Planted tank journey

[LizStreithorst]

Yesterday I put Patty's driftwood in just to see how it worked in the tank. It's a very nice piece and it will be just right for this tank.

Today I drove to plum nearly looking for PFS. After I dropped off some eggs, plants and red shrimp at my LFS I went across the street to Home Depot. They didn't have any in stock. Neither did they have play sand. I drove from there to Loews to through the miserable Hattiesburg traffic where my 40 MPG I was so proud of went down to 39.3. They didn't have either type of sand, but they did have heavy bags of pea gravel. I looked at the gravel and it was much finer that what I consider pea gravel. It was 3 heavy bags for $9.00. I won't need 3, but at that price, why not?

While I was at my pet store Twee and I talked about mostly our shrimp projects. She mentioned that she had a kind of fish that helped keep black hair algae under control. I asked for 5. She wouldn't take money for them, she said that she'd start me a new tab when she sold some of my plants. She also gave me 2 6 packs of my favorite beer, Goose Island IPA. Just goes to show that sometimes when you give gifts sometimes you get gifts in return. That's the way is should be but it's rare.

I snapped a quick pic of pic of the driftwood in the tank. Right now I'm relaxing with one of my favorite beers, then I have to eat my meal of the day.

[coralbandit]

Nice !
I want to follow along and abolish black hair algae !
Cheers!

[Filip]

Congrats on your new start Liz .
What were this tank dimensions ?
What kind and intensity of light do you plan to use here and what do you plan for filtration ?
What about number of discus and your planned WC regime ?

Sorry for all the questions but I'm eager to find out more about this new planted discus project .
Good luck and keep the tank updates coming.

[danotaylor]

Good start Liz!!

[JamesW]

Looks lovely! Great height! If it fits into a bucket you can overdose with Seachem Excel or Metricide 14 and that takes out hair algae really well! Also easy enough to dose the whole tank or spot treat the plants with the filters off.

What are the fish that eat the hair algae?

[LizStreithorst]

James, it's called a Siamese Flying Fox. I put them in with my rainbow fish for now. Twee said that they help keep it down.

I do have Seachem Excel. I'd forgotten the if I double dosed it that it would kill the nasty hair stuff. I did that once in my red shrimp tank and killed most of my shrimp. I just didn't know at the time that they were sensitive to it. How long does it take to work and will it harm Amazon Sword and Java moss. That's all I'll put in there when I start. There's no way that I could fit this piece of driftwood in to a bucket so I'll have to do it in the tank.

[LizStreithorst]

Flip it's just a standard 100 gallon. I have already running in it already.

I'll be using 2 LED's that I bought from Chicago Discus. They are good lights to bring out the colors of the fish, but they don't put out a ton of light which is fine with me because I will only have easy plants that do well under low light.

I will have 7 adult Discus in the tank. I'll change at least 50% of the water daily, as I do now, and vacuum the substrate once a week.

Don't expect much. I'm doing this mostly for fun. I want to put my Discus in a totally new environment to see if I can "shock" them into breeding. I've tried everything else so why not try something crazy? I have empty tanks galore so it the discus aren't happy there I can move them to a BB 100 gallon.

[Sturiosoma]

What kind of background do you have planned for the tank.

Jeanne

[coralbandit]

I want to put my Discus in a totally new environment to see if I can "shock" them into breeding. I've tried everything else so why not try something crazy? I have empty tanks galore so it the discus aren't happy there I can move them to a BB 100 gallon.
I have often found just moving fish to a new tank can induce spawning … I know some say crazy but just my experience and not discus ,but rams and angels .

[LizStreithorst]

I moved them to an empty 100 before I started this. They were in the 100 I wanted to use because it's the middle tank, right in front of the sofa. So far they have done nothing, but they have another couple of days in there, so we will see...

[LizStreithorst]

Ugh. I'm plum tuckered. I drained the tank but wasn't able to drain it to the bottom. I didn't think about using my wet/dry vac. Because I couldn't drain to the bottom I had to add more gravel on the bottom of the layer of manure and more on the top as well. I'm glad (although my back is pissed off) that I bought 3 heavy bags of gravel. I'm waiting now for the dust to clear. I put a pail on the bottom when I filled the tank but my pump pushes out my water at such a rate that a bunch of poo fines got mixed into the tank as I filled. The Sword has been transplanted and Patty's driftwood is back in.

I'll wait until tomorrow morning when the water is clear before I plant my jungle vals and perhaps scrounge some pieces of driftwood I can spare from other tanks that I can glue some anubias to. I'll take pics then.

[Filip]

Seachem Excel or pure Metricide in higher doses affects and can melt Mosses and Vals in particular .Amazon's shouldnt be affected at all .
Siamese flying fox is known to eat green algae while Siamese algae eaters (Commonly known as SAE fish ) are known as best algae eaters for a planted tank and the only algae eater that can eat Black beard /brush algae.

[LizStreithorst]

I had a feeling that Twee might be wrong about that. They've been too nice for me at that store to make me want to take those fish back. I'll just leave them in with the rainbows where they are. The only place that the hair algae is growing is on that piece of wood. When the piece was in the rainbow tank the only places it was growing was on it, a couple air lines and a power cord. None at all on any of the plants. Hopefully it will be that way in the Discus tank, too.

[bluelagoon]

Seachem Excel or pure Metricide in higher doses affects and can melt Mosses and Vals in particular .Amazon's shouldnt be affected at all .
Siamese flying fox is known to eat green algae while Siamese algae eaters (Commonly known as SAE fish ) are known as best algae eaters for a planted tank and the only algae eater that can eat Black beard /brush algae.

I have these SAE's and they eat all types of algae. I highly recommend them for hair algae. Altho it takes a while for them to get rid of it; they will in time. Mine will even eat cyanobacteria and recycle discus poop.

[LizStreithorst]

I've heard that those are not good with Discus, though.

[JamesW]

Yeah a little busy. Mosses don't like overdosing excel or metricide but spot treating works well. If you do want to treat the whole tank the mosses will rebound with time while if you have healthy plants and lights/ferts are in balance the algae shouldn't.

[bluelagoon]

[QUOTE=LizStreithorst;1326169]I've heard that those are not good with Discus, though.[/QI

I had not one issue with them with discus or any other species. They are better cleaners when they are young; when they get grown out at 4-5 inches, I replace them. They get lazy at that age and look for handouts/fed more rather than clean the tank. That has been my experience and you can't find a better cleaner than a SAE.

[LizStreithorst]

I'm not sure. I'd like to give them a try, but I've heard so many times that their active nature disturbs the Discus. I'll think about it. I suppose if they didn't work out I could move them to the rainbow fish tank, but it's getting kinda crowded in there.

[LizStreithorst]

Yeah a little busy. Mosses don't like overdosing excel or metricide but spot treating works well. If you do want to treat the whole tank the mosses will rebound with time while if you have healthy plants and lights/ferts are in balance the algae shouldn't.

I have all the plants and the fish in the tank now. The plants were happy and healthy in the tanks they all came from. Everything in the tank except the goat poo and gravel. If I do anything until I see that the plants are happy and healthy. I really considering trying the SAE's if I do anything. The BHA isn't that big a problem yet. In fact it looks good on the driftwood. Makes it look old.

[LizStreithorst]

Here's a pic of the tank. I like the looks of the tank, but it's not a tank for 8 adult Discus. The tank is asking for smaller fish. Or...I could just enjoy the plants for a while.

[danotaylor]

Lookin great Liz! Or a 100gal shrimp tank...lil boogers'd go nutso in there and multiply by the hundreds, lol

[pastry]

So it won't be a discus tank? :( May I ask why gravel and not sand?

[LizStreithorst]

I think that the Discus will be too big to be comfortable in it, what with all the plants and driftwood.

I went to both Loews and Home Depot and they were out of stock on both play sand and pool filter sand. Wrong time of year, I guess. Loews had this gravel for 9 bucks for enough for the tank with about 1/3 of a bag left over.

[pastry]

Gotcha. Well if you ever think about experimenting then it's fun Define local natural sand. Unsure if any rivers or lakes near you have sand sediment. I know it scares the hell out of many people if they grab stuff from nature but honestly, if it doesn't go bad, and in my experience it goes really good because of the nutrients. I love crabbing Driftwood and sand locally and somewhat cleaning it before throwing it in the tank. Of course things can go wrong but even a bad experience is a good experience. I learned how to identify DW that had sap (don't use! Plus probably isn't legit Driftwood anyways if it still has sap!), anywhere I go that has a lot of driftwood then I totally nerd out and feel like a kid in a candy store. I used sand from the beach nearby but we have lakes that also have sand sediment.

[LizStreithorst]

I believe you when you say it's better from a clean local river. It's just not an option for me.