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My Discus tank

DiscusnAfricans

Past President
This is my discus tank. I consider it a fish tank with plants as opposed to a planted fish tank. I wanted to go with live plants, but didn't want the maintenance or cost of a high-tech tank. After debating for a while and talking to Jen, she convinced me it was possible. Other than a CF light, the tank is completely low tech. Sand substrate, no CO2, no ferts, pH 6.4, temp 81. Jen helped me with most of the initial plant procurement and selection, and Tony helped me reconstruct everything. When I moved I had to downgrade the discus to a 55 gallon. At that point I still had gravel and very few plants. A few weeks later, I emptied the tank, removed the substrate, and added sand. With some additional plants from TFW and a few fellow members, Tony helped me rescape the tank and get everything abck together. Here are a few pics I recently took. POS, I mean point and shoot camera, so the clarity isn't great, but here are a few tank and fish shots.
 

Tony

Alligator Snapping Turtle/Past Pres
Looking good, Mikey. The plants are starting to fill in nicely and your discus look awesome. :D
 

mrkillie

Members
Thanks for the heads up. Its probably just the flash, but I'll give everyone a second look tonight.

Could be the flash, but I didn't notice it on any of the other fish, so I figured I'd point it out to you. I know when I had some discus about 15 years or so ago, they would start with the eyes if I was more than a day late with a water change.

Joel
 

jonclark96

Past CCA President
Very nice tank. How do the plants do in the sand substrate? Do you have something under the sand for the roots to grow in?
 

DiscusnAfricans

Past President
Very nice tank. How do the plants do in the sand substrate? Do you have something under the sand for the roots to grow in?
Thanks. I had to create a pretty deep sand bed to make sure the roots had enough depth to keep them down. I don't have anything special underneath to hold them down. The anubias is on driftwood, and the crypts don't have to be planted very deep. I just made sure the dwarf sag, val, hygro, and sword were planted deep enough to keep the roots held in place.
 

bertolli

Members
Nice tank, why do some of the discus have black dots on them? I've seen it before but never figured out what it's from.
 
Nice tank, but........ I would take that cone out of there, it's taking away of the beauty (but........who am I lol).

If they want to spawn, believe me they will take the wood, a plant etc. No need for that THING in a nice tank.

Other thing but that's me, I know, I hate to see sand at the front of the tank, make it a little lower in the front so it stays behind the wooden edge,
high sand/bottom in the front looks so........cut off.


Hans
 
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DonkeyFish

Members
:) Good job! That hygro is doing well and filling out. The sag will carpet soon too, even faster if you put a couple of root tabs in the sand (which would make everything grow better). But it all looks good, man!
 

DiscusnAfricans

Past President
Thanks for all the compliments everyone.

Bertolli- the black dots seem more prominent on the unknown strains (homegrown crosses). The Stendker strains (Red turquoise, Greeb turquoise) have hardly any black visible, but the 2 "Golden Sunrise" (not an official name) have some speckling, mostly in the forehead region.

Hans- thanks for the constructive criticism. I know you can speak from experience and I trust anything you have to say about discus and their tanks.
 
All types of Discus like Alenquer, Santarem, Turquoise types, brilliants, Snake Skins, in other words all none Pigeon types don't get black speckels or dots.

Most Pigeon types like Marlboro, Fire Red, Blue Pigeon, Red Pigeon, all types that don't have stress bars any more, CAN show show the dots, some more some lesser. It all has to do with a lot of factors, to dark tank, water quality, health, quality of the Discus, etc etc etc.

Hans
 
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