Plants for Discus Tank

Hi guys , Im sure this has been answered before , I have read so many of the different threads as well as posts and articles from other websites , all this information is really confusing me , I hope someone can help me by giving me a simple break down on what plants with names would work in my Discus Tank . The temp would be of around 27 to 29 degrees.

I have a Jewel Vision 450 . I plan on using a sechem fertilizer ( the black one ) mixed with Diamond black gravel substrate , as well as a CO2 system . The tank itself is 64 CM high and 151 CM in length. I also have a bucket of Tetra plant , Complete substrate that I may use ( Dont really want to mess up the black diamond gravel but will test it and see if its fine)

can someone advice me on what plants I could plant at the

Back of the tank , Something that would grow tall and large

Middle of the tank , Something that would grow or kind of stay at a medium hight

Front of the tank , something like a grass that would stay short , sort of creep .

Also , I plan on using rocks in the tank as well as a Driftwood , What can I attach to the driftwood that would look well "Pretty" and maybe scatter around or between some of the rocks and the driftwood?

Also how do I arrange the plants so that they look good and natural as they grow .

Thanks so much for all your advice , this is driving me nuts , I spoke to some of the local petshops as well and they have confused me even further , I went to them with the names of plants that I had found online and they looked puzzled haha , many tried to sell me stuff that I really dont need right now as im still in the process of taking down the tank to start from scratch .

Thanks guys !

Zippy320

 

If you have invested in Discus then why not do a biotype that is complimentary to discus. My understanding Discus need clean water, low nutrients etc - not exactly a match to what you want to do by the sound of things.

Later Ferdie

 

Hi Ferdie

Thanks so much for your reply , I do understand where your coming from , I haven't purchased any new fish as yet , I have kept discus before , My previous fish were with me for well over 8 years in a Jewel rio 180 planted tank . The problem for me is not the fish , Its more the plants . In my previous tank I knew someone who advised me on what plants to buy and where to plant them I kind of relied on his advice and lost all of the information given to me over time , plant names , positions etc that he had given me, his since passed on , so Im kind of working from scratch here with regards to the plants .

With my previous tank , the fish and plants thrived in their planted tank . The picture in my DP are those of my old fish in the planted Rio 180 .

Filtration will be by one or two tetratec EX1200 external canister filters as well as the internal jewel 1500 filter , its always kept the tank clear . The Rio had just the internal filter running which worked for the smaller tank . The substrate was fertilized as well , and I had a CO2 system in that tank .

I want to do biotype that's complementary to discus , something close to there natural habitat , but with a little greenery in it .

 

This is not a good idea, you will have problems in the long run and CO2 is a no. In the wild there are almost no underwater vegetation where discus originate from but rather submerged terrestrial plants, rocks and submerged wood. 27c is also a bit on the cold side. a Manageable biotope would consist of a very thin layer of sand with driftwood as a hard scape, you can tie plants to the wood if you like a bit of greenery. This is not good for growing out young fish also. You don't want dark substrate either, your pigeon bloods will pepper. The lights needed to grow plants will also be too bright for them.

 

I kept anubias in my Discus tank attached to driftwood.Anubias did well.

 

I'd say, go barebottom for maintenance and use rhizome plants on driftwood. Will make life much easier for you

 

Hi Guys! Thanks so much for all the advice , I have taken everything to heart and tried to work out a sort of balance .
Anyway So a little update .

I stripped everything down , gave everything a good clean , washed the tank , gravel , pressure sprayed all the driftwood , cleaned up all the equipment and back decorations backgrounds , converted the (always failing Jewel T5 light bars) to a sort of DIY LED setup ( I know I haven't got the colors right ) But until I can afford the New LEd light bars (Which are sooo expensive) , this has to do for now .

This time I included a new air pump , with a sort of bubble making bar , I wont use this all the time , my little nieces seem to enjoy the bubbles created so its more for them to look at now and then . But it does look good as the bubbles reflect of the LED lights . This I set at the back of the Aquarium behind the largest piece of driftwood .

I settled on just using Tigers eye rocks for the tank . I had them in before , they gave me no trouble , Purchased a few more and used that .
Reused my black gravel , Shocked myself at the cost of the seachem substrate so used what I had tetraplant complete substrate, I did not want the fertilizer to mix with the gravel , So i used lots of plastic caps , filled that with the tetraplant complete substrate , topped it off with the black gravel and then placed them in many locations all around the tank .

Reused most of my driftwood , I have had these pieces for years .

Setting everything up hasn't been easy ( Timewise) so I did everything in stages .

Plants thus far , I purchased three Anubis plants , two species , two with large leaves , one with smaller leaves ( This I attached to the driftwood) The other two I planted at the back of the tank , Directly above the substrate pots. I found a list online of plants that are best suited for a Discus tank and where to position them, so im going to follow those rules

I think my CO2 system ( Which is very primitive ) will be a problem , I will need to do something about that . I know the bubbles are meant to flow around the tank , at this point they sort of climb up a ladder , and even though this worked in my smaller rio 180 tank . I dont think it will work in this one.

Filtration will be the standard Jewel internal filter which is supposed to be 1500lph and the tetratec Ex1200 external filter . Heater is the Jewel heater that came with the system

I also added a SEIO M620 pump/wavemaker or whatever it is (From my previous marine tank setup) for now just to have a little bit of flow throughout the tank so everything gets settled properly .

So far the tank is switched on and running , everything seems to be working fine . The waters nice and clear ... Sometimes I wonder if I should just leave it as is , no fish , and an always clean almost no maintainance tank haha

Will attach pictures . It looks bare , I still have a lot to do . Im not rushing it , sort of taking me time no matter how long it takes .

Would really appreciate any advice on what I should do , where im making any mistakes or ideas you guys might have .

 

Here are some pictures of where im at with my tank so far ..

 

Nice - you need to lift the anubias ever so slightly so that the rhizome is on-top of the substrate. Best way to do this is to use cotton thread or a little bit of super glue and stick them to a rock fragment.

BTW nothing wrong with a ladder CO2 diffuser - less chance of one killing fish during a CO2 dump.

Later Ferdie

 

Thanks guys! really appreciate your comments

So a little update , F-Fish , I took your advice , Lifted the Anubis a little , I think its the rhizome that exposed now .

Whats a CO2 Dump?
On the CO2 front , the ladder has started producing Co2 , I get at least one bubble going up the ladder every second , it does eventually disperse as it goes up the ladder. Because the tank is large I felt that might be inadequate ,so after reading about co2 and a power head , I tried something with the jewel filter , where I made another Co2 bottle and connected the pipe to the outlet of the Jewel filter , now every 30 seconds or so a small burst of co2 comes out of that in thousands of tiny bubbles and this flows around the tank until it disappears .

Also Did an upgrade to the LED strips , Added two colors , red and a warm white . So now its , Blue , Red , Cool white , warm White , Natural white , and Purple .

At the moment its just running the jewel filter , Both my Tetratec 1200 canister filters are leaking , I dont know why or how to fix it .

I have attached some pictures of the tank , theirs a slight change in the tanks lighting color , I think its a little better . Previously I had felt it being to blue .

How do I gauge whether the plants are doing well or not?

 

Very nice!

 

Where did you get the background?

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So another update , solved my Tetratec canister leaking problem , Frustrated that both canister filters were now leaking , I stripped the filters to pieces , removed every rubber seal I could find and took everything to the pet shop to ask for the seals , they could only get me the main seal , at a cost of over R180 . They tell me the rest was not available and that I had to purchase complete parts . I wasnt willing to do that , So I took the seals to a company that specialises in seals and managed to get everything for R80 refitted them all and guess what! no leaks! even the primer pump works perfectly now without leaking .

Refitted it to my tank and now all is well , Both filters are running . Will monitor it for leaks in the coming days.
Thanks Nico !
@KingSpider I was never a fan of those paper backgrounds or just painting the back glass with paint , I always liked the look of a 3d background , Initially I looked at the Jewel 3d backgrounds , I have this in my Rio 180 and rio 300 , they do look good and seem to have held up well , When I got the Vision 450 , I wanted to go with the Jewel background again , untill i saw the price for that size of tank. And with that size of tank I needed 3 pieces at well over R1000 a piece , decided not to . I then found that Boyo made these as well and found a set that I liked , so I went with their background , it was much cheaper , of the same quality and fit perfectly , I went with the rock and tree root background .

 

Nice. Was the Boyu background ordered locally ?

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CO2 Dump .. see https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/what-is-end-of-tank-dump.26812/

Your anubias should be fine now ... good to hear your DIY and shopping skills saved the day on your canister.

Later Ferdie

 

Thanks guys , that CO2 dump information is very interesting , My co2 setup is very simple , one non return valve , going back to the bottle that creates the CO2.
Yeah! I was shocked at the cost of a new canister filter of the same type , crazy .

I think I may have a small problem , Could the filters , pump and LED lights be creating to much heat in the tank ? Its at a stable 27.5 degrees when the lights are on , when the lights are off its at 26. The heater is not on , I haven't switched the heater on since setting everything up . The outside temp is around 24.5 degrees . It is getting a little chilly but , then again Durban never gets that cold to be honest .

Just wondering how the internal temp could be so hot, without heating . I have felt the top of the canister filter , its whisper quiet but I can feel heat at the area of the pump . Im sure the pumps use water to dissipate the heat generated . But that much? Nothing seems to be burning up or anything of that sort . I have noticed this as this is the first time , that I have ran a tank for any given time without the heater plugged in .

If this stays normal, it makes me wonder if I would really need a heater for the Discus , and possibly just have the heater switched on as a backup .

@KingSpider , I might have been lucky on those backgrounds , I found them by chance at a local pet shop. Im sure they could be ordered as well ,But I have never seen them for sale anywhere since then so im not sure if that specific design is still available , I know the jewel backgrounds can be ordered . The funny thing , before buying this background , I made my own 3d background from polystyrene , Marine / pond safe cement , It looked so beautiful (To me ) But I never got around to using it , I could not fig-our out a way to seal it properly so that it would be safe for my fish . So I just kept it away and continued searching until i found this one .