My 45 Gallon Discus

[salman]

Yesterday, i went out and bought me some plants for this tank, I got alot thinking the more the better, but when i put them all in, it looked too crowded and the fish didnt have a room to swim. So i took out half the plants and redecorated my tank. I moved around all the driftwood, removed my internal filter since it was big and i didnt like how it was in the middle of the tank.

I want your opinion on it, your real opinion. I want to make this tank look alot better, but i need your help because i am bad at designing tanks.

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[cocoa_pleco]

GORGEOUS! one more of those plants in the back left corner and its perfect!

[salman]

GORGEOUS! one more of those plants in the back left corner and its perfect!

Are you serious? :D The next time i go to my LFS i'll get one more of those plants. They are amazons right? i forgot to ask.

[cocoa_pleco]

looks like it. i have a few in my 55g.

your tank is stunningly nice, especially the substrate

[salman]

I got a couple of other kinds which looks good in the store, but when i put them in my tank, something about it looked different, then as i was taking them all out, the amazons were the only ones left then im like, hey this kinda looks good. So i messed around with everything and finally decided to stick to this. And my tank is a little tall, it was hard to reach the sand to plant them lol.

[cocoa_pleco]

i have to redo my 55g. the substrate is not my favorite, its light pebbles. i want sand. after europe i'll figure out a plan.

[salman]

in 5 days im going to london, then rome, then italy.


Does anyone know if the plants provide oxygen for the fish? I was told that they do, so i took out my airstones, i just want to make sure because i travel, so when i come back i dont see floating fish lol

[Zerileous]

nice aquascape salman, but I do have a few suggestions.

First though, what sort of lighting do you have and do you have any CO2, are you willing/planning to dose any fertilizers or is this going to be low tech?

Your sand looks really nice so I don't think I would try for a "lawn" type foreground. For the hardscape, it will pop a bit more if one of the pieces of driftwood sticks upwards, sort of reaching towards the top of the tank. agree that another val in the back would be nice. Also you could consider planting some anubias bateri. You anchor these plants to your driftwood and put them in a more shaded area of the tank if possible. I think they would look very nice. There are alos alot of varieties of crypts that you may or may not like. They are a low growing mid to foreground plant which spreads its leaves outwards. They are pretty low light and not demanding. If you wanted some color, there are some very colorful types of rotala that might be a little too demanding for the tech level of your tank but might be worth trying. They are a stem plant, and you would want to dedicate a space in the tank to a stand (or loose grouping) of them. If you can get your hands on some java moss (be careful of willow moss, which is often sold as java moss but is not a true aquatic plant), x-mas moss, or taiwan moss to tie to your driftwood it would get a more natural feel.

This might be dificult, and its not a big deal, but the the tank will have more depth is the substrate is deeper in back and shallow towards the front.


Please dont get me wrong, I really like your tank as it is, but since you asked for suggestions I figured I would give you some ideas to play with.

Gorgeous discus by the way.

[salman]

nice aquascape salman, but I do have a few suggestions.

First though, what sort of lighting do you have and do you have any CO2, are you willing/planning to dose any fertilizers or is this going to be low tech?

Your sand looks really nice so I don't think I would try for a "lawn" type foreground. For the hardscape, it will pop a bit more if one of the pieces of driftwood sticks upwards, sort of reaching towards the top of the tank. agree that another val in the back would be nice. Also you could consider planting some anubias bateri. You anchor these plants to your driftwood and put them in a more shaded area of the tank if possible. I think they would look very nice. There are alos alot of varieties of crypts that you may or may not like. They are a low growing mid to foreground plant which spreads its leaves outwards. They are pretty low light and not demanding. If you wanted some color, there are some very colorful types of rotala that might be a little too demanding for the tech level of your tank but might be worth trying. They are a stem plant, and you would want to dedicate a space in the tank to a stand (or loose grouping) of them. If you can get your hands on some java moss (be careful of willow moss, which is often sold as java moss but is not a true aquatic plant), x-mas moss, or taiwan moss to tie to your driftwood it would get a more natural feel.

This might be dificult, and its not a big deal, but the the tank will have more depth is the substrate is deeper in back and shallow towards the front.


Please dont get me wrong, I really like your tank as it is, but since you asked for suggestions I figured I would give you some ideas to play with.

Gorgeous discus by the way.

Thank you for your suggestions.

I have no idea what kind of lighting i have, all i know is that i have 2 white lights and 1 pink light. ha!

By CO2 you mean carbon dioxide.? No i dont have any, but i saw your thread that you made a CO2 system thing, do i need CO2?

I tried putting fertilizers a month ago when i wanted to do plants, but, it made the aquarium a mess, the tablets turned into sand and then it started flying EVERYWHERE in the aquarium, which made me do a 100% water change. and get rid of all he plants i had bought. Do i have to?

Sorry for all the questions, im new to plants.

I tried sticking the driftwood upwards, but i didnt like it, it may look better in pictures, but it looked like i was trying too hard instead of having a natural tank, and with the driftwood spread on the ground, it makes my discus feel at home since were they are from, there are lines of driftwood everywhere.

I was looking for some java moss, but they didnt have any. I like how it looks like grass, and i can put some around the tank, but they didnt have any.

[Zerileous]

I have no idea what kind of lighting i have, all i know is that i have 2 white lights and 1 pink light. ha!

okay, thats fine. Sounds like you have regular flourescents. You might want to check around for GE plant and aquarium bulbs in your size, they will be helpful but are not necessary.

By CO2 you mean carbon dioxide.? No i dont have any, but i saw your thread that you made a CO2 system thing, do i need CO2?
nope, you don't need CO2, its just one way to boost plant growth. There is a product by Seachem called Flourish Excell that you might want to look into. It provides "bioavailable carbon" for the plants (like a liquid substite for CO2). One thing that is important, however, is to limit surface agitation to preserve the CO2 that is "exhaled" (excuse me for not being up with the technical terms regarding gills) by your fish.


I tried putting fertilizers a month ago when i wanted to do plants, but, it made the aquarium a mess, the tablets turned into sand and then it started flying EVERYWHERE in the aquarium, which made me do a 100% water change. and get rid of all he plants i had bought. Do i have to?

You don't really need any fertilizers either. They are just supplimental and optional. If you do use ferts, I would go with a comprehensive liquid fert like leaf zone or seachem excell comprehensive rather than the messy stuff you had.

Based on the above statements, your in pretty good shape for a "low-tech" setup. Basically its a fish tank with plants (as opposed to a plant tank with fish lol). As long as you stick to plants that are not too demanding like the ones I recomended (and the ones you have now), everything should be dandy.

If the tank is lightly planted, the fish should exhale enough CO2 for the plants to survive, and produce enough waste (which is fertilizer for the plants) for them to survive too. Don't be suprised if the plants cause your nitrates to drop, this is a good sign that the plants are living/growing.

I just asked about some of those things to get a better idea as to what could potentially be done with the tank, and also to make sure that nothing was out of whack.

I tried sticking the driftwood upwards, but i didnt like it, it may look better in pictures, but it looked like i was trying too hard instead of having a natural tank, and with the driftwood spread on the ground, it makes my discus feel at home since were they are from, there are lines of driftwood everywhere.

I did not know that that was natural habitat to the discus. It by no means looks bad (just not super artsy) and I think its more interesting to mimic their natural habitat anyway. With that in mind, I retract that recomendation. :D

It looks like your adventures in planting are off to a good start. I would just sit back and enjoy your new plants for a few weeks and see how they do. I really do like the minimalist planting in the tank, especially because it would be a shame for such goregeous fish to be hiding behind plants all the time. Its nice and simple, one species of plant and one species of fish lol.

[salman]

i have this product, that the store convinced me into getting..
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Should i use some of it?

And thank you very much for all your help. You made everything clear to me.

[Zerileous]

should be fine to use. I doubt that Iron of Potassium (the two listed ingredients, probably also has some trace elements which would be good too) will promote algae so I would go ahead and try dosing it. It doesn't have nitrates or phosphates, which run a higher risk of causing algae. Be aware, however, that it could promote some algae growth. If anything seems wonky with your chemestry stop dosing. You could also just wait and see how they do, and if your plants show signs of needing ferts then start dosing some. I can't give the best advice here because I don't have the best understanding of how all the ferts work.

Always glad to help where i can, and thanks for the treasure!

[salman]

Your welcome,
Algae will not be a problem, as i have some meds that tablets that will eliminate any algae over night. :)

[YaYgoldFish]

Your tank looks sweet! :)

[RobbieG]

That is an awesome tank Salman - If you are not going to add CO2 I would try the Seachem Excel Flourish that Zerileous reccommended - I use it in my 72 instead of CO2 and it works pretty well.

[Lady Hobbs]

The problem with amazons is that they get huge and I think rather dense for Discus to swim thru. I would go with something like Vals (that also get large but some varieties not so tall.) Rather than bush out, they grow straight up and are easy for angels and discus to swim thru without getting their fins caught. I love hairgrass too but that grows very high as well.

I would group all those in one back corner and plant the rest with a grass of some type so they have an open swimming area. Later if you want to pull one out, you won't be left with just a big bare area.

What you have right now is great but they will grow and you'll want to replace them later on with less bushy type plants. You can get a lot of plants off one amazon plant. They send up shoots with baby plants all over the place.

My amazons are sick, sad and sorry. They need brighter lights than I have and are looking rather sad.

Nice discus!!!!!!!!!

[zackish]

For a discuss tank? I really like it. If I had discuss I would want to show them off and such and have a lot of open area. Looks like a lot of discuss.

[Cal Discus]

in 5 days im going to london, then rome, then italy.


Does anyone know if the plants provide oxygen for the fish? I was told that they do, so I took out my airstones, i just want to make sure because i travel, so when i come back i dont see floating fish lol

Fish breathe O2 and the way to get it is by agitating the surface of the water. Put the air stones back in because all of your discus are sharing a limited supply of O2. You dont have enough plants to make a difference yet. It is better to make sure they have enough 02 then to come home to find them all gasping at the surface.

[salman]

Fish breathe O2 and the way to get it is by agitating the surface of the water. Put the air stones back in because all of your discus are sharing a limited supply of O2. You dont have enough plants to make a difference yet. It is better to make sure they have enough 02 then to come home to find them all gasping at the surface.



Thanks Cal, i'll put them back :( lol

[Cal Discus]

You can rid yourself of bubbles and airstones as long as you have very good surface agitation on a normally stocked tank (low-medium bio). Your tank is overstocked with discus so it is a good idea to always have extra surface movement for O2. You could have return from HOB filter or power head aimed at the surface also but I think air pump is a good safety feature for you right now.

[freshwaterfishlover]

I would go for a slightly bigger tank for Discus like a 55g.

[salman]

I know. When i get the chance i will. But, this discus fish tank is in my room. I might upgrade the tank when they grow up a bit, there is another tank that looks the exact same thing but bigger, i think it may be a 55.. but my discus are all small right now.. So if i get a bigger tank now, it will look empty.

[Rue]

Gorgeous tank! Excellent start ...and it will only get nicer!

[salman]

Gorgeous tank! Excellent start ...and it will only get nicer!

Thank you!

[squirt_12]

Well if it was me i wouldget some plants that make it look...i dunno...a little darker because right now it is really really bright!!!! I like it though!!!
I would get some plants like:
tiger lotus, and like some dark Crypts!!!
So well thats what i would do if anything but you don't have to listen to me!!!!
hahaha