# Planted Discus Tank



## JoeDizzleMPLS

I just realized I hadn't posted pics of this tank before (at least I don't think I have).... It still has some growing in to do and I want to add some different types of plants, but it's only been going for a month. I know the dwarf sag is taking over the tank, but I'm just kinda letting it spread so that I can transfer some to a new tank I'm setting up next week.

Anyways, it's a 30 long (36x12x16) filtered by an XP2. Inhabitants include 3 blue turquoise discus, 10 rummy nose tetras, 5 neon tetras, a bunch of cherry shrimp, and some nerite snails. Pics aren't very good, just took them a few minutes ago.


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## balluupnetme

Beautiful tank I hope to have a discus tank in the future


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## Tensa

that is a nice setup Joe. whats the PH in that tank?


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

It's right at 7 right now, I use about 80/20 RO to tap water. The water around here is ridiculously hard, when I moved in, I tested TDS well over 300ppm and the lowest ph reading I got was 8.4.

The tank doesn't look very good, once I thin out the dwarf sag, add some different plants, and spend a bit of time scaping, it'll look better, but for now I just wanted to grow out some plants and put some size on the discus.


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## Tensa

yea i asked that because the only thing that scares me about discus is their PH requirement. everything i read about them told me some of them are really picky about the PH being in a certain range. keep us updated on their growth.


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

Wild caught discus can be pretty sensitive to water conditions, but most tank bred discus are pretty tough. There are quite a few breeders out there that are successfully raising discus in hard water, so if you want some discus but aren't sure if you want to deal with daily water changes with RO, just talk to some breeders and find some that might work better for your situation.


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## Tensa

yea. thanks for giving me hope. ive been telling my mom no for years just because of that. maybe i can sort out the details and get her something for christmas for her tank. your discus look top notch!


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## Sacrifice

You mentioned that your dwarf sag is taking over. What is your lighting setup and are you dosing anything? I've had dwarf sag for about 8-10 wks and I've seen ZERO growth out of mine, they are still only 1/2" tall. I seem to be growing far more algae then plants, lol. I'm getting Red algae now, never seen that one before.


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

I have a Coralife 2x96 power compact fixture over the tank, I only run 1 10,000k bulb tho. I dose Excel daily and comprehensive a couple times a week.


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## CLUSTER ONE

Looks good. Its going to be a jungle when it grows in


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## Sacrifice

JoeDizzleMPLS said:


> I have a Coralife 2x96 power compact fixture over the tank, I only run 1 10,000k bulb tho. I dose Excel daily and comprehensive a couple times a week.


So you're basically running 96watts at 10,000k over that 30g right, which gives you over 3wpg. I'm assuming that being your dosing Excel that you're not using c02 either right?


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

CLUSTER ONE said:


> I have a Coralife 2x96 power compact fixture over the tank, I only run 1 10,000k bulb tho. I dose Excel daily and comprehensive a couple times a week.


So you're basically running 96watts at 10,000k over that 30g right, which gives you over 3wpg. I'm assuming that being your dosing Excel that you're not using c02 either right?
[/quote]

No pressurized co2 on any of my tanks.


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## Sacrifice

Hmmm nice. I may look into adding another light over my 75g and see if I can get some better plant growth.


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## balluupnetme

Hey Joe, what did you use to stablize the pH in your discus tank ? My tap is hard too it's 8.4


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

The RO water has a neutral PH, so with the mix, I am able to stay right around 7 but still have a bit of buffering capacity.


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## balluupnetme

JoeDizzleMPLS said:


> The RO water has a neutral PH, so with the mix, I am able to stay right around 7 but still have a bit of buffering capacity.


Oh ok, it's understandable, thanks


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## Ba20

make sure to keep that temp up for those discus


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## His Majesty

very pretty tank joe.


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## Piranha_man

I think that tank looks GREAT!

You runnin' any peat in them filters?


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## FEEFA

One of your sweetest setups to date, I really like this one


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## impalass

Not a discus guy but those are stunning, what name or breed do they go by ?


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

They are blue turquoise strain


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## impalass

JoeDizzleMPLS said:


> They are blue turquoise strain


Thanks, sort of look like a henkel or wild, x blue turquoise. Look much better than all the neon coloured varieties showing up the last few years, imo.


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

These are about the only captive bred strain that I like, they look pretty similar to the wild type blue or green discus, just a bit more intense coloration. They are really small, so their color hasn't really come in yet, as they get bigger the color will start showing up on the rest of their body.


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## impalass

Look forword to seeing more of these guys as they grow, are they also a high back strain ?


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## Piranha_man

So you runnin' any peat in them filters?


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

Nope, I'll probably do that when I move them into their new tank here in the next couple weeks.


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## rchan11

Gorgeous tank Joe! I use co2 to lower/stablize PH in my tank.


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

rchan11 said:


> Gorgeous tank Joe! I use co2 to lower/stablize PH in my tank.


Thanks.... I was actually shopping for a pressurized co2 setup for this tank and I realized how much I like my low light setups. I don't get crazy growth so I can't make a bunch of money on trimmings every couple weeks, but this works pretty well for me right now -- I might try it out when I move again tho.


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## Trigga

Very nice discus are really cool fish

Good call on the wild ones... I think the stripes make em look way more exotic


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## rchan11

Isn't a 30g long too small to raise discus?


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

rchan11 said:


> Isn't a 30g long too small to raise discus?


They're less than 2" long


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## rchan11

JoeDizzleMPLS said:


> Isn't a 30g long too small to raise discus?


They're less than 2" long
[/quote]
I'm referring to when they're full grown. The 30g is a good juvi tank.


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

They're actually being moved into a bigger tank in a week or two and then will go into a bigger tank again in a few months.


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## Piranha_man

I had a dream about your discus last night.

Does that mean I'm gay?


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## Trigga

Yup


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