My litle survivors in their new planted tank

[dandestroy]

Not a lot of plants now, cause they were missing on my last order...but a lot more will be added. Anyways I think just a few plants can greatly improve the look of a tank.

So here is my work in progress in my 80 gal tank.

You can also see some of the little guys that were desesperatly fighting for their life not long ago (see following thread for some previous pic)

http://forum.simplydiscus.com//showthread.php?t=50801

here we go with the tank:

[dandestroy]

side

[dandestroy]

Co and Balt

[dandestroy]

...

[pcsb23]

Tank shows a lot of promise, good start. btw it is easier to grow out in a BB. However I do hope the plants and the fish do well for you.

[Kindredspirit]

Dan ~ that tank is so pretty!! Very simple but beautiful!!! And Co and Balt? Priceless!! How did you ever come up with that? Very clever very clever!!

They look so very happy! http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/23/23_30_118.gif I remember your thread on these lil guys ~ they have so grown dontcha think? And blue too!!

wtg!

Marie ~ http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/16/16_2_8.gif

[AmberC]

The tank looks great! Wow they are *little* aren't they!

Amber

[traco]

Nice tank. I didn't even see the two little guys in the first picture. Had to go back and look again.

[dandestroy]

they just started to show color recently, but because of all they went thru they are for sure stunted and will never become gigantic.

but hey... I wanted to saved them all...and I'm still so curious about how they are going to turn out down the road.

So far I think its pretty spectacular when you look at the pics of when they were sick.

maybe I'm trying to proof that Cull, can still be interesting and somewhat promising.

[pcsb23]

I think the real thing is being able to look at your tank and your discus and smiling to yourself because you are happy at what you see and what you have achieved.

Keeping any fish healthy and happy is an achievement, keeping discus healthy and happy is doubly so in my mind (but then I'm biased!!)

As for culls - no they are not. They won't make grand champions but with the right care they will grow to decent sized fish with decent shape and capable of producing offspring that might just be grand champions.

[nacra99]

Very nice! I like it... the composition is very simple (i.e not cluttered) but yet very attractive.
I also see you have a CO2 injection into your eheim. Are you fertilizing your plants, if not i would suggest some root tabs for the swords.... Pure sand tends to be lacking in nutrients.

Cheers
Marc

[Dissident]

FYI you planted the swords too deep. You want the crown to be just above the substrate otherwise the stems will rot. It looks like the swords are emmersed growth so they will die off as the submersed growth starts anyway.

[lhforbes12]

Dis, Those are young E. bleheri, that is submersed growth, you are correct that they are planted too deep though.

Dan,
I see you planted the swords in groups of three, and very closely together. Soon they will be crowding each other out and also be taking over your tank. I throw about a bushel full of E. bleheri out every month, once they get going there is no stopping them.

Larry

[architect1]

aww there so cute. I never thought you could have them that small in there own tank. Mine probly be to stuborn to eat. I love the planted tank. beautiful just beautiful.

[dandestroy]

ok question regardings plants:

when you mean the sword you are talking about the litle grass in the front midle (Echinodorus tenellus)? I decided to put them deep cause the current was bad in this front section, so i was trying to cut on the sand erosion by putting them there. So plz confirm that these are the one that I should move up a bit outside of the sand.

As for the bleheri, I did not knowed that i had to spread them more then that, I will wait a bit that I get the rest of the plant and will rework my scaping taking this into account.

The substrate is "sable the Loire", I have some florish tabs under the plants, and I'm doing PMDD as well. I also have a Yeas CO2 going in my filter intake (I'm planning on getting myself the real deal at Xmass, so i have to do with yeast until december). I have had real success with the tenellus in my 20 gal planted similarly without fertilizing the sand at all, which explain why I did this from lack of better knowledge (So all advices such as the ones above are very very very appreciated)

I lack some extra light (curently have only 2x 40w so 1 w per gal). In a few month i will build myself a nice top to reach the 2 w or 3 w per gal

I'm having hard time with the long green lace behing the wood. They were sold as Vallisneria spiralis and should withstand up to 31°C (87.8 F), but my tank is set at 28.3°C (83 F), and they are turning brown. They have been putted there only 4 days ago, and were washed in 1/20 javel (leaves only). I might have trimmed the roots a bit to hard. So are they going to come back in shape at that temp or is this really Vallisneria americana instead of spiralis and that i have reached the temp limit for this plant?.

Here is a quick pic of the look of my tank with the cold cathode that I have worked on recently. (I light form 7 AM to 7 PM, and the night light from 6:30 PM to 10:30 PM)

[Dissident]

I was refering to the larger swords you have in the back of the tank the bleheri (what i thought looked like emmersed amazon swords) being planted too deep.

Did you trim the tops of the valls that are behind the wood? That will cause the blades to die off slowly, if you did trim let them go and they should send new shoots up.

I would also cut the lighting down to about 10 hrs espically when you add more light.

[dandestroy]

I have replanted the bleheri not so deep this time, but its hard cause some of them are floating cause the roots are not developped enough yet to support them to the sand.

I have not trimmed the top of the other one, but they do actually look like trimmed to me already, so maybe that explain it. I will let them go, if its to hot they will just die...time will tell I guess