Clean Planted tank

[dogday7]

I'm in the middle of setting up a 90 gal planted tank, for 6 young discus that
I am getting in about 2 weeks time.
I"m also putting in 12 young catfish.
I have 8 other tanks all planted. I hear everybody saying BB tanks.
But then I would rather not have any.
I am retired and have a lot of time to clean tanks and change water, so that is not a problem.
when u say dirty tank, what is that? is it Amonia, Nitrite, or nitrate??
Or is there something else to look for in a planted tank?
ty, John

[lhforbes12]

John,
While NH3/4. NO2, and NO3 are certainly things which must be controlled in a discus tank (even NO3 should be relatively low) there are other things just as bad. Dissolved Organic Compounds (DOC) can be killers too.
The reason most have bb with small discus is because they need to be fed so often (I feed my fry 10-12 times a day) and trying to keep a tank with plants and a substrate clean under that kind of feeding regime is next to impossible. It can be done, but is most certainly advised against. Even in a bb tank young discus really should be getting at least 50% wc's a day, in a planted tank this is nearly impossible, you would very quickly have an uncontrollable algae problem for one.
Once discus are at least sub-adult putting them into a planted tank is fine. Until then you will probably either end up with dead, or stunted discus. Discus do grow amazingly rapidly when young and well cared for and you would be able to put them into a planted after about 6 months.
You could always start a tank bb and add substrate later.

Larry

[Dissident]

I tried growing out discus in a planted tank. Worked fine and I have had them now for several months. Growth would be better in a BB tank but can be done in a planted tank with care.

I started with (6) 2-2.5" discus in Jan.
http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b35/cschema/110x/
I had no health issues or problems.
for the first several months I did 50% WC almost everyday with tap (treated in tank)
fed: Bloodworms, Beefheart, brine shrimp, tetra bits, and some other frozen foods. 4-8 times a day, largest feeding was at night followed by 30-50% WC.
This helps too:
http://forum.simplydiscus.com//showthread.php?t=51294

Be sure to have a lot of filtration on the tank. I custom built 2 600gph (950gph pumps but ends up ~600gph in the end) canister filters for the 110gallon in the pics above. I replaced the filterfloss twice a month to help keep DOC low and have a lot of biologcal media in them. That filter floss got nasty quick.

If you keep it well trimmed and keep decaying plant material low that also helps a lot.

also how much light are you going to have and are you going to be using CO2?

[dogday7]

I have 4 - 60 watt floresent tubes above my 4long 2wide tank, no co2.
I plan on feeding white worms, blood worms, and some flake food.
I am putting a 14inch by 10 inch feeding pan where i feed, to colect the food that sinks. for easy clean up.