Can i use live plants and what are best for soft water and high temps

Im just about to get back into discus after about 8 years away and then only kept discus pairs in 18 cubed breeders
so thinking of trying a discus ow natural setup with live plants

will this work or am I just feeding the fish there daily greens :bomb:

Discus are not like mbuna or Geophagus, so they will not bother the plants. The issue is more what plants will withstand the high temperatures required by discus and also plants with relative substrate impede thorough cleaning of the tank. Also not much point going for rapid growth plants that require adding heavy CO2 and ferts, as you will be chucking most of them out with the water changes. All time plant favourites in discus tanks are epiphytes such as Anubia or java ferns on wood or Amazon swords or Vallisneria (even better if kept in pots so to keep the bottom of the tank bare). Ceratopteris can also work

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Originally Posted by Paul Sabucchi

Discus are not like mbuna or Geophagus, so they will not bother the plants. The issue is more what plants will withstand the high temperatures required by discus and also plants with relative substrate impede thorough cleaning of the tank. Also not much point going for rapid growth plants that require adding heavy CO2 and ferts, as you will be chucking most of them out with the water changes. All time plant favourites in discus tanks are epiphytes such as Anubia or java ferns on wood or Amazon swords or Vallisneria (even better if kept in pots so to keep the bottom of the tank bare). Ceratopteris can also work

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thank you paul but don't really wont to do a bare base tank with no sand as wont a natural look but will Anubias be ok on the branches because the soft water as they from Africa And few amazon swords with few rounded pebbles round should be ok
im going Low tech setup with only 1 or 2 t5 tubes on for 6 hours day and smaller fert dosing

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Originally Posted by Paul Sabucchi

Ceratopteris can also work

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One of my favorites too. I use it in a few tanks floated. Also known as "water sprite."

Anubis do just fine in soft water, I have kept them in tanks with a next to nonexistent water hardness, practically straight r/o with minimal GH salts. It requires very little light. Just very slow growing so if you want to fill your tank fast you will have to purchase a fair few plants. The roots can find their way into the sand but do not bury the rhizome or it will rot. I would put the swords in relatively shallow glass containers (like Tupperware but made of glass) with fertile substrate and a few pebbles on top.

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Originally Posted by jonny j

will Anubias be ok on the branches because the soft water as they from Africa

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Western Africa, not the Great Rift Lakes. Generally softer water with acidic to neutral pH. Same thing can be said of Bolbitis, though Bolbitis may look out of place in your setup.

Thank you for your help my friend
I will try whot you said about putting those swords in glass containers with a good planting substrate as have read that they wont lots of nutrients in there roots

thanks Adam
will look into that water sprite as was thinking of growing a floating plant for some cover around my bogwood whot im going to try and anchor near and above surface

In the last 6 months, I've gotten into plants as well. On my old tank, the ph was 5 and a TDS of 100 at 84*F. And my substrate is an inch of pool filter sand. I bought wisteria, water sprite and an oriental red sword. The sword didn't do well, even with Flourish tabs, the others took a while to acclimate, but once they did, they grew like crazy. I had to replace my tank and the new one has a ph of 6.2, with everything else the same. I added some banana plants that are doing well, and I love the lily pads they have. The water sprite and wisteria are both going gang busters again once they re-acclimated.

Stendker has a list of plants that are suitable for discus aquaria: http://www.diskuszucht-stendker.de/p...quarium_en.pdf