# 72 gal bowfront - Discus Community



## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

I decorated the tank a bit more. I've also added some more driftwood (three pieces) and fish (apistos and another bushynose pleco).

I've decided to try something new for the background. I'm using the silk vines made for reptile enclosures and sticking them along the back of the tank. I'm usually not a fan of fake plants, but I think this looks alright, and the over all effect when I'm done will be impressive I think. I've got a couple bushnose plecos and a small army of ghost shrimp parading about the tank, so I think they'll keep the space between the glass and the plants fairly clean. Then every once in a while I'm going to pull the fake plants and give them a scrub to make them look nice again.

The other thing I'm planning for the background is to get pieces of smallish pieces of the malaysian driftwood (or break u larger pieces) and silicone suction cups onto them and stick them to the back as well. Onto these I will graft anubias and java fern. Maybe some java moss as well.

My goal with the background is to hide most of the back as well as things like the spray bar that are a bit unsightly. I'm as of yet undetermined as to whether or not I'll be adding more filtration to the thank. I'm leaning towards YES however. I'm going to a pet store tomorrow that is going out of business and everything in there is 40% off. So I'm going to check what they have - though they were never much into fish stuff there so it might not be all that much. Otherwise I'll probably just end up slapping on a Fluval 204 or 304 eventually.

I also have another bag of gravel and two small bags of sand I'm going to be adding to thicken up the susbtrate a bit. And a friend of mine is giving me a half bag of the sand as well...

Anyway. Enough jabbering. Here's the shot of the moment...

View attachment 89604​


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## real4skate (Dec 1, 2005)

thats a real nice looking tank how many dicus and what kinds do u have in there


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## rchan11 (May 6, 2004)

Very nice!


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

ucpiranha said:


> thats a real nice looking tank how many dicus and what kinds do u have in there


At the moment I have 11 discus.

5 pigeon blood
2 blue diamond
1 snow white
1 red turq
2 alleged alenquer (but I have my doubts - I call them ugly mutts)

They won't all be staying in here for life, obviously. But for now they're fine... Biggest is one of the blue diamonds at around 4" and the smallest is either the red turq or one of the pigeon bloods at around 2.5".

And thanks for the compliments!


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## Guest (Jan 8, 2006)

You want to sell any of those Discus to a fellow Canadian


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## taylorhedrich (Mar 2, 2005)

Wow Mettle, what a beautiful tank! I really like what you've done to that one corner. A perfect hiding place for the "little ones" you have in that tank such as your tetras. You may have given me an idea...







Looks great! Can't wait to see it finished, and that driftwood is awesome. I guess I am going to have to invest in some nice driftwood myself, it is just so expensive around here..








~Taylor~


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## Joga Bonito (Oct 30, 2004)

nice tank


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## jan (Apr 24, 2004)

I was just looking at your pics from week 1 and compared to that your tank has improved a lot, the set up and discus are looking awesome, especially the pigeon blood









Edit: spelling


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

DannyBoy17 said:


> I was just looking at your pics from week 1 and compared to that your tank has improved a lot, the set up and sicus are looking awesome, especially the pigeon blood


Thanks for the compliment! It's coming along - slowly but surely!


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## Red Eyes (Nov 25, 2003)

Tanks looking good! Out of the 11 Discus ... which are your favourites?


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## bmpower007 (Feb 11, 2005)

Nice tank, I also have those silk plants makes the tank look beautiful


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

Can'tplay favourites with the discus - I like them all for different reasons. It's just too tough to decide which is why I know when I widdle the tank down to 7 or so I will not be selling the others most likely but instead setting up another tank.









There's a pet store in town going out of business and I managed to snag a bunch of used silk plants that I'm using for my background for less than $10 so I added them to the tank (after a light bleach dip and a good scrub) and took another pic:

View attachment 89677


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## piranhasrule (May 31, 2004)

At first i didnt like the new look, with just the one silk plant on the left But with the extra bits it looks really good. I think it would look sweet with the whole back wall covered in it, and bits of bogwood sticking out here and there. That would deffinatly be one of my fave tanks on the board if you did that.

edit: got left and right mixed up. I think i need sleep


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

piranhasrule said:


> At first i didnt like the new look, with just the one silk plant on the left But with the extra bits it looks really good. I think it would look sweet with the whole back wall covered in it, and bits of bogwood sticking out here and there. That would deffinatly be one of my fave tanks on the board if you did that.
> 
> edit: got left and right mixed up. I think i need sleep


I do plan on covering the entire thing. I'm just not rich enough to do it all at once. I was lucky I managed to get the plants I did today for so cheap. Now Friday is payday and I'll have the plants all finished off. Not sure about when the driftwood will be done.


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## mr.bearhasyourlady (Jun 1, 2004)

great looking setup


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## Z♠NGT♥KER (Dec 27, 2005)

mr.bearhasyourlady said:


> great looking setup


DAMN nise looking tank


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

Thanks for all the compliments folks!

I got paid today - and I'm going into work in about 45 mins. So after my shift today I'll be buying some more plants for the background and possibly also some live plants to intermingle in the tank itself. I'm looking at Amazon swords (namely because we have a 5 for $5 deal on them starting today). I might get another piece of driftwood or two as well. My dwarf cichlids and clown loaches would probably appreciate it.

Expect updated pics tonight or tomorrow.


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## Puff (Feb 14, 2005)

tank's looking great mettle. like REALLY good. i love the density of the plants in the back left.

good choice not going SW. you can keep your discus...and get a FH eventually


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

Flowerhorn would be going in my 90 gal that I have sitting empty right now. This tank is reserved for the discus, I think.







A flowerhorn would probably tear apart all my hard work, heh.


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## Puff (Feb 14, 2005)

i didnt mean it that way.lol

i meant your discus can stay where they are, then you'd have the other tank for the FH







lol


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

Ah. Yes yes. Sounds like a good plan!









And if the fh isn't too destructive, he might get similar treatment in his tank. I _really_ like this look. Oddly enough it looks better in person.

I'm planning on putting a shiny black background on the tank, too... So any little gaps that are present in the plants will be a dark reflection of the plants themselves. It'll be cool.


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