Plants, CO2 and Discus. do they all work together?

[Powers080808]

Hey everyone! My husband and I are brand new to the forum. Jason decided for his 30th birthday that he wanted a discus tank......... so........... here we are. As of right now, we have a 55 gallon tank medium/heavy planted, 36" bubble wand, aerating powerhead, eheim canister filter with biogolass, with a small school and a farlowella cat. No discus just yet. We want to have it all perfect before we get them. One of our first questions is, to keep the plants healthy, we have read that a CO2 source is needed. If we made a DIY system, would the CO2 hurt the discus? I'm pretty sure we are going to sound pretty ignorant at first, but we hope to be pros like you guys really soon.

Thanks,
Lindsey and Jason

[zchauvin]

Best advice is to learn how to care for a planted tank then learn to care for discus and then, and only then attempt to do both. Not trying to be rude, but when you say that you read co2 is need to keep plants healthy tells me you haven't had a planted tank for long and, well you have never had discus :) Discus need lots of clean water, and plants need lots of ferts. Discus need, well prefer low light and plants need high light. Well most of them anyways. It is very hard to keep both balanced, a diy co2 system will not give you sufficient or a steady enough co2 amount. With too many lights and ferts and no co2, or not enough co2 you will only have algae, algae, and more algae.

With that said I would do this...
Take everything out of your tank and refill it with 2-3" of pool filter sand and stick root tabs in it. Plant only low light/tech plants such as amazon swords, crypts, anubias, and almost all mosses. Dont worry about the co2 or ferts.

[jimg]

I would not suggest it as a first time with discus. I have had high tech planted tanks with discus at it is a very delicate balance that has to be met. depending on your water parameters it may go easy or you may end up loosing either the discus or the plants. If you can get you plants growing and stabilized meeting the needs of the discus as in low nitrate,low fertilizer additives then try the discus.
I always used 10lb co2 tanks with regulators and controllers. co2 at or below .25ppm will not hurt the discus.
I would try a low light planted tank first. anubias tied to drift wood with bare bottom tank would be nice and much easier.
It is not impossible by no means, but I strongly suggest reading up on plants,water chemistry and discus first.

[Powers080808]

Thanks guys for the info! We have done sooooo much research and have had our tank up and running with plants, a school and a whiptail for about 2 months. Our plants are doing so well and look so healthy, but we read about the CO2 today and got confused. Thelight we have is obviously doing a great job for the plants, our water is pristine. Chems are perfect and being loggged regularly. We want to take this slow and one step at a time to make the perfect home for the kings of the aquarium! Thanks for the advice, and I'm sure we will have more questions soon!

J&L

[Skip]

decide which is most important.. and work with that tank first.. but not both.. its up to you, they are your tanks do as you like

[x2h]

could you upload a picture(s) of your tank first? you have to post 10 post to be able to upload photos though, so keep posting. :-)

[NewETown]

It sounds like you might have lower-light or easy to grow plants based on your description. "Easy" plants don't really need the added Co2 and you can generally cut back a bit on the ferts if they mess with your water quality. However, your water seems to be doing well... definitely keep monitoring it! When you add more fish it's going to change your chemistry, my advice would be to stop fertilizing for a week or two and test your water daily just to make sure everything is under control. After that slowly start doing your regular routine with the tank. Keep up on water changes and you should be ok :), good luck (also post pictures)!

-Everett

[fast93accord]

Your 2 month tank is still young. Some plants grow good shortterm but have problems in the long run. The main advantage of co2 is it helps your plants consume excess nutrients, which in turn prevents algae. I used to run co2 with high light and ferts. Maxed out co2, dosed nutes and had algae problems still. I since stopped dosing ferts in 1 tank and stopped changing water about 5 months ago and that tank is fantastic. My discus tank started having algae problems, so I stopped ferts and about a month later most algae is gone. Only if I had the balls to stop changing water on that tank.... Changing water a lot f-s up the plants... I may do an experiment.... Heavily planted tanks suck tons of nutes...

[JustinKScott]

Happy birthday Jason!

I suggest doing what I'm doing. Build a planted tank AND a discus tank then when you have both mastered combine them!

To answer your question directly.. Yes discus don't mind co2 as long as there is enough o2 to breath & the ph is above 6. (co2 lowers ph)

[Statik]

My suggestion is before trying injected co2, you should try flourish excell. its a sort of liquid co2 that u just need to pour it in as indicated. I have a planted tank and excell is my 'magic potion' . Since i started putting this stuff in, my plants look good and healthy and my algae is reduced to a minimum. I have a co2 injection that runs 24/7 and i spot treat excell on where theres algea.
I have my planted tank for over a year now and recently traded my mixed fishes for discus. its been three weeks now and all of them seem healthy. I cannot say for myself that i have succeded with the planted tank and discus because i am at a very early stage but many have done it and theres tons of videos on youtube with planted discus tanks.