View Full Version : My 75 Gallon discus planted tank
I would like to share my discus tank. Hope you will enjoy it!
Volume: 75 Gallon
Substrate: Pool filter sand (for decoration only)
Lighting: 168W T5NO (switching to 108W T5HO soon)
CO2: NO
Fertilizers: None in the water
Latro
07-21-2011, 02:12 PM
How many discus are in there? I only see 2.
Nice tank, though; I may have to try potting at some point (at the moment I have a very lightly planted tank with the plants in the substrate, and it's annoying to keep clean).
LUV IT!! that plants are awesome..!!!
How many discus are in there? I only see 2.
Nice tank, though; I may have to try potting at some point (at the moment I have a very lightly planted tank with the plants in the substrate, and it's annoying to keep clean).
you are right i have a pair there only.
spiffyfish
07-21-2011, 04:13 PM
where are those fish from?
Northwoods Discus
07-21-2011, 04:17 PM
Is there water in that tank? LOL
BradC
07-21-2011, 05:10 PM
Beautiful tank!
Really like the look of the plants in the pots and like how you put some empties in there also. Good job with it :thumbsup:
where are those fish from?
I got them from a member who got them from Kenny originally.
rostick555
07-21-2011, 07:52 PM
Nice setup looks really good :)
more pictures
we want more pictures
what ferts do you use?
my previous post seemed to be lost after the forum maintenance. I will post it again.
In the water column I don't dose anything.
In the pots I use top soil from home depot sprinkled with Miracle Gro and Root tab from Seachem, then topped with Pool Filter Sand. Use pots with sealed bottom, or you have to seal the hole with seran wrap or something. Hope this helps.
gabloo
07-23-2011, 03:06 PM
Very nice. I am looking forward to setup one like this.
more pictures
we want more pictures
here's one. this is an easy shot, these guys love to pose for me. :D
67973
bobsedins
07-25-2011, 11:55 AM
Nice looking tank...love the plants.
rpmahesh
07-28-2011, 09:57 PM
This is an amazing shot...
Plumkin
07-29-2011, 12:38 AM
OH M GEE!! that looks so gorgeous!!! i love it!
Sean Buehrle
08-04-2011, 07:24 PM
That's a nice looking tank. Do you mind if I put your pic on another website, I will say who it belongs too.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
sure go ahead. i would like to hear from others how to improve the hardscape. i am limited in that perspective.
Aquaria33
08-08-2011, 01:21 AM
Good looking tank. I like the use of the ceramic pots with the swords.
Chunks
08-08-2011, 01:56 AM
Sensational, I could get used to the potted plant look!
b0red04
08-12-2011, 01:31 AM
Beautiful Pair!
AKRON AWOL
08-12-2011, 11:00 AM
wow that's a great looking tank! and you make potted plants look amazing! i might actually try it myself :)
C3H6O3
08-12-2011, 01:01 PM
What plants do you have, and what is your water temperature?
hi i have amazon swords and crypts plants in there. all easy growing ones. the water temperature is now 86 F, but i know it has gone up to 91 F without me knowing it. i realized my T5NO lights are heating the water, so I switched to T5HO now which stay a few inches higher.
C3H6O3
08-13-2011, 12:04 PM
Cool. Just wondering. I'm going to change the substrate in my 150gal soon, and was wanting ideas for other high-temp plants. I run mine at 86 as well. I've found quite a few "warm water" plants that haven't done well, so it's good to get input on ones that are actually working.
Have you tried jungle vals? Does incredibly well in discus environment.
Thanks!
Cool. Just wondering. I'm going to change the substrate in my 150gal soon, and was wanting ideas for other high-temp plants. I run mine at 86 as well. I've found quite a few "warm water" plants that haven't done well, so it's good to get input on ones that are actually working.
Have you tried jungle vals? Does incredibly well in discus environment.
Thanks!
agree! jungle val is another easy growing plant in discus tank. i have grown that before, it grew like weeds. another good one is onion plant.
grindman620
10-09-2011, 10:39 PM
I like the setup. Simple and very clean. Any more pictures?
Would you mind sharing you plant list? I've sort of been going for the same approach in one of my tanks. So far I have Amazon swords and Melon swords.
Harry Marsh
10-10-2011, 08:57 PM
I like the setup. Simple and very clean. Any more pictures?
Same thoughts
I think I'm going to try it
Kudos on the wondeful idea
Charles Crews
10-10-2011, 10:04 PM
Looks Great!
Charles Crews
10-10-2011, 10:05 PM
Are you dosing? If so what? EI?
TankZen
10-14-2011, 08:22 AM
What kind of discus are those?? Wow so pretty!!!!
Would you mind sharing you plant list? I've sort of been going for the same approach in one of my tanks. So far I have Amazon swords and Melon swords.
Plants are amazon swords (Bleheri?). I removed the crypts now as they don't seem to do well at 86 F in long term. At least not in my tank. Their leaves will melt and recover in turns.
Are you dosing? If so what? EI?
There are potting soils in the pots covered by sand. I also buried Osmocot (MiracleGro) and SeaChem RootTabs in the pots. It's probably an overkill. I don't dose anything into the water at all. Saves me a lot of time and $$$. :D So I think the plants are fertilized in two ways, by the fertilizers in the pot, and by the fish waste/left over food.
What kind of discus are those?? Wow so pretty!!!!
These are carnation turqs originally from Kenny. Boy they are non-stop spawning machines. :D
BTW the pots are the cheapest clay pots from homedepot. the cheapest one goes like 98 cents a piece.
mattsoccer20
10-24-2011, 06:57 PM
Are you using a black background in there? Its super nice :)
Are you using a black background in there? Its super nice :)
the background is painted black. thanks.
Coffee1stLife2nd
10-25-2011, 02:50 PM
i normally DONT like the potted plant look...BUT... you pulled it off nicely... looks really good...and your water is so clear doesn't even look like you have any in the tank...i love the black background it really makes the Discus stand out, but i thought if you have a black background wont that cause peppering???
Tina
i normally DONT like the potted plant look...BUT... you pulled it off nicely... looks really good...and your water is so clear doesn't even look like you have any in the tank...i love the black background it really makes the Discus stand out, but i thought if you have a black background wont that cause peppering???
Tina
Tina, thanks for asking. I heard only discus with genes of pigeon blood will pepper up in the dark background/substrate. In any case my pair of carnation turqs don't pepper up.
mattsoccer20
10-25-2011, 09:39 PM
the background is painted black. thanks.
Ok cool thanks. One more thing. Is that white gravil or white sand in the bottom of the tank and under the pots?
Ok cool thanks. One more thing. Is that white gravil or white sand in the bottom of the tank and under the pots?
it's pool filter sand at around 0.5 inch thick. you can buy it from a pool supply store, very cheap.
phoenix988
10-26-2011, 11:24 PM
the tank and fish are look so nice, now i am thinking to pot my plant too. thank you for new idea.
mattsoccer20
12-17-2011, 03:45 PM
it's pool filter sand at around 0.5 inch thick. you can buy it from a pool supply store, very cheap.
i know its been a while but i have another question. How much of the dirt did you fill the pots with?
Eclipes
12-27-2011, 06:12 PM
all my plants burn up in my tank =[ how are urs so green
bugman2494
12-29-2011, 05:17 AM
Lovely simple setup and also beautiful fish. I am starting to wonder if my planted tank that has hair grass as a carpet is unsuitable in keeping discus.
i put about an inch of it. some ppl put more as I can see from their posts.
discusboard
01-06-2012, 11:02 PM
awesome awesome tank. Do you have any updated pictures to see what it looks like now?
shoveltrash
01-07-2012, 09:18 AM
really nice tank - would love to see updated pics too :)
very tastefully done with the pots!
I'm not very familiar with carnation turqs......off to search for more info!
i will be getting some more discus and then update the tank. thanks!
lmdiscus
01-13-2012, 12:43 AM
Nice picture
Video update. Bought 7 new discus from Kenny 2 weeks ago. Was thinking of 5, but somehow ended up with 7. Don't ask me why! :D
I don't know how to embed a video, so I just pasted a Youtube link of the 720p video of the tank. Hope you will enjoy the fish!
http://youtu.be/oIVFhfgEDuQ
pcsb23
02-07-2012, 08:44 AM
...I don't know how to embed a video, ...'tis easy :) use the filmstrip icon on the toolbar at the top of the reply dialog ... then just paste the url of the video in ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIVFhfgEDuQ&feature=youtu.be
Nice tank :)
oh thank you so much, i learned something new!
gerrard00
02-07-2012, 10:46 AM
Such a great setup! I could watch that tank all day.
I'm sorry if I missed this in an earlier post, but what filtration do you use?
I use two canister filters. One is Rena XP1, the other is Rena XP3. In both units I remove the carbon bag and fill in as many ceramic rings as I can for biological filtration. These and the plants keep the nitrate level <10 ppm constantly so I can do WC once a week instead of daily.
My wife complains that I never look at her the way I look at the fish.
Such a great setup! I could watch that tank all day.
I'm sorry if I missed this in an earlier post, but what filtration do you use?
PhishNFilly
02-07-2012, 08:38 PM
Love this tank, love the pots, I must ask this you can smack me later. I cannot grab the concept off soil in the pot, is there any possible way you can show your pot and layering via a vid or pics? What keeps the soil from coming out of the pot once submerged? Will rock and sand keep that soil in? Where does the saran wrap go? Please bare with me asking but I just need a dummy 101 step by step if you can plz do this for me. Julia
Love this tank, love the pots, I must ask this you can smack me later. I cannot grab the concept off soil in the pot, is there any possible way you can show your pot and layering via a vid or pics? What keeps the soil from coming out of the pot once submerged? Will rock and sand keep that soil in? Where does the saran wrap go? Please bare with me asking but I just need a dummy 101 step by step if you can plz do this for me. Julia
Julia I've made a cartoon for you, and you can tell I am not an artist at all. Anyways if you know how to plant a flower into a pot you know what to do. The steps in the picture is what I do. The sand will keep the soil in the bottom. Just remember use the cheapest dirt (no fertilizer added) from HomeDepot or even the dirt from your backyard. If you need to uproot the plant, take the whole pot out and work outside the tank, and put it back once finished. Don't use too much dirt, a little bit of it goes a long way. This way I never have to fertilize the plant at all because the roots get the nutrient from the soil. I guess my fish are pissing and pooping into it for me too every day LOL! Have fun!
http://i1149.photobucket.com/albums/o599/x2h/Potting.gif
PhishNFilly
02-07-2012, 10:09 PM
Priceless!!!!!!!!! LMAO By George I think she's got it LOLOLOLOL:p. I am going to try this tomorrow. I found those fert tabs at petsmart. I got plants tonight and they are floating and tomorrow I will have at it. Thanks very very much, I am very much a "green thumb" person in my yard working in the dirt, I hope I can be a " wet green thumb" in a fish tank LOL. Oh you did mention earlier in the thread that you use one inch of potting soil? My main concern is getting just dirt, I dont want those white things inside that dirt correct? If it wasn't winter I would dig up my dirt from the yard. TY!!!!!:o
right don't buy the soil with fertilizer in it. just get the plain dirt (usually called potting soil and a few bucks buys you 20 lbs).
As for the plant, use those that get nutrient from root, such as sword and cryptos. Swords are extremely easy. Cryptos are slower growers and like to melt (though they will bounce back), so I will pass those. However they are prettier IMO.
PhishNFilly
02-08-2012, 03:04 PM
I am doing something wrong!!!!!!! the soil once I wet it a bit.....its coming out the bottom of the hole even tho saran is tucked down there well.........HELP plz. Julia
PhishNFilly
02-08-2012, 03:51 PM
Ok update.......I figure out how to do the saran better......all pots are filled and done.....I hope I did right with these flourish tabs, you didn't say how many so I put one in each pot, I sure hope I don't burn the roots out for doing this. It's done and I must say it looks nice but they are little nothing compared to yours right now. I need a nice branch of some kind and I will look for that in the future. For right now my Discus are in shock and slowly venturing now since I stopped messing inside. I will position the pots a little better but I was nervous so you know how that goes when you do something new. Many Many Thanks to you for helping me. I only pray my tank can look half as good as yours in a month or so. I am crossing my fingers and toes lol. I thought my tank would turn into a mudpie but that isn't happening at all.....again ty. Julia:p
what plants do you plant? any chance of uploading pictures for us to see?:)
PhishNFilly
02-09-2012, 08:08 PM
I am going to do a video tomorrow, everything has settled in and yes I will show you what I did with things....perhaps somebody can tell me what the heck I planted. There were no stickers with these plants to let me know what the heck they are but I think I got some plants are are easy enuf and hardy enuf for the high temps....plz plz tell me if something is off when you see the video. My fish are absolutely loving the plants for some reason, maybe it's a comfort cushion over just the log I had for them. I want to track down a few more german blue rams and I did and will go get them tomorrow hopefully. I am going to paint the background in the summer but right now its just glass so it doesn't look nearly as nice as yours. Again I can't thank you enuf for the help and allowing me to gleen ideas from you and your planted to help me with mine. My goal is to find a nice piece of wood to go across the front, I have trading in some baby steatocranus I raised from fry with the one privately owned LFS I go to and he will give me a store credit for them, hopefully he will have something I want .......I have dark driftwood but thats out, I must have something light for this tank. Sorry if I hi-jacked your thread with my ramblings, I really should start my own thread and I think I will do that with this video I do. PS> I can't find cardinal tetras anywhere or rasboras, I had no idea these fish were hard to find??? ODD. Julia
midnight1
02-09-2012, 09:02 PM
so what was your final light bulbs that you used....it looked like you were thinking of changing out of what was original to changing to something else....how many bulbs?...what intensity?....how is your algea & do your discus get stressed from the lighting?...it certainly seems like they don't.
TIA -- Paul
so what was your final light bulbs that you used....it looked like you were thinking of changing out of what was original to changing to something else....how many bulbs?...what intensity?....how is your algea & do your discus get stressed from the lighting?...it certainly seems like they don't.
TIA -- Paul
It began with T5 normal output total of 168W. Then I changed it to T5 high output total of 108W. I think it's a bit too strong since I still get some algae on the leave tips near the top, so I reduced the lighting period to <6 hours/day except for the weekend. The discus seem to be fine with the light. I used to have albino bristlenose plecos that controlled the algae for me pretty well, until I realized that after the algae were consumed, they started eating the sword leaves, so I moved them out.
donal
02-10-2012, 11:59 AM
Good job. Keep up the good work.
Tank/water looks amazingly clean in the videos.
PhishNFilly
02-11-2012, 01:40 PM
aXio.....I don't want to keep hijacking your thread so I am going to start one of my own. I did "sorta" get my plant situation started and I have questions but I will ask on my thread so I don't get this one off topic. I do need your help if you could mosy on over to my thread. Again thanks a million, it doesn't look like my tank if going to thrive anytime soon.....I will get a vid up tonight of everything I promise. Julia:)
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