Dirted tank

[Aquariumlover8]

Hi, several month ago I rehomed all my discus and closed down my discus tank. In the ensuing months I have successfully set up a nice planted tank using mineralized soil. But I'm starting to miss having discus so I set about doing research to see if anyone had attempted a dirted planted, low tech tank and discus. There's not too much out there except a brave few who have beautiful low tech planted tanks with adult discus. So I guess it can be done, just not with juviniles. For the time being, my new tank is still settling in so this is just a query. Has anyone here ever wondered about dirt and discus? Its almost sacralige to suggest considering how much effort we put into keeping our discus clean, but thought id post this up and see what i get.


I think discus tanks and planted tank are the pinacle of the freshwater aquarium hobby. They require the most care and attention and know how. Now I know a decent bit about both and thats fun. With my new tank,I have learned sooooo much about lighting, Co2, substrates etc all things I never had to worry about with my discus tank. So it's been enlightening and the tank is beautiful perhaps equally as beautiful as a discus tank just in a different way but wouldn't it be cool to combine the two? Ah me, I guess I'll just have to visit here often to get my discus fix. :)

[Disgirl]

Hi, let me be the first to toss out my opinion (something I have never been afraid to do). I keep a planted tank of adult discus but my plants are all growing on wood and in clay pots of sand with fertilizer sticks in the pots. My plants grow huge and I have low light.

But I see nothing wrong with you having a few adult discus in a dirt substrate planted tank. I would think a nice layer of gravel on top of the soil would be good so you could use a gravel vac on it to remove debris. I realize that the fish poop and excess foods would be used for plant fertilizer eventually. I think it would all be a good experiment. And I like experiments in the fish hobby. But you should definitely keep only a few adult discus, not the 1 per 10 gal. that we aim for here. If you do it, please let us know how it goes. Pics too of course. And I would hope you get your adults from one of our great sponsors here, they have wonderful fish.
Barb

[Aquariumlover8]

Awesome, thanks for the repy :)

[Skip]

discus don't come from planted biotope

[redsono93]

What does a Discus Bio constists of? Lots of driftwood and sand? Someday I'd like a large tank of Wilds and would love to know what it would look like:) thanks.

[Second Hand Pat]

Do a search on YouTube on wild discus in their natural habitat and bio-tope tanks may get you an idea.

[DerekFF]

Id do it. Almost did before I thought we were moving across the US. I sold my 210g tank and all in preparation.....and then we didn't move lol. But I had planned a 210g dirt tank with wild angels and discus. Once you get the "planted" side of the tank under control and stable (algae issues, lighting amount, excess water column nutrients start getting used up) then I'd do discus. Do one before the other, not all at the same time. (I briefly read your post so I can't even remember if you said you were going to do another tank or use the current dirted one)


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