Planted 75 Redo - Make it more discus friendly. 56K be warned.

[Whiskey]

Hello all!

First off, this has been playing up for a while. The bottom of my tank is covered in Repens, I feed the discus the food goes into the repens and the Discus can't get to it. Plus it is on the high light side of the spectrum, but because of the hood design the light is "Spotty". To keep the tank free of algae I need allot of CO2 and I think it may not be the best for the discus. Plus the tank takes allot of maintenance, and can go to a "Jungle" super fast robbing the discus of swimming space.

The last straw for this layout is when a Discus discovered it can eat the repens when it was trying to go after food. It doesn't actually eat the leaves, but since it got some leaf and some food in one bite it seems to have associated the two and when it is hungry it picks at the repens leaves.

What I am starting with:
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7532/15560072607_35aaaf70a6_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/pGZrtV)DiscusTankWeb (https://flic.kr/p/pGZrtV) by Wiskey2727 (https://www.flickr.com/people/94982813@N04/), on Flickr

The Plan:
Lower light - Aiming for 30-40 PAR with less CO2. The tank will focus on Ferns and Anubius and crypts all of which do very well with low light.

Replace the Florite with white sand - it will lighten the discus and allow them to pick food off the bottom.

Make the driftwood go up instead of down - scape change which will allow for more swimming room but plenty of hiding places when they are stressed or bullied.

I envision it looking a little more like my 10G tank plant species wise when done, this tank is super low maintenance and a perfect envryoment to display sensitive shrimp species:
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3925/14932442822_e5158b00b3_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/oKwF1J)IMG_3633nr (https://flic.kr/p/oKwF1J) by Wiskey2727 (https://www.flickr.com/people/94982813@N04/), on Flickr

The plants and discus are already out, and I'm waiting for the water to clear so I can net the smaller fish to the holding tank while I re-arrange.

Comments welcome!
Whiskey

[Whiskey]

First driftwood layout plan:
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7500/15285905064_a211194fce_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/phLg2j)IMG_4164 (https://flic.kr/p/phLg2j) by Wiskey2727 (https://www.flickr.com/people/94982813@N04/), on Flickr

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7486/15722111289_0a88f6e7bc_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/pXiVWi)IMG_4163 (https://flic.kr/p/pXiVWi) by Wiskey2727 (https://www.flickr.com/people/94982813@N04/), on Flickr

Whiskey

[discusmatt20]

Looks sweet! When you say replace the fluorite with white sand, are you gonna get rid of the carpeting plant as well (not sure what plant that is)? Ive been thinking about doing a carpet plant in my white sand lol

[Whiskey]

Looks sweet! When you say replace the fluorite with white sand, are you gonna get rid of the carpeting plant as well (not sure what plant that is)? Ive been thinking about doing a carpet plant in my white sand lol

Yes, I'm going to get rid of the carpeting plant as well. That is the Repens I was referring too that one of my discus keeps pecking at. This way at least food won't get trapped under it.

Whiskey

[Whiskey]

And this is where we are now:
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7534/15722546008_35ae3e0a1f_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/pXmaas)IMG_4166 (https://flic.kr/p/pXmaas) by Wiskey2727 (https://www.flickr.com/people/94982813@N04/), on Flickr

To be totally honest I'm not sure I like that topmost driftwood part, but there is not much I can do about it now. I'm hoping when the java fern grows a little larger it will be less distracting.

Whiskey

[Whiskey]

And now I have 2 huge tupperware containers full of plants I have to toss. That's the biggest problem with rescaping planted tanks. You always have way more plants than you thought you did.

Whiskey

[rickztahone]

You can always ROAK the plants to your local plant club :)

[pcsb23]

You can always ROAK the plants to your local plant club :)ROAK??

Two lovely scapes in the OP :)

Once the water clears some it should look a little better, but the new scape looks good so far. White sand makes a heck of a difference ime.

[rickztahone]

ROAK??

Two lovely scapes in the OP :)

Once the water clears some it should look a little better, but the new scape looks good so far. White sand makes a heck of a difference ime.

lol, my apologies, that's suppose to be RAOK, or random act of kindness

[Whiskey]

You can always ROAK the plants to your local plant club :)

I would, but the club is about 100 miles north and they are real plant enthusiasts. The plants I'm offering everybody already has a million of their own. It's only the super rare stuff that raises eyebrows there.

Now if somebody here on Simply lived near Escondido, CA and wanted a tank full of plants, PM Me! They are all yours.

Whiskey

[Whiskey]

ROAK??

Two lovely scapes in the OP :)

Once the water clears some it should look a little better, but the new scape looks good so far. White sand makes a heck of a difference ime.

Thank you! My GF loves the white sand too - the tank does look allot brighter with it that is for sure. I really hope the Discus figure out how to pick food off the bottom so they can take their time eating but not loose the food now.

The water is still a little cloudy but it's starting to clear. The weird thing is that the sand grains are getting stuck around air bubbles and floating to the surface as little globes. I've never seen anything like it. I'm hoping it stops after the sand gets better waterlogged.

Whiskey

[pcsb23]

... The weird thing is that the sand grains are getting stuck around air bubbles and floating to the surface as little globes. I've never seen anything like it. I'm hoping it stops after the sand gets better waterlogged.

Whiskey
It will :)

[Miss_Fish]

Best of luck with the tank; in my experience the food will collect around the base of the plants, and the Discus won't be able to find all of it. I didn't realize that until I tore down my planted tank and just put in driftwood. Since then I have cut down on the amount of food that I feed them by half. That means that about half of the food was just being lost in the plants. It's not impossible it's just a lot harder than having no plants.

[Beurre blanc]

Good choice. Im in the doing of re rescapeing my planted tank too. Threw out a bucket of plants. Ripping out the carpet with E. Tennelus was much needed. Oh my all the gunk trapped in a carpet no matter how often you vacum.. i bet you will enjoy the new and easier tank maintanance. Constant pruning gets tiresome. :)

[Whiskey]

Good choice. Im in the doing of re rescapeing my planted tank too. Threw out a bucket of plants. Ripping out the carpet with E. Tennelus was much needed. Oh my all the gunk trapped in a carpet no matter how often you vacum.. i bet you will enjoy the new and easier tank maintanance. Constant pruning gets tiresome. :)

It really does! And I'm sure the discus are much happier now that they can go down to the sand and pickup all the food they missed the first go around. I'm sure they will get much more to eat now.

Whiskey

[Whiskey]

Here is an updated pic now that the sand has cleared a little bit. I'm really liking the new look, I can't wait until the java fern grows up a bit and hides some of the big piece of driftwood in the center.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7498/15755809490_a8e7c5a885_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/q1hDeL)75GDiscsPost (https://flic.kr/p/q1hDeL) by Wiskey2727 (https://www.flickr.com/people/94982813@N04/), on Flickr

Whiskey

[pcsb23]

Looks good :)

[jmf3460]

beautiful scape, I love a one sided scape with a beach on the right. what I am most impressed about is your anubias 10gal. I know how hard it is to maintain balance in such a small tank, well done! discus look great!

[Dahlyvh]

this tank looks amazing!

[Whiskey]

Thank you all!!!

The 10G anubius tank has been really easy actually, the real trick was keeping the light low enough that I don't have algae issues. Past that I dose in response to deficiencies, maybe every 2-3 months and then I only dose K2s04. It has been a really easy tank. I do water changes of 5-10 percent every 2 weeks.

Whiskey

[sd86tlam]

First driftwood layout plan:
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7500/15285905064_a211194fce_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/phLg2j)IMG_4164 (https://flic.kr/p/phLg2j) by Wiskey2727 (https://www.flickr.com/people/94982813@N04/), on Flickr

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7486/15722111289_0a88f6e7bc_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/pXiVWi)IMG_4163 (https://flic.kr/p/pXiVWi) by Wiskey2727 (https://www.flickr.com/people/94982813@N04/), on Flickr

Whiskey

This is one amazing piece of driftwood. I am wondering if you could share where you got this wood.