My way to have some live plants in a discus tank.

[Disgirl]

14 months ago I began an experiment. It has worked great and now I will share my info. My 3 tanks (one each of discus, angelfish and Endlers) all have pool filter sand substrate, about 1/2" deep or less. I would prefer deep gravel to root plants in. But I have the sand for cleanliness reasons, so easy to keep clean. Anibias grow well on the driftwood I also have in the tanks. But I wanted Sword Plants. Can't grow swords in 1/2" of sand. So here is what I tried, and it has been totally successful.

I make my own clay planting dishes, but you could use any container that will hold sand, and I recommend a hole in the bottom of it, which you would cover with some filter floss or something similar to hold the sand in. I put sand into the dishes, at least 2" or more deep sand, planted young Swords into the sand and here is the "experiment" part. I added Miracle Gro houseplant fertilizer sticks into the sand. For a 8" dish I put one stick, they are about 2" long and come with many to a package, from Lowe's garden dept. Much cheaper than root tabs for fish tank plants. I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best, the first ones were in my Endler tank, would not experiment with discus yet. Here is a pic of that little 6" sword plants that I put in the dish in the sand last January. They grew this big in about 6 months! Honest. I have since done many more, all doing great. The next pic is the swords now, in my discus tank, trimmed and replanted, and has had baby swords appear.

Last month I took the huge plants out of my Endler tank, removed lots of old leaves, trimmed the roots and replanted them in larger dishs of sand and put in my 125 gal. discus tank. In just the 2 weeks they been in there I see at least 10 new leaves coming from the center of each plant. I have 2 fert sticks in each, with about a quart of sand. And they growing in low light, each has a 20W fluorescent bulb over it. I do a 75% wc on this tank, twice a week, 15 adult discus in there, all is very healthy and happy.
Barb

[troysdiiscus]

From eastern North Carolina, so am I...What part?? I am doing something like that as well in my 30 gallon,(storing them in 30 til 110 up and running) I had a heavy planted tank in 55 gallon with eco complete and co2. I switched out the 55 for a BB grow out tank. So mean time I potted my plants in clay pots (amazon swords,micro swords, crypts, lendi, and fissidens fontanus moss) until I set up my 110 gallon coming up next month. Going to go lightly planted low tech like you, no co2. Did you make those planters you have them in?

[Disgirl]

I am in New Bern, where are you? Yes, I made the planters. I am going to go to my sponsor site here at SD now and will post a couple pics of what I make and sell here as a sponsor. Here is a pic I just took of one of the swords that was replanted into the dish of sand just two weeks ago, and now has some nice babies growing from the mama plant already.
Barb

[troysdiiscus]

Nice, I am in Rocky Mount about hour and half from you. There was a guy selling discus on craiglist that lives in trent woods I think, I emailed him a couple of times and never heard anything, do you know who I am talking about? I would love to get some of those from you, how much are you going to sell them for?
This just some of my plants in the 30 gallon

[Disgirl]

Sent you a pm Troy. Good looking plants you have!
Barb

[GlennR]

Barb,
That's a great idea. I'd have been too worried about the grow-sticks screwing up the water chemistry to try it, so I'm really glad that "you" did.
Your plants look great.

You mentioned that the shallow pots should have holes in them, but I don't quite understand "why"?

Also, have you tried just placing the grow-sticks in one plant and seeing if the other plants in the tank also benefit? I'd think that the fertilizer would disperse throughout the tank.

[Mary10]

I too was wondering about the miracle gro sticks. The discus are ok with that? I have one amazon sword plant in a pot in my 55 gallon, I have been afraid to add any fert to it.
Love your tank !! It is beautiful. Love those discus too !!

[CrazyAngels]

Swords do best with ferts right on their roots, not so much from the water column from what I've gathered.

[John_Nicholson]

Yep it works well here is a pic from either '99 or 2000.

-john

[GlennR]

The shallow pots get my vote. The regular ones look better on a patio or a window sill.

[Disgirl]

Thanks for your replies Glenn, Mary, Jorge and John. The fert sticks have no effect on the water column. The roots of the plants use the fert, I add more every 2-3 months. Sword plants need lots of food, they use it all up in the sand. I put holes in the planting dishes, just so there can be some water and air exchange through the dish bottom, less chance for anaerobic condiitons, gas buildup, etc. And the dish isn't so heavy when you lift it out of the tank, as the water will drain out. I do put some filter material in the bottom to keep sand from coming out the holes. These dishes work just great sitting on bare glass tank bottoms or on a thin layer of sand.
Barb

[Mary10]

Thanks ! I'm going to give it a try. My sword hasn't had any fert since I put it in. It looks good, but hasn't grown that much.

[Tazalanche]

Thank you for starting this thread Barb. We've been too cautious about affecting the water chemistry to try this. Merry put some in the 135 discus tank & the 55 molly tank yesterday. We look forward to the results.

[Ryan]

So you just use standard aquarium fluorescent bulbs over them? How many hours of light do they get each day? I'd love to try some real plants in my smaller dwarf cichlid tanks but lighting has always been my big concern. I don't want to get too expensive or fancy with CO2 injection, new lighting, etc.

[Disgirl]

Ryan, I just use the standard fluorescent bulbs that come with the old fashioned strip lights. My 125 gal discus tank has 3 separate lights, each is the 18" bulb. The tank does get some daylight too, from windows and doors within about 10' of the tank. I leave the lights on from 9am-11pm. Very little algae grows and the swords are putting out many new leaves since I potted them into sand, in my plant dishes and put fert. sticks in them. No secrets just what works for me. Good luck Mary and David and Ryan.
Barb