although I have an order pending with Hans. I am thinking about smaller Santarem. This iteration of the tank is without a sump, it just doesn’t work in the current house.
I’m doing large weekly water changes per week, roughly 100 gallons, slowly, all day and it replenishes with a mix of water from an ro and di filters.
I still do auto fert, auto liquid carbon, and co2 injection.
Lights are radion and aquauv leds. The radions are awesome!
I’ll update soon!
32394E5F-F019-4E46-A733-C2330C9CC8B8.jpg
New arrivals today, 8 Santarem from Hans. Hans called me personally to check on things, on his vacation of all things.
The fish are certainly not shy.
You've done a fine job to the get the planted tank mature and ready for
discus. The main criticism with discus and planted tanks, is that the
fish may not reach full size potential. I think if you keep up with
water changes that they may do good. Of course feeding and cleaning
is essential as well.
This surely has been a process, and I want to thank the many folks here, and the many true experts that I have had an opportunity to learn from personally and also through their written works.
Raising plants that flower on a regular basis is rewarding. Raising plants like a Madagascar Lace plant that throws up a new flower stem every three weeks, consistently, is an amazing experience that even makes the scientist in me..well..giddy. 29C870FB-1F6F-4E00-8EED-F16CF0D3E462.jpg
Having nearly 25 years under my belt culturing planted tanks and discus the issue is always quality and consistency. After moving to my new home, I waited 3 years to ensure that I could do both.
My quibble with the the planted tank would be tank size vs stocking, and adequate water change. My second quibble would be adequate water flow, and oxygen exchange. In the wild, discus live in in turbid, flowing rivers.
For my own purposes, I am limiting my stocking to 8 discus in a 280 gallon system with good water flow, and water changes of roughly 100 gallons per week or more. My nitrate tests roughly equal the incoming water supply before and after water changes. I thought I would not like well water, but it turns out that the nitrate levels from the tap are actually lower than city supplied water.
I have yet to read a scholarly article which would even suggest that aquatic plants somehow inhibit the growth of discus, or any other fish for that matter, so It would be difficult for me believe there is some kind of nexus.
As always, if others who have or had similarly established aquariums I am always interested in reading your input.
Last edited by Frankr409; 08-08-2019 at 09:57 PM.
Simply AMAZING - great thread about great and very methodical built of awesome planted Discus tank!
Good luck and please keep sharing with us your progress also going forward.
Thank you!
It's not the plants that inhabit their growth. When they get ill and have to be treated would be more harm to their growth than plants. They seem to get sick in planted tanks due to hexmitia from a build up of this parasite that lives in anaerobic conditions of the substrate. Of coarse the discus will fed from the bottom and start consuming larger numbers of this parasite. Meanwhile, they may be stressed by something and a stressed discus will eventually become ill or show signs of white poop. In all likely hood they will not reach 6.5-8 inches in they adult life. We'll see in a few months, hope I'm wrong.
Tanks like these are inspiring me to try out a planted tank. I'm starting with my 30g to get experience before I work on the discus tank.
Can I pick your brain a little since you have so many planted years under your belt? What are you using to auto dose? Also, how do you know you have adequate lighting at the bottom of the substrate to grow a carpet? I downloaded an app that has a lux meter but it only works before setting up the tank to measure the light output. Is there another trick? The tank has 2x 30watt led bulbs
I have a planted 30g and growing two carpets, Monte Carlo is doing well and spreading but the baby tear is melting. I want to make sure the plant has enough lighting and CO2. I'm using a co2 drop checker and I maintain it at green. I'm also dosing Thrive + at recommended dose which is 3 pumps 3x's a week.
Frank everything looks beautiful. Welcome back to Discus!
Al
AquaticSuppliers.comFoods your Discus will Love!!!
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Al Sabetta
Simplydiscus LLC Owner
Aquaticsuppliers.com
I take Pics.. click here for my Flickr images
I followed the entire build from start to finish ...very inspiring ....as I am in the planning stage of a 350g ...its builds and posting like urs that will keep me plodding on to the next stage ....very very informative and clear.
also must admit been in fish keeping of sorts....for many years but brand new to discus.
u keep safe now
Wonderful, can we please get an update with pictures?