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Thread: The Forum's Position on Discus in Planted Tanks....

  1. #16
    Registered Member BODYDUB's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Forum's Position on Discus in Planted Tanks....

    Quote Originally Posted by mooncon View Post
    You people must have some really boring tanks
    Please elaborate............
    John

  2. #17
    Registered Member yim11's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Forum's Position on Discus in Planted Tanks....

    Quote Originally Posted by mooncon View Post
    You people must have some really boring tanks
    No. Creating new strains and enhancing rare strains isn't really boring. Just have to have the right conditions to pull it off.
    President NADA

    SOS Crew - Texas

  3. #18
    Registered Member Skip's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Forum's Position on Discus in Planted Tanks....

    Quote Originally Posted by Chad Hughes View Post
    We all know why many people seek out and subscribe to forums whether it be discus or a Toyota. There's something wrong they don't know how to fix and people on forums know everything at the touch of a keyboard. Makes sense why our disease section is what it is.

    That said, yes, bare bottom should be the first method of keeping discus for a new hobbyist.


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    Chad. What?!

    It's all your fault newbie want discus in planted tanks... they read ur contest thread of grow out. So they think they can do it too lol
    Jester - S0S Crew Texas

  4. #19
    Registered Member Chad Hughes's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Forum's Position on Discus in Planted Tanks....

    Lol! Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain (Skip). I guess I should have mentioned that this wasn't my first rodeo.


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    Chad Hughes

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  5. #20
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    Default Re: The Forum's Position on Discus in Planted Tanks....

    I have always owned planted tanks. I feel that the fish are a lot healthier in them, due to the extra filtration/surface area provided by the plants, as well as the hiding places they provide. They also look beautiful. Now as for discus, I have read for months now and I do understand the requirements to raise young ones. I've decided that raising them in a planted tank is more difficult but not impossible, and adult discus will do just fine. I'm going to get 6 discus soon, they will be 1.5" babies. I'm going to raise them bb till they reach 3" then transfer 2 to the planted tank. I'll post the results as they happen!

  6. #21
    Registered Member farebox's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Forum's Position on Discus in Planted Tanks....

    At one time I had an very nice 55 gallon high tech planted tank, got discus from non sponsor of SD. Within an week all six fish died. Found SD, read and read, got educated, and since being a newbie dumped my nice planted tank, sold off the CO2 equipment, lights, then bought some discus from SD sponsors, went BB. Did the water changes, fish grew fast and healthy, some breeding, more tanks, grow outs, selling fry. Three years later I'm now a better discus keeper, planted tanks are fine, but BB are so much easy to maintain in the long run. My 125 gallon display tank has driftwood and thin layer of pool filter sand. Planted tanks are nice but my discus fish care is the main issue, juggling between plant care and discus up keeping something will suffer.

  7. #22
    Registered Member israelillo81's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Forum's Position on Discus in Planted Tanks....

    Interesting thread. It is indeed a topic that raises a lot of passion. Here is a picture of how my tank looks not that it has been running for 5 months. I agree with many that it is a double challenge to keep discus and plants healthy but the satisfaction is double too !


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  8. #23
    Registered Member Tazalanche's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Forum's Position on Discus in Planted Tanks....

    I'm a planted tank owner by necessity (high nitrates in source water, so the plants help keep it in check) because I was holding off on getting a proper high capacity RO system until we built our new house. Well, we got the land, but the house is put on hold (Merry needed a new car instead) & I'm keeping tanks as they are, for now, because we like the appearance.

    Since Al mentioned it in the opening post, I do have a related question on biotopes. Many state a true biotope for discus is sand, driftwood & detrius (leaf/plant litter & such), but what about during the rainy season when the low lying areas near the river & lakes the live in are flooded? The videos I've seen of the Amazon basin during that season had a lot of submerged plants. Are the major areas for wild discus not the same?
    Last edited by Tazalanche; 02-07-2014 at 08:24 AM.
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  9. #24
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    Default Re: The Forum's Position on Discus in Planted Tanks....

    High water biotope for discus and myriad other fish is a flooded forest. So basically tree trunks, vines, branches, few non fallen leaves, thick, deep layer of fallen leaves and maybe some floating plants. So no, no typical submerged vegetation. Echinodorus, Altenethra etc grow only on the margins of terra firma streams and mybe on margines of lagos and igarapos.

  10. #25
    Registered Member John_Nicholson's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Forum's Position on Discus in Planted Tanks....

    Absolutely not.....my fish look stunning. You know I have had literally hundreds and hundreds of people come look at my tanks through the years and not a single person has mentioned the lack of gravel/substrate.....because a large, healthy, colorful discus trumps the **** out of a plant.

    -john

    Quote Originally Posted by mooncon View Post
    You people must have some really boring tanks
    Please check out http://forum.discusnada.org/

    SOS Crew Texas

  11. #26
    Registered Member israelillo81's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Forum's Position on Discus in Planted Tanks....

    Mr. Brewmaster15 is totally right in saying that there is not right or wrong in how to keep Discus, be it a bare bottom tank or a planted one. he mentioned as well it all depends what it's really your objective. I see clearly here are
    Many expert Discus keepers and breeders and since the forum is called simply discus, even though I am a keen into planted discus setups, I have to admit that the guys recommending a bob tank or a hard biotope are more in the better path of discus
    Keeping.
    A planted setup for discus is a difficult balance to keep and at the end if your main objective are Discus, you will end up doing/modifying your tank setup
    Until you see that your Discus are in a stable environment. Tending to be with
    Barely
    Planted setups for the ease if guaranteeing the right water
    Parameters.

    Plants and Discus is possible but since the beginning , the plant choices for keeping at such temperatures is narrow.

    My personal Objective setting up my current planted tank was to have adult discus, neigh tank mates totally compatible with them since the whole idea of my tank was thinking in Discus, so if the development of my planted tank turns disadvantageous
    For my adult Discus, I will humbly accept that perhaps it was not the right project to follow and go to a hard decoration biotope style setup. So far it has been five months
    Of running my tank with no mayor issues, doing once a week water change with pure RO water and no adding buffer. I do change the filter wool every two weeks on my sump and I have not siphoned my river sand since the last 5
    Weeks.

    I did have at some stage snail infestation and some
    Discus going into a corner and not eating. For that I have a hospital tank always ready for metro-prazi treatments. Inoriginallybstaryed with tank bred discus but now the
    Majority of them are wild caught from H&K.

    My snail infestation I ended it by serendipity when I treated the whole tank with Kusuri wormer medication ( contains flubendazole).

    Once again, even though I love planted setups, if I see a detrimental development of my fish due to too often Discus being sick, I will end up setting up a biotope tank for them since Discus at the end are my top priority.

    Regards

    Israel


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  12. #27
    Registered Member aalbina's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Forum's Position on Discus in Planted Tanks....

    Thanks Al, this should be an interesting request. I would love to see more folks with low tech planted tanks posting on their trials and successes. When I started with discus I had a planted tank with gravel just like I've had with other cichlids. All the issues that have been described in Rick's post plagued me as well - I went bare bottom and since then I've had fewer issues. Interesting comments in this thread. Was the decrease in issues for me due to the sharp upward curve in learning about discus, or was it due to the bare bottom conversion? I don't think it's an easy answer - things are rarely that black and white. I think, for me, the learning curve increase coupled with the removal of many of the variables through a bare bottom approach, together contributed to the success of my discus keeping. Could I have been successful with a lightly planted, substrate rich tank if my knowledge about discus were greater when I started? I think so - but maybe I'm just arrogant.

    For a beginner, the lure of a sexy planted tank with beautiful discus swimming around in what looks like a natural environment, is very strong. It was for me. Over the last 4 or 5 years, I've opted for bare bottom, manzanita wood, sometimes a light sand substrate, with plant roots hanging down in the water to provide nitrate removal and provide a bit of shade and overhead cover for the fish.

    I think some folks here make a good point - many beginners come to this forum because, like me, they've already made some mistakes and are looking for help because their fish are sick or dying. So many of the beginners posting in the disease and sickness forum came to that forum with a pre-existing condition. Analyzing the posts in that forum and looking at 2 variables, planted vs bare bottom is not a true representation of the many variables at play. Making a definitive conclusion on the efficacy of one approach over the other based on that limited analysis is misleading.

    I'm looking forward to seeing more posts in the planted tank section.

    Adam

  13. #28
    Registered Member we4wieners's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Forum's Position on Discus in Planted Tanks....

    I have a sand bottom tank. Initially, I was attracted to the crazy forest look with huge beautiful discus. Well, after a month I get it. Most of the detritus lies in the roots and holds bacteria. I removed plants and kept the sand and driftwood. I do WC's every 2-3 days with some prime. My parameters are excellent on that schedule. I also have Clown Loaches, a half dozen cory's, and a pair of BN plecos cleaning the bottom...and that they do. If I didn't have the bottom cleaners I think I would prefer BB. To those who are condescending in their opinions, so be it. People like them are every where. I pay no attention, but I may pull some suggestions from the belittling posts without them knowing. LOL! I don't mind sharing with arrogance in the forums, reminds me of why I enjoy a humble lifestyle.

  14. #29
    Registered Member mooncon's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Forum's Position on Discus in Planted Tanks....

    John I quess I made you mad,ive seen your fish room and fish your right there not boring.I was mainly referring to show tanks and ive had both bb and planted,the planted for grown discus and bb for growout and also my show tank has been bb but I like the plants also.Its not that hard to keep discus happy but if I can keep the discus and plants happy that's what I like.I think a lot of people be it planted or bb think you put water, fish and a filter and walk off and leave it.Then a month or 2 later there on here trying to find out whats going wrong,they don't do water changes,over stock and the list goes on.Thats what this forum is for and when I started I found this forum and followed the tried and proved method's.

  15. #30
    Registered Member pcsb23's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Forum's Position on Discus in Planted Tanks....

    Quote Originally Posted by John_Nicholson View Post
    Well written. I know that I am often painted as someone that does not like planted tanks and that is not entirely true. I have had many through the years and will have some more in the future but I still think the best place for a new discus owner to start is in the bb world. I see so many issues with new people and planted tanks. I have often posted that you can do whatever you want with your fish but to follow through and post your results. I often see folks come in here and try to set the world on fire. They post how great everything is going and then disappear. They could disappear for many reasons but most of the time it is because they failed in their experiment and after several months of bragging on it they do not want to disclose that. This is where the danger lies. It sets the stage for another new person to come in and read their post....they see a success and try to follow suit. They also often fail. Once again to be clear I have no problem with planted tanks but hate it when someone says have great they are only to disappear when problems start.

    I hope that all makes sense....LOL.

    -john
    Makes a lot of sense John - surprisingly ...

    Most people try and run before they can walk, there are skills to be learned with planted tanks that take time, patience and practise. There are also skills (or maybe disciplines?) to be learned with discus too which also take time, patience and practise. I've no problems with people wanting to have discus in planted tanks, and I've no problems if they are newcomers to both (though I would and have advised doing one or the other first!). My problem comes from being told by the same newcomers that the same people who are trying to help know nothing and they will prove us wrong ... so far I'm still waiting to see the proof!

    I've no issues with newcomers to the hobby asking why btw, I'd rather they entered into a reasoned debate and then make a decision with their eyes open.

    And for the record, I love planted tanks with and without discus in. I also love looking at just a tank full of healthy vibrant discus, sometimes you don't need anything else!
    Paul

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