half BB/half planted?

[jbgerot]

Hi all:

I'm new to the forum but not new to discus. I had a discus tank about 6 years ago and am looking to come back to the hobby. I have a 75 gallon tank and two fluval 304's. I really want to try my hand at a plannted tank but I also wanted to get juvies and grow them out in this tank. Mainly because juvies are cheaper and I plan to get them all at once. What are your thoughts on doing a half planted tank?

My idea is to use the back half and put up a retaining wall of sorts which will have substrate and plants. The front part would be BB with some driftwood or plants in pots. Would this be sufficient for growing out juvies? :confused:

I want this to be a show tank...

thx

[John_Nicholson]

My suggestion would be to make your life easy. Raise them bare bottom and then when grown plant the tank if you must.

-john

[Peachtree Discus]

i kinda agree...IMO, one or the other. what is ur really interest? either grow them out now in BB and do planted later (as John says), or if a planted show tank is ur goal, then get some adult discus and focus on the challenges of plants.

[Harriett]

Hey, Iowa, welcome to the forum.
I understand your desire to do a planted tank--it's a beautiful thing. I would counsel you to do this instead: raise your discus in a BB tank as wisely suggested--if you 1/2 plant then you have all the issues of a fully planted tank which for raising discus are: to get full growth and healthy discus you need to do large very frequent water changes [>50% every day or two--my personal regimen was 80-90% daily...works good!]. You need to do lots of water changes because to grow out juvies you need to feed 5-6 x day with at least several of those feeds being 'meaty' foods like frozen bloodworms, perhaps beefheart, black worms if desired. THey need to eat like pigs so they poop like crazy and so the water quality slides quickly. Thus, MANY water changes. The first year of raising juveniles is A LOT OF WORK. In a planted tank you want some nitrates to build so the plants can uptake the nutrients. THe frequency of water changes is not condusive to plant growth. THe substrate is another issue--juvie discus need to be kept in VERY clean water and with the amount they eat and poop, you can't keep a substrate pristine--it is going have ditrius in it that easily causes a bacterial problem resulting in a risk of sick fish...treating sick fish means loss of appetite, loss of time to grow in the prime first year, medications which stress the fish and are not great for plants or your filter, etc etc. Not good.
The formula for success in my experience is BB, big daily water changes, lots of good food, a very clean tank, starting with HEALTHY good quality discus. In a year they will be 6" and you can put them in a show tank--the feed schedule would be down to 2 x day feed, fully planted tank is the best biofilter ever and the water quality will be great, do 1-2 x week 50% water changes and you are set. [I experimented over a long period of time with my set up settled eventually on 1-80% change weekly on my 180g tank--my adult discus are fine, my plants are fine]
While you grow them out, do set up a planted tank--even a 20-40 gallon one--it will vent your desire for a planted tank and you can learn your licks on fertilizing, lights, CO2 without stressing your fish collection. In a year you will have a nice plant collection already, and you'll know WAY more about both raising juvies and stabilizing a show tank....hope this helps. You can grow out some cardinals, cories, plecos, etc in the planted during that year, as a head start. One more tip I have found success with is that I understock my planted discus tanks--I follow more of a 1 discus/15g instead of the usual 1/10 ratio. Partly because there is less swim room with all the plants and driftwood, and partly because it is the balance that works best in my particular tank--every tank is different, so experimentation is part of the fun! It looks more natural to me and less contrived. Good luck on your project and welcome back to the hobby!
Best regards,
Harriett