Growing out in a planted tank - my 120g project

[strawberryblonde]

Ok, I know I'm really late getting this journal up and running. What can I say, it was summer time and the weather was too good for staying indoors - family to see, beaches to sit on...you get the picture.

To recap, I started with a group of 4 3.5" - 4" discus from Kenny back in late May. I choose to try growing them out in a semi-planted 120g tank simply because well, because I was curious! It was a challenge and I couldn't resist it.

Once I had some initial success in growing them, I added 5 more discus from Kenny in the first week of July. This time they were 2.5" - 3" and they were going into the same tank, which already had 1 8" discus and 4 6" discus in it. So it was a whole new challenge (the size difference) along with the planted tank challenge.

Between July and September I lost 2 of my discus. One just plain failed to thrive and was prone to illness as time went on. I chose to cull her rather than take a chance that eventually one of her illnesses would infect the rest of the tank.
The second discus had a run in with the glass one night when my husband walked by and banged into the tank with his backpack - with bear bells on it. He was more upset than I was when the fish fluttered to the bottom and died 2 hours later. I LOVED that little guy- he was part of my pair of golden lollipops. Waaah.

So I currently have 8 discus in my 120g along with 50+ cardinal tetras and 4 cories. I've never had a corydora elegans before and he's grown into a cute little guy. The other 3 corys are my ancient corydora sterbai's. I've them for what seems like forever, but it's actually only been since 2010.

So here are pics of the first group of discus when they arrived back in May.

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The four new discus are the 2 Eruption Leopards, the Red Cover and the Rafflesia Throwback. The Raffie is the one I chose to cull.

Next post I'll add pics of the second group of discus.

[strawberryblonde]

Welp, I just went through all of my photo's from July and the ones that are the best/most usable are from the middle of July, so by then I'd had my little juvies for 2 weeks. They'd already grown over a 1/2" by then, but the pics will still give you a general idea of how small they were compared to the 6" older group.

Oh and I removed some of the plants and driftwood just before these pics were taken. They needed a good cleaning and stayed in a QT tank for a few days till I could get around to do that.

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Growth rates on both batches of discus have been right on par for all the groups I've grown out in the past 5 years. I average about 1" per month till they reach 5", then 1/2" per month till they reach 7", then they add another inch or two over the course of the next year of life.

[strawberryblonde]

Now that I've documented the 2 groups with pics, here's the basic feeding and water change schedule I've been using on this tank.

Feedings: 1 large flake feeding in the morning, 4 FDBW feedings (3 cubes each time) during the day, 2 frozen beefheart cubes and 1 variety Prime Reef cube at dinner.

Water Changes: 1 90% water change 1 hour after the beefheart feeding. Each night I vacuum the sand and shake the plants to loosen any food stuck in the them. Once a week on Sunday I do a deep clean, including a rinse of filter media in one of my filters.

I've had one fish who failed to thrive, the Raffie, so she was culled. I also had one incident where one of the Eruption Leopards got badly beaten up by the Red Cover and Golden Sunshine(the 8" male) because he got too curious while they were laying eggs. He had to be removed from the tank to heal up for a few days.

Other than that there haven't been any illnesses or problems with the grow out. They're all voracious eaters, though some are picky about what they like. The Eruption Leopards love flakes, hate beefheart. The Red Snakeskins hate flakes, tolerate worms and LOVE beefheart. LOL

[Filip]

What a colourfull strains you got there , they are beautiful.
I wish you good luck on raising them planted all the way.
What is your filtration and Wc regiment for this project ?
If you have some other tips or tricks for us to consider when growing in planted please share them too.

[strawberryblonde]

Hi Filip and thanks for the good wishes. So far it's going quite well, so I'm hopeful that both groups will grow out to their full potential. Still have several months to go though.

My filtration was 2 75g Aqueon HOB filters. I don't believe in that it's possible to over filter a tank as some here do, so I just stick with enough filtration to handle my bio-load. Inside the HOB filters I use poret foam.

Things have changed slightly in the last month because I made the decision to replace one of my HOB filters with 2 Hydro 5 sponge filters. I felt like the strong current at the top of the water was making 3 of my discus skittish during feeding times. Sure enough, once the HOB filter on the right side of the tank was removed, the 3 skittish discus began hanging out and eating with the rest of the group rather than hiding and eating food that fell to the bottom of the tank.

I also had a problem when the second HOB filter started to leak last week. I pulled it out and considered buying a new one, but found the crack in the bottom and sealed it with silicone and a piece of acrylic. The patch seems to be holding nicely and the filter is back in the tank now.

My water change schedule is the same as it's been for every group I've grown out. I do a 90% daily water change straight from my tap (Adjusted to the tank temp). I also vacuum the tank daily and wipe down the sides of the tank every other day. On the weekend I do a super clean which includes washing driftwood, cleaning any dirty plants and plant pots and rinsing the filter media on one filter per week.

As far as tips and tricks, the only thing I can say is that if you're new to discus, I do NOT recommend growing them out in a planted tank. I'm only trying this because I've been growing discus out in bare bottom tanks for a long time and know the ins and outs of raising them to their full potential. Since they're expensive fish, it's best to play it safe with them and use bare bottom tanks unless you're sure you know what you're doing.

Having said that, I've changed the way I planted my tank and found the newer method works much better. I have about 1 inch of sand on the bottom of the tank. I placed all of my plants into homemade soft plant holders with gravel in them, then placed those little soft pots into my glass containers and filled with more gravel. For plants that need to spread their roots, I simply placed the soft pots right on top of the sand so that the roots can sprout out of the squishy pot and into the sandy bottom.

Doing my plants that way makes it super easy to move them around during cleaning and to lift them out for maintenance when needed.

I do NOT add ferts or CO2. I use all low light plants and they suffer a bit because of the lack of fertilizers and CO2, but still grow nicely and the important thing is that my discus grow well.

I used to have much larger pieces of driftwood in the tank, but found that the constant feedings in the tank led to the driftwood becoming a home for rotting, slimy food bits - ew! Now I just have one smallish piece of driftwood in the tank and it gets cleaned once a week.

I think that's it for now - I can't think of anything else special that I do.

[strawberryblonde]

These are pics from the end of July when the youngest group reached one full month in my tank. They had grown a full inch each and were 3.5"-4.5".

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And yup, these were taken with a different camera! I bought a point and click that received excellent ratings for it's ability to photograph in odd lighting conditions. The ratings were dead on, and for the first time I managed to get great pictures of my discus. =)

[strawberryblonde]

And here are current pics of my tank.

Other than changing how I plant my plants, how much driftwood is in the tank, and what filtration methods I'm using, the only other big change is the addition of rooibos tea extract.

I learned about it through Pat here on the boards and through research on the internet. I particularly liked it's anti-viral and anti-fungal properties and also liked the price and the fact that, unlike other extracts, it doens't lower pH. Oh and I like the tea stained color of the water! LOL

So in these pics you'll see that not only have my juvies caught up to the older group in size, but the tank water is tinted yellow.

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[rickztahone]

Very nice Toni. Some big boys in there!

[strawberryblonde]

Awww, thanks Ricardo. So far I'm really pleased with how fast they've grown. The yellows seem to be lagging a bit behind the reds, but in the last 2 weeks they've been catching up a bit. Then again, the reds were the larger of the juvies and the yellow were just teensy lil things in July. LOL

If these guys reach 7" I'll consider the project a complete success. If they reach 8" I'll be jumping with joy.

[Chad Hughes]

I love the project and the fish look GREAT!

Well done!

[strawberryblonde]

Thank you Chad! That's high praise coming from you, since as I recall you've raised an entire batch of fry in a planted tank with great results, right?

I'm a total newbie compared to you. =)

I was hoping to get some pics of my guys this morning for documentation purposes, but the poor things are all stressed out because we had a power outage during the night and when the power kicked back on so did my LED lights, on bright white and full wattage.

I took pity on them when it became obvious that they weren't going to just get over it and eat breakfast like normal. Now they are happily sleeping in an unlighted tank and thank goodness that the reason for the outage was severe storms because it means that it's overcast and there's no sunlight streaming into the tank.

[Chad Hughes]

Toni,

Sorry to hear about your power outage. Those unexpected surprises are never pleasant.

Yes, I participated in one of the discus grow out challenges using a planted tank with tremendous results. I demonstrated that it could be done and you're doing the same!

I'm looking forward to any updates.

[pamdb33]

Great looking tank! The discus are beautiful.

[walt]

Great looking tank I have a planted tank started in November coming up on one year started with 3" discus my largest are 6" inches all above 5". Been a fishkeeper my whole life but never discus. Didn't listen to people like yourself in the beginning now wc regimen is up to par, also what kind of camera are you using pics are great. Again love your tank!

[strawberryblonde]

Thanks Walt,

My new camera is a Canon Powershot ELPH 130 is. You can read about it here http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consum...ot_elph_130_is

It's particularly good in low lighting, which is what I needed since the best time of day for me to take pics is at night and by then the lighting is on low for the discus. It also seems to handle bright light fairly well, though I still have to put up with a lot of reflections during the day shots.