Plants and Discus community tank

Discussion in 'Planted Tanks' started by Chris_H, Nov 19, 2015.

  1. Chris_H

    Chris_H Discus for Life

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    So, I have moved my hobby over to revolve 100% around my Discus. They are now in the Nautilus (I will updates pics soon). I was wondering what plants you guys use in your Discus tanks? I know most people do bare bottom but I like to have my show tank a bit decorated.

    At the moment I am sporting many rocks with big wood features (mopani and vineyard) with only plastic plants. I would love to get some ground cover going over my river bed gravel and maybe some real plants as well.

    The problem I had in the past is that:
    1. the heat of my water tends to kill the plants - I run at 29 to 30 degrees C.
    2. my discus does not like the soup I add for the plants (like iron, fertz etc.)

    I would like to get plants, starting with ground cover, that needs as little possible feed and that is able to handle the high temps. Is there anything that you guys know works?

    Cheers,
    Chris
     
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  3. Reedfish

    Reedfish Moderator

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    Been said many times before.
    It is very difficult to maintain a proper planted tank with Discus.

    Have a look in the Discus Forum and in particular threads on this topic posted my Zoom & Marco
     
  4. lennard

    lennard

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    Plants

    This is my tank and the plants in it:

    plante.jpg

    The lower growing plants do not get enough light so they do not flourish.

    1. Java fern
    2. Anubias
    3. Valisneria
    4. Hygrophila
    5. Tropical water lily
    6. Moss/algae
    moss.jpg
    7. Bacopa

    8. Spanish moss
    9. Micro Swords?
    10. Cryptocoryne?
    11. Hemianthus micranthemoides (Babies tears)

    12. Broad leaved Amazon Sword?
    13. Smaller Cryptocoryne?
    14. Salvinia natans - Floating watermoss
    15. Anachris

    plante.jpg

    moss.jpg
     
  5. OP
    Chris_H

    Chris_H Discus for Life

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    @Reedfish, I know, and it's not that I am lazy, I have tried and things did not work out so I am asking personal experience :)
    @lennard, you are a star! Do you dose the tank with anything or just CO2?
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 2, 2016
  6. lennard

    lennard

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    I did a compost/soil layer when I started this tank, but by now all original organics disintegrated.

    The plants are growing only on the nutrients that the fish and snails are producing.

    I have bought some aquarium fertilizer, but I am not going to use it in my display tank.

    Simplicity again is the answer here - give the tank a chance to "create" a balance by what is in it, don't disturb the balance too much, and a tank like this can go for years without cleaning it out totally again.

    The algae and other moss will definitely not be acceptable to most people, but I am a plant person and do love any greens! The moss I have posted, have created a carpet on the rocks and do look very beautiful moving in the water current.

    The tropical lily is allowed to form surface leaves to strengthen the tuber, but it creates a lot of shade not good for the other plants, so I remove the surface leaves every now and again.

    The same tank in 2011 as a goldfish planted tank:

    New member from Rustenburg.
     
    Last edited: Nov 19, 2015
  7. OP
    Chris_H

    Chris_H Discus for Life

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    Thanks dude, this was really what I was looking for. The tank changed quite a lot since the small plants :) I also enjoy greenery and would probably start by adding moss to my rocks if I could.
     
  8. Jwh

    Jwh

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    There was a very nice (at least to me) discus biotope featured in pfk in the last year, sand substrate, wood and a few large Amazon swords. I'll have a look she back home next week and post a link if possible.
     
  9. OP
    Chris_H

    Chris_H Discus for Life

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    That would be awesome thanks!
     
  10. Tetra

    Tetra

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    Hi Chris

    ive tried to combine plants and discus ,it's possible but there's a price.

    Maybe I've dosed to much firtz for a low/medium tec tank but my light wasn't sufficient for my depth tank so I struggled with my medium tec plants but any case the biggest thing is water change for discus and planted tank. Each time you do WC you need to redose the tank and it cost me to much. So I gave my discus away.

    Only advice I can give is stay with low tec plants swords/java/Anubias/Vallis. And don't try to keep to many Discus fish. I don't know how big your tank is but my ratio where 1 discus to 125liter water. Maybe buy alittle bigger discus as they don't need to eat as much as the younger ones. If you need advice on discus ask Marco he knows a lot and will help you out. Or go on the Discus forums there is a lot of advice around Discus.

    another thing is don't add Seachem Excel if you have Vallis they will just all die back and only recover at a later stage.

    keep posting pics.

    good luck
    Mr G.
     
  11. OP
    Chris_H

    Chris_H Discus for Life

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    I will post pics later, but my five Discus are in my 1500L tank atm :tongue:

    What you say is true, Discus needs big water changes, if I have to re-dose 700L a week then I will be broke soon!
     
  12. Reedfish

    Reedfish Moderator

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    It's not a matter of being lazy.
    It's a matter of balancing the requirements of the Discus (which should be the priority) with the requirements of the plants
     
  13. OP
    Chris_H

    Chris_H Discus for Life

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    Hehe, I meant lazy to search the forums :p
     
  14. Vis

    Vis Gerhard

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    Hi Lennard the "moss" is black beard algae. Most guys with planted tank hate that stuff.
     

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