My 90 gal planted tank with wild caughts

[bigbutt]

This is the first time I have had wild caughts. They are by far the nicest discus I have had. The tank has pressurized CO2 with a ph controller. The PH is sitting around 5.3 to 5.6. I use a mix of RO and tap water, treated of course before I do a water change. I cycle and heat the water in a spare 35 gal before doing the water change. I try for weekly water changes.
The Amazon sword plants have gotten thick. I really need to thin them out to give more room for the fish.

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m171/bigbutt420/Picture005.jpg

[Elliots]

I have the same problem with my Swords. I do not know if I am doing the correct thing but I pull them out of the tank completely and trim maybe a third of the leaves. Mine also seem to be splitting off at the crown into two plants so I cut them and replant as two Swords. My tank is not quite that densly planted but it will be soon. At that point I'll have to give away or sell the plants. No room for fish!

[bogia99]

Very nice .....

[pastry]

Me too on the swords. Started with one and then it multiplied both at the crown and through little ones. Then all of those started to do the same. Had to weed them out. Still have a few because I love them but I've recently started to take off the bottom half (older) leaves to have more space. I like them a lot though because you don't have to do anything for them put just put them in the substrate and give them light & a little bit of fish poop (not sure on the poop but they get it whether they like it or not!).

I miss having wilds. Used to live by a great LFS (a rare one that knew how to not stunt discus and devoted the needed attention to them) and they used to get amazing wilds in. They were pretty cheap too (price; the quality was great!).

Looking good my friend

[winn0923]

Love the heckel!

[bigbutt]

Thanks for all the comments.. here's a couple of newer pictures with the additional 2 Blue Heckels. The Amazon Swords are growing mad. I've cut a number back.

I'm going to do a re-scape over the Christmas holidays as I received a shipment of wood from Manzman.... I can't wait :D

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m171/bigbutt420/IMG_0976.jpg

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m171/bigbutt420/IMG_0981.jpg

[aquaworks1]

Georgeous fish and Georgeous aquarium.

[ltgoof]

Lovely! I always dream of Wilds in a planted tanks, some purist may raise an eyebrow, but heck those wilds are gorgeous in a planted tank. Awesome tank, I love it!

[discusplantedtanklover]

Very nice wild discus planted tank setup.

[DiscusLoverJeff]

Beautiful tank and wilds. Seems like they fit right in with the exception that in the wild there are few plants, go figure.

I had issues with my swords and vals when I was running plants in mine with co2 and ferts. But once I was able to regulate the amount of co2, the spread of them seemed to slow down a bit.

Great job!!!!

[bigbutt]

I decided to rescape the tank over the holidays as I received a shipment of manzanita driftwood from Manzman. The amazon sword plants were getting too thick and limiting the swimming room for the discus. It's been a few day now and the discus seem much happier, as they are swimming around much more. I tried to create a hybrid discus biotope, as I like the look of having a planted tank. I am not 100% happy with the plantings and plant selection. Any suggestions?

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m171/bigbutt420/IMG_0982_zpsfd6fa17b.jpg

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m171/bigbutt420/IMG_0987_zps26ccf279.jpg

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m171/bigbutt420/IMG_0984_zps27fccc17.jpg

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m171/bigbutt420/IMG_0983_zps533434c8.jpg

[toomanyfish]

Hello like ur tank.
I would suggest u to remove the plants and add subduded lighting and a dark backdrop.would be a perfect biotope

[matt56]

Id say you achieved the hybrid look very nicely. Not too many plants, but not too bare. Only thing i would add is painting the back black or another color and i think it would perfect :). Nicely done.

[jobber]

Bigbutt, your tank scape is very inspiring. You chose some great looking pieces of manzanita.

[creativityasaweapon]

I second that ^

[rbarn]

Move all the swords into the back two corners with the tallest in back. It will give your tank much better symmetry

[bigbutt]

Thanks everyone... took some of your advise and removed some of the plants, but added a couple of more pieces of manzanita. It's a work in progrees.

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m171/bigbutt420/IMG_1034_zpsd76bbe51.jpg

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m171/bigbutt420/IMG_1041_zpsced52e4a.jpg

[fredyx]

I prefer the previous setup with the three pieces of wood. One question, why does the water have that milky appearance?

[jobber]

I like this new rescape with less plants. Sometimes I think we're all guilty of letting go of some plants but boy, its certainly opened up quite a lot of room for the fish. The branches are good, it looks like an intertwined underwater wood canopy. I wish I found wood like yours. Your tank is an inspiration to my current project.

Sent from my mobile phone

[wavesurfer]

I prefer the previous setup with the three pieces of wood. One question, why does the water have that milky appearance?
Same here. I prefer that setup too. Not too much clutter. :)

Nice setup and Heckels nevertheless, and hope you will look into having a background (I would prefer light blue personally) as it will look even better.

[bigbutt]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I agree it needs a background. I tried a black background and didn't like it. I'm going to try a lighter color. Made some additional changes to the layout.

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m171/bigbutt420/IMG_1044_zps98c265a0.jpg

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m171/bigbutt420/IMG_1045_zps8c9c96d8.jpg

[camuth8]

Looking good so far! The discus seem happy, but you can choose whatever you want.

For a background, you could try a light brown to match the wood and it kinda seems like a wild color.:confused:

[jobber]

I agree. After doing a bit of rescaping. it's certainly opened up a lot of room for the tank. I think even those backgrounds with wood and stones would blend in well. Even though it may look a bit tacky.

[rcomeau]

The tank has pressurized CO2 with a ph controller. The PH is sitting around 5.3 to 5.6. I use a mix of RO and tap water, treated of course before I do a water change. I cycle and heat the water in a spare 35 gal before doing the water change. I try for weekly water changes.
Did you change anything besides removing plants?

I am asking because CO2 injection means you targetted that PH value and that low PH means high CO2 with the help of RO keeping it down. The plants should like the high CO2. It is an interesting experiment. This forum often debates whether or not a tank can/should be setup with hopes of satisfying both discus and plants. You have far less plant growth since 3 months ago. The plants seem to be loosing. Was that really more by choice or more as a result of cutting bad looking leaves?

[sandy]

Nice tank with beautiful discus

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

[camuth8]

In the pictures, I also see some funky algae on the manzanita. Is that normal?
Not a big problem though.:)

[bigbutt]

In the pictures, I also see some funky algae on the manzanita. Is that normal?
Not a big problem though.:)

My understanding is that you do get on occasion some stuff coming out of the wood. Not all the pieces have it. It wipes off really easy. I'm not too concerned. :)

[bigbutt]

Did you change anything besides removing plants?

I am asking because CO2 injection means you targetted that PH value and that low PH means high CO2 with the help of RO keeping it down. The plants should like the high CO2. It is an interesting experiment. This forum often debates whether or not a tank can/should be setup with hopes of satisfying both discus and plants. You have far less plant growth since 3 months ago. The plants seem to be loosing. Was that really more by choice or more as a result of cutting bad looking leaves?

I removed a lot of the plants and cut down on the CO2 from my first initial set up since I added the manzanita. I've also severly reduced the use of plant additives. After adding the manzanita, I ended up removing more amazon swords as they were starting to really take off again. The plants that remain are doing well. The chain swords are producing lots of runners and are growing taller than in the past. I have been doing daily water changes (25%) the last couple of weeks to try and reduce the algae growth. I have also cut down the length of time the lights are on. The fish are doing well with the change... there's a lot more room for them.

[bigbutt]

Some updated pictures... including 4 additional wild discus. Plants have grown in. Added a Black background but remove it... too dark. I need to find something lighter.

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m171/bigbutt420/image_zpsbf892fbc.jpg

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m171/bigbutt420/image_zpsc638006c.jpg

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m171/bigbutt420/image_zps123fa90a.jpg

[rbarn]

very nice. try a blue back ground with a darker to lighter gradient going from bottom to top