I am Curious...Green

[Ralph]

I was just wondering about everyone's planted tanks.

Have you gone with a densely planted tank or do you have open spaces?

Where do your discus spend their time, in the open or among the plants?

How much driftwood do you have in your tank, if any?

My tank is about 50/50 planted to open and the discus spend all day in the open. At night though, they drop down into the planted area to "sleep."
I probably use too much driftwood, but the discus and I really like it.

[ronrca]

I have some driftwood though most people call it a tree stump (and it is). I have most of my plants planted in the back 1/4 with lower swords up front. Lots of swim area. At the moment Im renovating and have no discus in yet. I'll be taking pics once I get all the plants in that I want.

[ddaquaria]

My discus tank is both densely planted on the right and back, and open on the front left. The discus spend a lot of their time in the more open area and protected by the java fern mass that I have on some driftwood. I use the drifwood more as a device for the plants than the discus. I also use the driftwood for crevices for the dwarf cichlids that I have in the same tank.

I have pictures here:
http://homepage.mac.com/ddaquaria/PhotoAlbum5.html

That link as been changed to ...
http://homepage.mac.com/ddaquaria/dd...120/index.html

[giroux68]

That is one cool set up. I love the plants coming out of the top.

[Don_Lee]

Nice looking tanks DD! Great to have you here, hope you will stick around and share your knowledge.

Don ;D

[Rikk]

nice pics man

you have done a great job there

[ronrca]

THat is sweet! Great job! Someone that really knows his stuff!

How can I tell? MH @ 5500K! Bang on!
Fertilization is great and the substrate is well thought of (and all the tank mates too, Wow)! Your library is excellant and should be everyones wishlist (even mine ;D). Who's the guy in the tux btw? LOL!

What do you mean by your malawian tank was taken down in July 2001? Are you nuts! ;D What a beautiful tank and beautiful fish! Wow! O, its probably your discus tank now!

What a beautiful site you have! I do hope that you will help us out here in the planted section. I can understand why your wife would let you have so many tanks! All the pics I could find are class winners! I must say, your tanks are the best I have seen (and I have seen quite a few). Have you thought about submitting your tanks to the AGA International Aquascaping Contest? Id bet heavily that you would take first!

Thanks for sharing and I hope to learn from the master!

Everyone, check this pic out! What a beautiful fish!

[ddaquaria]

Thank you everyone. (Is there a smiley for blushing?) I work pretty hard on my tanks. I always draw the layouts first and list the plants that I want in the tank - this is usually before I buy the tank. I usually stick to a particular area (not biotope). For example, the discus and angel tanks are both south american (except for the algae eaters). Majority of the plants are south american. The next tank will be all asian with several asian plants as well.

BTW, I did enter the AGA with my discus tank and my parent's aquarium. The angel tank was not where I wanted it to be. I actually got tired of looking at it back in August and tore it down when I found some nice microsword sod. I'm infamous for tearing down a setup when it is at its peak.

You want to see masters, talk to some of the guys at the aquabotanic forum. I'm just a guy that absorbs information when it comes to plants. (I'm at the AGA conference this weekend )

I'm not the person to ask about algae, since I rarely get anything worst than green spot on the glass. But I will be happy to share a little knowledge at times.

oh yeah, that's me in the tux ;D

[ronrca]

What is your algae crew?

My worry is that I will get too many otos/sae's that they start dying from lack of algae. Had that happen once before therefore I only have 2 otos and 1 sae in my 90G planted. I do have thousands, maybe millions of snails. I had a friend over and he mentioned that most tanks that he has seen have less algae so it got me thinking if I should not up my fish algae crew.

Btw, how was the AGA conference?

[ddaquaria]

Algae Crew:
1 oto for every 3-5 gallons
1 sae for every 15-20 gallons
Algae eating shrimp - as many as I can afford

I start the tank off with plants fast and slow growing and lots of CO2. I usually put the algae eaters in after a week or 2. No fertilizer till I have notice the plants have "taken hold". I get green spot on the glass - which I scrape off once a month. I have 500W on a 120, so the main key is balance in the tank.

[dm]

Ralph, my planted tank is not as nice looking as yours. My community tank is heavilly planted but for Discus I only have Swords along the back and a large piece of driftwood in there trying to keep a lot of the sand area open for cleaning. I love a planted tank but I gotta keep the bottom clean, you know what I mean?

[THEDISCUSGUY]

hey all
most on my tanks are 50/50 and the rest are like a jungle.
But i have found that the discus like the open spaces but get scared easly and retret to the plants and drift wood for cover. In my so called "jungle tanks i have nothing but plants and i have no gravel showin but still have open spaces...when i comes to feed time i scater the food around the tank so the discus have to find it! by doin this im tryin to make it as natural as possible and arnt scared at all ??? and they are pretty happy

[Mattzilla]

great tank!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
it must take you forever to clean it and keep it clean