soon discus tank

[1MACK1]

Discus will arrive in some weeks time and everything is waiting...

[MoOcHiE525]

Mac,
Wow your tank is really beautiful. Could you tell me about it, and the process of setting it up? I am waiting for my show tank to arrive, and I would like to use some of your concepts. Also wut kind of Discus are going to go in there? Thanks for the post!
Michael

[Don_Lee]

Hi Mack,

The tank is looking really nice.....but you know what happens when you post pics of the tank here.... We want to know EVERYTHING! Can you tell us the lighting, filtration, etc....
Great looking tank, where are you getting discus from?

Don:D

[1MACK1]

The history of creating this tank is funny. I did my first planted tank two years ago. I didn't change almost anything but the time has come. I changed everything. This is a full new concept. Aqua Design Amano was the first who did show me nature aquarium concept. It was really something I always wanted to have but never knew how does it look like.
In US there is Aquarium Design Group and when I saw their tanks , it really got me.
This idea came to after I saw thousands of tanks on the web.
I tried to achive mound-shaped layout but not to copy someone else style. I like this tank and can't wait for discus.

I'm from Poland so fish are the ones from here.

Now the technical stuff.
Tank spec.:
- size 150/50/50cm,
- lighting 2 x 38W sylvania gro lux
- substrate - under the plants-soil from previous layout 3-5mm,
- white sand,
-filtration Eheim 2260, RO
- 200W heater,
- CO2,

- plants echinodorus maior, rose, rubin(narrow leaves), sagittaria subulata, cryptocoryne balansea, anubias barteri var. nana on driftwood,
- fish : the old crew: sterbay cory x 18, panaque nigrolineatus, L 200, L 18, L177, spotted peckoltia,
the soon will arrive discus: solid marlboro x 6, red turquise x 2, super red pigeon blood x 2,

[nacra99]

Hi Mac,
Nice tank.. I love tanks with sand. The whiteness of the sand really brings out the green in the plants.

But i have one question tho. I don't have too much experience with planted tanks, but correct me if i am wrong, you have an approx 90+ gal tank, and 76watts of lighting, which makes it about 1.2 watts/gal. I am aware of the general rule of 2.5-3 watts/gal for heavily planted tanks, and give and take a couple depending on water clarity, light penetration and intensity. But 1.2 watts/gal seems a little on the low side, even for slow growing plants like the anubias. Is that enough lighting?

I'm looking into finally taking the plunge and setting up a planted tank in the future, so any info would be helpful.

Cheers
marc

[1MACK1]

It may be not enough but in my opinion depends on what you want to achive.
In my case the thing is not about fast growth of plants. They grow slowly but the rfish aren't stressed with too much light. Thanks to sylvania gro-lux they have beautiful colour.
I almost don't have alge(only sometimes little problem) and the tank seems to fit the room without being too bright so it looks more natural.

THX
Maciek.

[NatakuTseng]

Tank looks very good. And I love the Sterbai cories, those guys are awesome. Just wanted to let ya know though that the Neons aren't gonna survive in the temps the discus need. They'll last a couple months max, but then start to die off. Neons don't like temps over 78-80 degrees F. You may want to get cardinal tetras instead, they live in the same areas as discus and can tollerate and thrive in the water temps discus need.

[1MACK1]

Thanks for good advice.
Is the temperature 28'C not enough - does it have to be 30'C ??

[Howie_W]

Hi Maciek,

Your tank looks great. I'm a big fan of anubias species...one of my favorites.

To answer your question, yes you can get by with 28 C. However, you'll find that neons do not do well in Discus tanks...they will eventually become snacks for the Discus. Cardinal tetras are a nice alternative.

The other thing you don't mention is what size Discus you are getting. Ultimately you'll have a much harder time growing out juveniles in a planted tank, versus going with adults.


Howie

[lado]

Cardinals or even better rummy noses.I got still 12 out of 14 originaly in tank last january.They are hardy and super looking scholing fish.
Question regarding sand,what's grain and is it compact or loose?

[NatakuTseng]

Grain is the size of the actual peices of sand. It really depends, its fairly compact I suppose, but if you have plants and rooting catfish (like cories) Or banjo cats who actually bury themselves in the sand you can keep it fairly loose. The roots from the plants will help to keep it from getting compacted down lower in the soil profile. I've used it on all of my planted tanks and been very pleased with it. I've been getting mine from Home Depot in 50lb bags, just says play sand on it, and hasn't changed the pH, gH or kH in my tanks at all.

[Don_Lee]

A couple of questions...

Do you use any substrate fertilization? Any type of fertilization at all?
Also-why would neons be discus food and cardinals would not? Cardinals are smaller, hence I would think more susceptible to being snacked on.
Great tank, thanks for sharing!

Don

[Howie_W]

Don,

Neons are actually smaller than cardinals. This is not to say that cardinals won't also be snacked upon by Discus; this typically happens with any smaller moving fish.


Howie

[Don_Lee]

Wow, really? My neons are much bigger than my cardinals.....I am trying to be meticulous in my plans for discus, I am hoping that I can get it right this time. I am in negotiations with the president to upgrade my 180 litre to a 180 GALLON when we move soon..................lol, I am thinking.

Don

[NatakuTseng]

I just did some math and wanted to give you a heads up, the tank is gonna be quite heavily stocked for a planted. Its basically a 100 gallon tank (calculated with the dimensions you provided) With the 10 discus that would pretty much max it out in my opinion, but with the plecos and 18 sterbais thats gonna be pushing it over the edge a bit, and then with cardinals or whatever you decide on for schoaling fish is just gonna be that much more. If it was me, I'd cut the stocking down a bit. Another problem you are probably going to encounter is the 200 watt heater won't be enough to keep the tank at the temp where it needs to be. Generally you want to shoot for 3-4 watts per gallon of water, with a 100 gallon tank you'd want to be shooting for a 300-400 watt heater to keep the temp where you want it. If you do choose to keep your stocking in the tank as you've planned, you may want to seriously consider adding more filtration. Thats just what I'm seeing and its my opinion, just trying to help ya out and avoid some potential problems.

HTH,
Brian

[1MACK1]

As to the fertilization I use liquid PMDD based and some sticks under crypto. Soil under the plants comes is uncleaned soil from previous layout.

[shalu]

You actually have 0.8 wpg, not 1.2 wpg. The plants will probably survive fine, because those are some bullet proof plants there. But don't count on them to help with water quality much, they will grow slowly.

I agree with Brian about stocking level. Be prepared to do multiple water changes per week. Also agree about heater, 200w is a bit low, unless your room temperature is high so the temp delta is small.

Don, yeah, adult cardinals are bigger than neons. You probably got young ones, but they fatten up fast sharing meaty food with discus.

[Don_Lee]

Thanks for the information guys! That is what I love about this board, I learn something new every day!:)

Don

[1MACK1]

So it's not "soon" discus tank any more...

Here are some photos of fish I got yesterday.
They are 4 x solid marlboro, 2 x reg pigeon blood, 2 x red turquise.
The water is pH 6, GH 5, KH 3.

[1MACK1]

:)

[1MACK1]

... :) ...

[Martin]

Awesome fish and tank :sun:

[Bainbridge Mike]

That looks wonderful! Makes me want to get some Rams. Sterbai corries look great and work out ok with discus too.

Mike

[JunglePaul]

Czesc Maciek! Ja jestem polak terz ale mieszkam w ameryce, w Iowa City. Masz bardzo fajne akwarjum.

[tpl*co]

Wow, those cardinals look great with the discus too :)

[1MACK1]

Czesc Maciek! Ja jestem polak terz ale mieszkam w ameryce, w Iowa City. Masz bardzo fajne akwarjum.


Czesc. Milom slyszec rodaka na tym forum. Pozdrawiam.

[discusJim]

Great fish and tank mate, looks really nice!!!
Good luck