Maintenance in Planted Tank

[jsweeten]

I am a new Discus owner, but not new to planted tanks. I have a 65 gal planted bow front with Angels and Rainbows and recently started a new 55 gal planted with Tetras and Discus. I also have driftwood in both tanks. Both tanks are low tech planted, do use Flourish Excel weekly. I'd like to know the maintenance regime of those that have successfully maintained Discus in planted tanks. Examples, how often are you vacuuming substrate, what's your filtration system, etc? What's your lighting schedule? Also, wondering if anyone has used the Eheim Sludge Extractor and if you've found it useful. It did seem to get good write-ups in Amazon. Any tips or ideas you've found useful with a planted Discus tank would be welcome! Thanks!

Jill

[walt3]

6892868929i guess i dont have a true "planted" tank as far as co2, ferts and such but im having pretty good luck with 130 watts of compact flourescent, ehiem 2217, ac70, power head for flow no co2 or ferts at the moment. swords are growing well as are mellon swords. baby tears at the top directly under the lights at water surface are pearling like crazy.:) pretty low tech. i do gravel vac everywhere plants are not though. daily.

[Skip]

As long as u have adult discus... Should be no problem.. They need less feeding so tank grabel s cleaner amd u wont stunt their gravel

[discuspaul]

I've been doing a 'trial & error experiment' for quite a few months, trying to achieve that desirable balance between raising & keeping healthy fish, employing a reasonably good but not rigorous routine, while at the same time trying to create a well-growing low tech planted 'display' environment, with minimal algae, and high water clarity. And I believe I've achieved a satisfactory degree of success - at least it works for me.

Keep in mind, Jill, that I stocked the tank with around 3" juvie discus, knowing full well I would not achieve optimally large adult specimens, which was fine with me. Some of the discus are now near the 5.5" size, and that's plenty large enough for me.
This is my regime:
The tank is an Osaka 260, lit for 8 hrs./day by 2 X 39w T5 HO's, and filtered by 2 AC 110's, and I do 2 X weekly -70% wcs, with full tank wipedown, plant trimming, substrate vac, filter media rinsing &/or rotated replacement.

I regularly use Purigen, along with filter floss (discarded weekly for new), along with pre-filter sponges on the intake tubes, to maintain polished water clarity.
Plant ferts are root tabs (3 X yr. in white silica PFS), along with a weekly routine of dosing Excel, Flourish C.S., NPK, Trace, Tailored Aquatics, & Equilibrium.
This has worked quite well for about 6 months now.

Here's some recent pics for you to have a look at:
http://s1105.photobucket.com/albums/h357/discuspaul/Sept2011

Let me know if I can be of any help at any time.

[Second Hand Pat]

...u wont stunt their gravel

Skip, trying something new??

Hey Paul, they look super and grown a lot since doing the discus guide :)

[jsweeten]

Paul, nice tank and aquascaping. Instead of sand, I have a medium grey plant substrate. I have an AquaClear 70 with a prefilter on the intake and was going to add a sponge filter, but am thinking it may be too big with the driftwood and plants. I do have a large Penguin bio-wheel HOB that I could add,but I think those filter cartridges have carbon in them. Anyone know if there's cartridges without carbon that could be used, or a do around for that? I also use the plant tabs, along with the Excel, but that's it. Have a double T5HO light. I had read some posts about the Purigen and thought that might be something to look at. Will get some ordered. Right now I'm doing every other day WC at 50%. I'm only running the lights for 6 hours, may pick that up to 8 hrs. I just want to make sure I'm keeping the substrate as clean as I can and as you know it can be difficult working around plants and driftwood. I do have 2 Corys, 1 bushy nose pleco and some Tetras that act as a fairly good cleanup crew. Does anyone see anything I could add or be doing differently? Thanks for all the info!

Jill

[Skip]

Skip, trying something new??

Hey Paul, they look super and grown a lot since doing the discus guide :)

i went to sleep at 5am.. LOL> i was barbacking last nite.. :) so i was a little tired.. lol

[discuspaul]

Jill, don't bother with the sponge filter (for aesthetic reasons mainly), and instead of using the carbon cartridge in the bio-wheel HOB, I'd suggest placing a bag of Purigen, artfully situated in that chamber. Well-cleaned/ i.e. frequently re-charged Purigen works like magic - far better than carbon imo, for maintaining water cleanliness/clarity. Your wcs are just fine. Add some other fert elements to your routine dosing and I'm quite certain you'll be happy with the results.
Best of luck to you. Hope this helps.

[discuspaul]

BTW, Pat, thanks for your comment. My discus haven't grown a hell of a lot, and not very fast, but I love how the SnakeSkins' coloring has developed as they matured !