Your wild discus tanks

[plecocicho]

I know that there are descriptions of your tanks in this forum, but they are scattered around different subforums, so it is really hard to find. I am going to setup a biotope aquarium for wild green discus, so i would like to know what are your solutions and setups. So i propose that everyone of you which have discus biotop or "biotop" aquariums for wild discus ( those with bare bottom without gravel and furniture (roots, wood, stone) dont interest me)could put a describtion of your setup with the following details:
-size of aquarium: volume, lenghtxhightxwide (english or internatinal measures)
-filter type and materials heater, lightning
-water parameters and wc schedule
-plants if present. number and species ( if you can with latin names)
- type of gravel (by that i mean sand, clay, gravel etc and size of particles)
-presence of roots, stones, etc
- number of wild discus. sizes
- number of "sympatric" (bottom dwellers, schooling fish, species, small cichlids, etc)
-food types and schedules
-the age of a setup
- pics,pics,pics, pics
- Did i mention pics?

I hope that many of you wil take time and post details of your setups, so that i will have fine rewiev of possible wild discus setups. Of course, all details about making my setups will be posted on this site.
Greetings

[bavaria36]

Well, as I am currently setting up my first discus biotope myself too I'll start ...... I have basically followed Heiko's advice on setting up a tank for wilds.

This is a 120 gallon tank. I have set it up with white pool sand as a substrate and added three bits of driftwood. I tried to place them so as to hide the heater and the sponge filters. Not entirely successful I know but that's about as far as my imagination will take me !

Yesterday I tied down 4 Anubias which I hope will settle in and grow quickly. I also have some bits of floating weed ( not sure what it is ) which I am planning to use to provide some cover. Right now the tank is lit only by two 20 watt lamps so it is quite dark but I will add another two. You can see that the driftwood has turned the water quite brown

The sponge filters are currently cycling and I will be adding a wet/dry Eheim filter over the next couple of days. This will be seeded with media from another mature canister filter that I have running in a large planted tank.

The water is currently tap water. TDS 330 ppm, PH 8.5. Once I am ready I will probably use RO mix but I have not decided yet.

tankmates will probably be 8 Cory Sterbai's and a couple of Ancistrus.

What's left ........ well if I can get my hands on 7 or 8 young Heckels they will go into this tank. If not, I will move my wild greens into it hoping that this will get them interested in spawning.

Aaron

[sridharp77]

Here are the details of my heckel tank.

1) size of aquarium:
6 X 2 X 2 (measurements in feet)
2) filter type and materials heater, lightning
Two ehiem 2217, one acting as a mechanical filter other as a biological filter. No heater. Tank is lit by four 24 W HO tubelights.
3) water parameters and wc schedule
The tank contains 90% RO water with hardness around 12-15 ppm and rest 10% normal tap water. Water changes 20-25% weekly. pH of the tank is around 6 - 6.2 ( not checked recently) .
4) plants if present. number and species ( if you can with latin names)
Totally five echinodorus plants are there in the tank. Forgot the exact name of the plant.
5) type of gravel (by that i mean sand, clay, gravel etc and size of particles)
Fine Sand. ADA Nile Sand. Totally i used 5 bags of (each bag weighs 8 kg) ADA Nile soil
6) presence of roots, stones, etc
Driftwood and some round brown stones.
7) number of wild discus. sizes
Currently 7 Heckels. Will be adding another 7-8 nhamundá blue FACE heckel which i have already placed order and will be getting it by May end.
8) number of "sympatric" (bottom dwellers, schooling fish, species, small cichlids, etc)
30 Jumbo Cardinals, 4 Corydora (Wild Caught), and one bristlenose peco.
9) food types and schedules
Home made mixture, Tetra Bits, Brineshrimp Sticks, Earthworm Sticks, Frozen Bloodworm, Mysis Shrimp , Daphnia and Brine Shrimp.
10) the age of a setup
3 Months. The tank was setup in February 2008.

Pictures -









In addition to this tank i have an another planted tank which houses 2 Wild Green and One Wild Blue. This tank also will undergo a major change as more fishes are scheduled to arrive at the end of this month and will post details of that later.

[plecocicho]

Thank you guys for a detailed descriptiomn of your wild tanks. Both of our aquariums look absolutely fantastic. Bavaria, the coulour of water comes from driftwood?

[Apistomaster]

Bavaria's Heckel tank is also a very good model for a wild green discus set up. Both are black water species although greens are from water with a pH of 5 to 6 while Heckelss are from more acid conditions of 3.5 to 5.0. That is too low for an aquarium. Better to have a pH of 6.0 and stable than using the very low values.

Plants tend to be rare so those you add are more for your personal taste than necessity. I prefer at least a few potted Amazon Swords to nothing.

[bavaria36]

Thank you guys for a detailed descriptiomn of your wild tanks. Both of our aquariums look absolutely fantastic. Bavaria, the colour of water comes from driftwood?

Yes. I placed the wood there about two weeks ago and it is still leaching out the tannins. Unfortunately, I suspect that it will not stay like that for long because I have another piece in one of my BB tanks and it does not colour the water yellow any longer.

Aaron

[Heiko Bleher]

Hi, all of you,

I just saw this thread and have some comments:

Plecocicho: maybe you want to invest in some literature before you start, not all can be taken from the Internet, I know a good book were you can find everything about wilds... and will save a lot of your time and money.
Look also at:
http://www.aquapress-bleher.com/inde...d=99&Itemid=43

Aaron: nice that you follow my advice, but there are somethings I never said or mentioned and somethings you may want to consider:
1. the tank needs more shade for the discus and I suggest some bigger driftwood (from the top) and some floating plants (and Anubias are not found in a wild discus habitat, unless you introduce discus in Africa...)
2. I would also maybe do something for the back, like very large Echinodorus (insted of Anubias...), which grow out of the water (mother plants)
And please remember: if you use driftwood water it for a couple of weeks before placing it in the discus aquarium

Sridharp 77: I hope everything is fine in India and you are happy in this booming city... (to much traffic for me down there). The Heckel discus look great and your tank very nice, but I also suggest to you:
1. Some larger driftwood coming in from the top, and
2. some shade is needed, possibly some floating plants, like Salvinia, Eichhornia, Pistia, etc.

Now al the very best, and keep up the good work, and best regards from a collector,

Heiko Bleher
www.aquapress-bleher.com

[Khanh]

Sridharp, where did you get these beautiful roots?

[bavaria36]

Hi, all of you,


Aaron: nice that you follow my advice, but there are somethings I never said or mentioned and somethings you may want to consider:
1. the tank needs more shade for the discus and I suggest some bigger driftwood (from the top) and some floating plants (and Anubias are not found in a wild discus habitat, unless you introduce discus in Africa...)
2. I would also maybe do something for the back, like very large Echinodorus (insted of Anubias...), which grow out of the water (mother plants)
And please remember: if you use driftwood water it for a couple of weeks before placing it in the discus aquarium

Heiko Bleher
www.aquapress-bleher.com

Heiko, thank you for your advice. Yes I am still looking for more floating plants and I will add them soon. I chose Anubias because they should do well in the low lighting I plan to have but I have a couple of nice Amazon swords in my community tank that I could transplant into this tank.

I have some more driftwood too although I have to find a way of rigging it up so that it is covering the surface.The driftwood has actually been in a water storage barrel for a couple of months now so it is fairly well aged. Also it will be a few more weeks before I move fish into this tank so I think I should be fine.

Aaron

PS I have read you excellent book and am looking forward to volume 2

[Dan S]

Hello,

Its been a while since posting on SD, but I like the idea of all our Wild Tanks displayed in one thread.

You guys have done a fantastic job with your tanks. Ive very impressed.

Ive been working on a new tank for my Canuma Blues, fish which I think Mr Bleher will recognise.

The first Pic shows the original tank the fish where in but I too have been reading Heiko's great book and that has prompted the drastic change.

The 2nd, 3rd and 4th pics are my pride and joy, my Canumas.

And the final pic is there new home which they will move into sometime during the next week. (sorry the quality of this pic isnt the best)

I shall post some more pics once they have settled in.

Dan

[Dan S]

Just realised I didnt put any tank details down,

The new tank is a 6' x 2' x 2.5' (think thats about 750litres)with 2 Eheim Pro 3 thermo filters and Tmc Uv sterilisers.
It has a wier in each corner to hide all pipe work and these also hold extra filter media.

The substrate is Silver sand, In the UK its also called playpit sand.

Theres roots and bogwood, half a dozen E. Latifolius, a couple of bits of Hygrophilia and some floating Ceratophylum Demersum.

It has about 55 Cardinal Tetras, 11 Sterbai and 15 Marbled Hatchet fish.
Lighting is provided by an Arcadia Luminaire.

The background is a polystyrene moulded/textured background, brown in colour.

Water parameters are Ph6.7, Tds 30, temp 28.5oC, the tank also has some almond leaves in which gives the water a little colour.

I do 3 water changes a week, about 50% each time. Water is Ro water with a small percentage of hma water then aged for 24 hours.

Dan

[plecocicho]

Mr. Bleher I am a proud ownor of your masterpiece on discus, so i know how the biotop aquarium should look like. I admire your work and time that you invest in searching, catalogizinig and exploring the wonderfull world of freshwater fish and somehow still have time to give valuable anwsers to hobbyst like me. I would very much like to met you in person, but i think you would not be pleased, because i would barrie you under the wall of my questions regarding just about every single thing of all freshwater habitats in the world.
I startted this tread to compare solutions of other aquarists. My tank wil have a lot of driftwood, white small grained sand, floating plants and maybe some Echinodorus. I will also definetally have peat in the filter. Have you tried to feed captive wild discus with some fruit that is easilly available here in Europe, as most of fruits that you mention in the book can't be foud here?
Dan S , thank you for your presentation. How many discus will be kept in your magnificant tank?
Greeting from the sunny side of Alps

[Dan S]

Dan S , thank you for your presentation. How many discus will be kept in your magnificant tank?
Greeting from the sunny side of Alps

Hello Plecocicho, I have 9 Canumas in total to go in the new tank.

You also mentioned feeding fruits, also after getting inspiration from Heiko's book I have tried many different fruits & vegetables, I chop them up and you very quickly find out what they will and wont take. Ive tried raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, bananas, grapes, blueberries, spinach, broccoli, tomatoes and peas.
The majority of the diet is a mixture of frozen food and I add abit of flake which oddly enough they love from these guys http://www.ta-aquaculture.co.uk/ as they make all sorts of types of flake, including spirulina flake, earthworm flake, brineshrimp flake and beefheart flake.

Dan

[plecocicho]

Thanks Dan S i will try your afromentioned vegetables and friuts.Do you process food (boiling, quick boling), before you frreze it?
Now my boys and galls, please be welcoed to intruduce your setups!
Greetings from the sunny side of Alps.

[Dan S]

Thanks Dan S i will try your afromentioned vegetables and friuts.Do you process food (boiling, quick boling), before you frreze it?

I dont do anything to the veg or fruit apart from chop it into smaller peices. The frozen food I use is the traditional bloodworm, mosquito larvea, mysis shrimp, brineshrimp and daphnia. I also use a frozen african cichlid mixture which contains lots of vegtables and spirulina etc.

Dan