We are ScapeCrunch, the place where planted aquarium hobbyists come to build relationships and support each other. When you're tired of doom scrolling, you've found your home here.
This is a fascinating tank. Every once in a while you see a really great planted tank with Discus, but I always wonder how long the plants have been in there? Just for the pic?
So this is very cool seeing the trials and tribulations of someone actually starting a planted Discus tank. I've always thought it would be a difficult combination and am following along with great interest. I hope you crack the code! Keep the updates coming.
For feeding I’m mixing it up a bit. Frozen food, mostly. I alternate between a discus mix, brine shrimp, shredded frozen salmon from our Alaska adventures (which they absolutely devour) and occasional bloodworms. I’ve tried some small pellets (which some of them will eat), Vibra-bites, which none of the discus actually eat, and good old tetra flakes, which they actually eat quite willingly. I’m fixing to add some beef heart, but we’ll see. I’m also considering making my own concoction using the salmon, beef heard, and some spirulina. They seem to prefer eating out my fingers over anything else, so I suppose they were fed that way before they showed up here.
What is this Met14 of which you speak? Basically another gluteraldehyde? I’ll do some research.
Metricide 14 - yes it's a higher concentration gluteraldehyde product. It come's in a 1 gallon co-pack with an activator or something, you do not use the activator (small bottle), just the large 1 gallon jug. Lot's of info out on Google about it instead of Excel.
Mine don't touch vibra-bites, or pellets, but they really do like good ol' tetra bits. They definitely have a unique smell to them, must have a unique flavor discus like!
I'd be interested in your salmon recipe if you don't mind sharing how you do it...
Well, it's been a few months since I updated anything here........
So, I've re-learned LOTS of things about plants.
First, my plan to do lowish light, "easy" plants, and about 0.7 pH drop of CO2 was better in concept than in reality. I've been fighting algae wars of epic proportions and I've been working through it. Some of it was expected with a new setup, heavy feeding and such. Some of it was self-inflicted. It turns out, even without tons of light and tons of CO2, it's still a TERRIBLE idea to cut back on ferts.
At one point, I was trying to keep everything happy at once and decided my nitrate doing was probably too high. I leaned that out, caused a bunch of plants to melt, rot, stop growing, and then the algae just went ballistic. Mostly BBA , but green dust, GSA, a bit of staghorn, and even cyano. It was mixed bag of yuck.
All the while I was trying to keep relatively young discus happy. Well, at least there, we're having some success. I've lost one of the original 10, and it looks like one other little guy isn't eating so well. The rummies, cardinals, and sterbae cories have all been doing great. The congos are doing too well. They're huge pigs and they outcompete the discus for food unless I'm hand-feeding.
At this point I'm gradually up to about a 1.0 pH drop, a bit less than usual EI dosing, a bit of Excel every day, and still some manual removal of algae at least weekly. Anubias have been heavily trimmed back but are growing well. More aggressive removal of the affected plants is still needed, but I'm not in a huge hurry. I'm finally getting ahead of it. The swords and Lagenandras are taking over. All of the stemmies are gone. The chain sword foreground is mostly gone. That was a nasty algae trap. The buces are small, but putting on new growth.
Cyperus helferi wouldn't take the heat. It's doing great now in my 180g. C. balansae didn't start well, but lately has been really coming on. Bolbitis did not do well. Juncus repens did poorly, even after moving to my other tank.
I'm doing 50% WC's weekly. Feeding mostly frozen Hikari discus mix, some Tetra granules, a little frozen brine shrimp, spirulina, rare bloodworms, and a a few sinking pellets for the corries, which the discus mostly eat.
The discus have been growing well. They're not shy at all, and eat almost everything out of my fingers. They also seem to be tolerating the CO2 just fine.
Here are some quick cell-phone photos. When I go back and look earlier, it has filled in quite a bit. I need to re-arrange some of the swords, but that's for later. When I get some time on Sunday, I'll clean everything up and get some better photos with the DLSR.
@BryceM great to see you back here. Thanks for the update. Tank is looking good in spite of the initial troubles. Hang in there. It will settle in and the things that will do well are going to flourish.
As I mentioned before, I've never had success with planted tanks and discus. The heat and the good input (and their output) has always been too much to handle for me given my time availability so far. That said, I never tried with a tank as big as yours. Maybe that helps with things not going south so quickly.
Have you considered a couple of 50% water changes a week to see if that helps?
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
