My new, low tech, aquascaped planted 310L discus tank

Thankxs again. I've asked my LFS to keep some otto's for me. they have 10 in stock. Still can't make up my mind between the Farlowella acus and the Sturisoma panamense though. They're both beauties, but I'm still trying to figure out which will suit the 28 to 30 degree temp of this tank...

 

Ok, so it's day 6 since I replaced the carbon in the canister with the new filter pads and the algae has been reduced from this:

To this:

So, Happiness, as the new filter pads seem to be delivering the goods.
I also did a bit of plant maintenance last Friday. There were a few plants that needed
pruning and some that were not adapting to the temp. They were transferred to the
outdoor tank and replaced with some hygrophila polysperma, rotala rotundifolia,
bacopa monieri and a dwarf tropical water lily that the owner of my local nursery
gave me when he was dividing his lilies in his pond...
I've had these in my outdoor tropical pond, but never in an aquarium before and
thought it would be interesting to see what it does in the Discus tank!
Well, the first thing I did, was to cut all the leaves and roots off the rhizome.
Then scrub the remaining rhizome to remove any algae from the nursery pond. Then
planted it slightly left-centre, right at the back of the one coconut cave. Tonight,
there are 5 new leaves 4cm long, 1cm wide and 1 new as yet unopened leaf at the
tip of a new growth node! Think that if this takes off, I'm going to have some major
weekly pruning to do on it. I haven't decided if I will allow the leaves to grow to the
water surface and see if I get a flower, or just to keep it at a medium hight and no
flower. I might also remove it and pot it, to try keep the roots in trim, as the pond
lilies are heavy feeders and have an extensive root spread if not contained!
Here's the lily:

 

Looks awsome!!

 

Ok, so tonight, the algae is almost completely gone and the plants have started going ballistic! I'll have to do a major pruning this coming week end! Here are a few photos of the growth so far:

3 days ago the dwarf pond lily was this big:

Tonight, It's nearly doubled in size!

If I remember correctly, when I had these in my tropical outdoor pond. The temp was 24 degrees Celsius and I had to trim once a week. (Even in winter!) I think that at the Discus temp. I'm going to have to watch this thing to see that it doesn't get out of hand!

 

Barry...I want to be like you! This is an absolute beauty!

 

truly you have done a great job,that rockwork is awesome,are those real rocks and if so how how are they balancing?

 

awsome dude!!

 

@oscar freak ... that aint just a rock dumped in a tank mate... Pelindaba is a VERY heavy typeo f rock - that sucker must weigh a good 25kg +... Barry built a "Box"(Check earlier in thread) for it to rest on that keeps the weight spread off the bottom...It has a small recirculatory pump in it that prevents dead spots....pretty nifty,if I had to say so myself.....

@Barry.M - years ago had one of those night flowering lillies as well - it does bunch out if you keep trimming the emmersed leaves...mine even made a few flowers ofer the years I had it...

 

Here you said that this was all new to you... I can tell that you have been fibbing. I really bow down to your superior knowledge and design ideas.:adore: Keep up the great work, awesome pics and info, you are a great inspiration to me and the rest as well, I'm sure.

Where did you get your stunning pea gravel. I've been looking for something similar here but I've yet to find anything as stunning as yours.

Kim

 

this is one amazing build! apart from the excellence, its how methodical and patient one can be! graet stuff @Barry.M

 

HA!!! The Farlowella have arrived... Unfortunately, we have no idea when
the Sturisoma panamense will come, so Farlowella it will be! I must compliment
Pet Stop again, really top quality stock. Including the nicest, fattest brightest
Discus I've ever seen at any LFS.

After my visit to Pet Stop on Friday, I came away with 4 Farlowella, (I did leave 2 for anyone who wants them.)
Got home and acclimatised them by dripping my tank
water into their bucked over about an hour again. (I really like this method,
as there is very little stress placed on the fish!)

Once that was done, I introduced them into the tank

I didn't expect them to settle-in as fast as they did and after an hour, they ate
some baby marrow, then found various places to relax and forage!

The Discus all went and had a look at them and decided that they weren't food and
have ignored them ever since. They're quite difficult to spot as they really do look
like pieces of stick when they lay in amongst the plants.

 

These guys are really cool, I saw them at a pet shop yesterday & they do look just like sticks lying around in the tank...:cheesy:

 

Must be one of the strangest fish I've seen!

 

@Barry.M - We,the people of TASA, DEEEE-MUNT an update....with pics....he,he

 

Gosh! Sorry, Update coming soon. Plus another new build!

 

Hello all,
Right, after an extremely busy few months with work, here’s an update on the Discus tank.
Everything went fine with the tank and fish, no sickness or other odd things happening, Plants established themselves, (have to trim every week,) until a few weeks ago... The power cables to our area were stolen and we ended up without power for two days. This happened while I was at work and I was only informed 5 hours into the power loss. By the time I managed to get home and rig up a power source, (my neighbour has a BIG generator and threw an extension over the wall,) the tank temp had dropped to 24 degrees, add to this no water movement for 5 hours and I ended up with 7 dead Discus, 1 dead Farlowella, 1 dead whiptail catfish and 5 dead Cardinals. On top of this, my 13 year old Daschund, Emily passed away a few nights later, in my arms after a long and happy life!
After removing the dead fish, doing an 80% water change, rinsing the filter and reseeding it from the gravel in the outside pond, waiting for the temp to settle and making sure that everything was fine, I returned the surviving fish to the tank. By morning there were no more deaths and after my initial shock, I spoke to Moolis at Pet Stop about the loss and decided not to restock the Discus until such time as I have my own generator and teach my domestic how to rig it up to the tanks and start it. I will also be choosing the strains a lot more carefully.
In the mean time, I’ve been learning more about these incredibly beautiful fish and tweaking the tank and plants. I am almost ready to carry on the journey with them. I have also introduced a few other fish in the interim. Namely a pair of Apistogramma cacatuoides, a pair of Apistogramma agassizi and six Corydora sterbai. Had to make two extra coconut caves to accommodate the Apisto’s.
I am picking up a few Otto’s on Friday to take care of the small amount of algae I still have. The Otto’s will eventually be moved to my other 3 foot tank and the Paludarium that I’m starting. Here are a few up to date photo’s of the setup:

 

That is so sad, sorry for your loss!

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