Planted Discus Aquascape

[Marc Davis]

Hi guys. New here. Nice to meet you all.

Just done a big maintenance session on my tank so thought i would make a video and share it.

The tank has been running for 3 months. I've had the discus for 4 months though. They see to be growing well. I got them when they were 2 inches and are 3.5 inches+ now.

Tank is L100cm x H50cm x D40cm. 200 Litres, 52 US Gallons.

Stocking: 6 juvenile discus, 30 cadinal tetra, 2 rummy nose, 4 oto cats, 5 cory, 1 electrc blue ram, 1 bristlenose, 4 amano shrimp (soon to be 20!!)



Any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

[Mattgoanna]

Nice tank. Love that cobalt blue.

[Filip]

Wow , what an excellent looking planted scape Marc .
Knowing how sensitive 2 inch discus can be about the water quality its a real succes that you have kept them In good health and appetite in this high tech planted surrounding .
What are your water changing routines and what do you use for filtration ?
Do you have any nutrient soil in the back of the tank or all this greenery is solely water column fed? What dosing method and fertilizers do you use and what levels of Co2 do you keep ?
Please share some info about your light source and your feeding routines too .
Are your discus Stenkers ?
Sorry if I bombarded you with so many questions Marc , but this tank is really a sucess , given the fact that you keep discus 4 months only .

[Second Hand Pat]

This is beautiful Marc Guessing you are experienced with planted tanks?
Pat

[Swedgin]

Hi Mark,

welcome to the forum. Nice looking setup you have there.

Tobi

[Marc Davis]

Wow , what an excellent looking planted scape Marc .
Knowing how sensitive 2 inch discus can be about the water quality its a real succes that you have kept them In good health and appetite in this high tech planted surrounding .
What are your water changing routines and what do you use for filtration ?
Do you have any nutrient soil in the back of the tank or all this greenery is solely water column fed? What dosing method and fertilizers do you use and what levels of Co2 do you keep ?
Please share some info about your light source and your feeding routines too .
Are your discus Stenkers ?
Sorry if I bombarded you with so many questions Marc , but this tank is really a sucess , given the fact that you keep discus 4 months only .

Filip. First of all, thank you very much.

I'll try and be as detailed as i can. Ive only been keeping fish for 1 year so im not as good with technical details as others.

Water changing routine - basically, i have two other tanks. A 5 gallon planted low tech nano and a shallow 7 gallon blackwater (will post vids at end of this post). I take out about 5 litres of these a day and refill with water from the discus tank. I then refill the Discus tank. This means that i basically get a 5% change per day, and then on a sunday, i do a big 5% water change with water conditioner.

Filtration - i have a 1000l/hr canister filter with modified trays from manufacturer recommendations (my way has all foam in the bottom tray going from course to fine and two trays of crushed lava rock). Also, a 1800l/hr internal filter for flow and water polishing. I have this facing the glass to obstruct the flow speed but still get the faster filtration.

Soil/substrate - Under the sand capping (1 inch) is a mix of gravel and oliver knot aquasoil and tropica plant growth substrate on the base.

Dosing method is 30ml chelated trace elements. I dont add any phosphates and what not as the waste load is already high with the stocking.

co2 - no idea on specific dosing levels. i use a diy yeast/sugar method that fills two in tank reactors and lets the co2 slowly dissolve throughout the water over the photo period.

Lights - I have 2x T8 tubes and fitted a diy LED 20watt floodlight to the centre of the canopy. the T8's are on for about 17 hours and the LED floodlight for 10 hours. Some say thats way too much light...i have my fish to view them and enjoy them so i like the lights on. Fish seem absolutely fine with it as you can see and are never shy. My discus are not Stenkers. They are just whatever my local fish store had in and i liked the look of.

My other tanks:



P.s. if anyone fancies giving me some subs on youtube, that would be great. Not making money or anything obviously, just really enjoy making the vids and have just started a youtube channel. Will be really good to share my tanks with a wider audience as i progress.

[Marc Davis]

This is beautiful Marc Guessing you are experienced with planted tanks?
Pat

Thank you very much Pat. Not that experinced to be honest. Set up my first planted tank 6 months ago.

[Marc Davis]

Hi Mark,

welcome to the forum. Nice looking setup you have there.

Tobi

Cheers Tobi

[Filip]

You have the best of the beginners luck here IMO , Marc
Not having alge issues with lights on for full 17 hours and fluctuating DIY Co2 levels is almost a miracle my friend .
Getting away unharmed with only one 50% WC per week on juvies in a small and almost overstocked and fully planted tank is another one .
But whatever you do apparently works for you and your tank .

I liked your other tanks too and I subscribed your channel since it means to you . So shy away and start making inspirational and educational videos about your tanks and your ways of maintaining them. Maybe you'll become the next Joe - the king of DIY .

[Marc Davis]

You have the best of the beginners luck here IMO , Marc
Not having alge issues with lights on for full 17 hours and fluctuating DIY Co2 levels is almost a miracle my friend .
Getting away unharmed with only one 50% WC per week on juvies in a small and almost overstocked and fully planted tank is another one .
But whatever you do apparently works for you and your tank .

I liked your other tanks too and I subscribed your channel since it means to you . So shy away and start making inspirational and educational videos about your tanks and your ways of maintaining them. Maybe you'll become the next Joe - the king of DIY .

Thanks again mate.

I did get some algae issues (bba) but i was very quick to spot treat the affected areas with liquid carbon and a hypodermic needle, which killed the algae in days.

I still get green spot algae, but given the lighting hours and the fish/food load, im completely happy with it. Once a week glass cleaning sorts it out.