85 gallon planted tank, suggestions?

[ferdyvw]

Hi I am from Holland and have been reading along for a while.

today I bought my first discus fish. 2 tiger turqoise, 2 red valentine and 2 pigeons. All of them are tony tan fish and about 4.5 - 5 inch big.

The tank is 85 gallons and the sump is another 30 gallons.

Any suggestions on the scape? All the feedback is welcome, I am new to freshwater, I always had reef tanks :)
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/11/27/7u8ege2u.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/11/27/vega7aga.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/11/27/5eva6e6y.jpg

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[wild4discus]

Those are nice looking discus especially the valentines, great color. The scaping looks great... simple and natural.

[ferdyvw]

Thanks.

Btw they are on tap water. Ph 8, kh 5, redox 360. No nitrates or chlorines (those are not allowed in dutch tap water).

My sump is filled with 10 liters of ceramic tubes and another 2 liters of bio-ball's.

Temperature set to 28.5

Hope I am going in the right direction with my tank :)

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[Reel Obsession]

Tank looks great!!

[Nick Klimkowski]

Looks great, you could always tie some java ferns on to the drift wood.

-Nick

[Tormentor]

Thanks.

Btw they are on tap water. Ph 8, kh 5, redox 360. No nitrates or chlorines (those are not allowed in dutch tap water).

My sump is filled with 10 liters of ceramic tubes and another 2 liters of bio-ball's.


Temperature set to 28.5

Hope I am going in the right direction with my tank :)

Sent from my HTC One S using Tapatalk
Ph is too high. Lower it, scape looks natural keep it simple.

[dirtyplants]

Ok first decide what kind of tank you wish to have. If a few scattered plants is your look then don't worry about it. If you are looking for a bio scape that grows and evolves like in nature you will need to make some choices. High Tech, low tech, substrate, fast growing and slow growing plants.

Ph is too high. Lower it, scape looks natural keep it simple.
Your fish will be OK with a constant pH of 8 but your plants will slowly degenerate, or just not grow as well. They tolerate the mid to high 7 pH. Vals love hard water and just take over in a hard water situation and can look awesome like a forest. I am assuming you have hard water with your pH. If you are going for a planted tank then you need to do a little planning, type of substrate, what will thrive in that substrate, short term goals and long term goals. This includes how you want your fish to swim, by that I mean do you want caves for them to swim into and out, through plants, above or under? Look at pictures on the net decide on a look that you like and how much time you want to invest getting that look. Then you can ask more specific questions regarding the look you are going for. Your fish are awesome looking.

[pastry]

This is one I've always loved. With that background, you could pull this off:

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?69109-New-Showtank&highlight=dizkuz

[dirtyplants]

That is a really nice set up. I love to see people get creative and create environments.

[Milo2]

My ph is the same and I have not problems. Stable ph is the key.

[dirtyplants]

My ph is the same and I have not problems. Stable ph is the key.
Can you name the plants that are thriving in you pH? I am sure ferdyvw would like to know what works for your tank.

[mattyb]

I had a planted tank no co2 or anything with a ph of 7.8 and they did really well, never had any problems. So don't go rushing into co2 injection unless you really think it nessasery, on my new tank I have co2 injected with a controller that keeps it at ph of 7 but I always have second thoughts about if I really needed it.

Very nice layout, I always get jealous on other people set ups and makes me want to change mine lol

[JNathanS512]

Beautiful tank and very nice Discus.

[Hamlet]

I used to use water Hyacinth as a nutrient control, its a beautiful flowering floating (yes lots of adjectives) plant that can withstand up to 90 degree waters. Can still keep it BB and have some killer plants!

[navydiscus]

Plan on using hyacinth as a bio filter in my fuge. They need lots of light though.